I was wondering, is there any structures or trackage left of the Illinois Terminal? I was in Springfield, IL. a few days ago and asked a local gentleman if there was anything left there, he said no. I would appreciate any info on this.
Thanks, Tracy
I grew up in the heart of Illinois Terminal territory. Unfortunately, my 1975 birth precluded me from seeing most of its opperations. However, I have heard so many stories of 100+ car grain trains street running on the main streets of several small Illinois towns, it is almost like I have witnessed it first hand.
As far as remaining trackage, you just missed a lot of it. As you probably know, Illinois Terminal’s physical plant got pretty run down towards the end. The IT actually used the Illinois Central Springfield - St. Louis line towards the end (one of my first railroad memories is seeing those green diesles on the IC).
However, there was a great deal of track in Madison County that lay dormant for some time. The thought was they were keeping the roadbed for a light rail project that never came. Ironically, they finally tore it up, and now there is serious talk about extending the St. Louis light rail to Edwardsville Illinois.
I am not sure if the bridge is still there–I know they have since shut it down to highway traffic only two years ago. I think it was the Mckinley Bridge that it used to get accross the Mississippi into St. Louis (just a little north of down town). A very impressive structure. Like the many towns it used to “street run” on, the bridge also posed as a highway, the train would simply join the traffic.
Oh, if the IT had only lasted another two to three years to give me a little more memories.
Gabe
These references are a bit old, but I think still relevant:
http://www.isgs.uiuc.edu/annulrpt/ar01_02/ev14.htm
http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2003/06/16/daily16.html
Don’t think there will be any provision for track on the rebuilt bridge, though…
On the south side of Springfield there is a piece elevated track that i belive the treminal owned that the IC uses. It got the Terminal from the east side of town to the IC Srpingfield-St louis main. The KCS uses it to connect with CNIC. Long live the rock.
By the time that the ITC was absorbed into N&W, it was almost entirely a trackage-rights operation outside of the St. Louis area. TRAINS had an excellent two-part article in about 1981 about ITC.
I would have loved to have seen those (then new) SD39-2s in person, working a train. What a great RR. And if they had just held on a little longer, things might have gotten better.
Los Angeles, CA
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Held on a little longer to get better? IT became a terminal road after shedding the interurban passenger stuff in the 1950s. There was one heck of a lot of bulk material traffic…
IT was merged into N&W because it originated so much freight traffic in the East St. Louis and Decatur, Ill., areas…the Shell refinery at Wood River IL (Hartford), ADM at Decatur, various grain elevators in the Alton, IL area are a few of the heavy customers that come to mind.
I saw the SD39s and they weren’t that exciting.
What was exciting was their lime-green SW1500s on Flexicoil trucks switching places like Federal, Ill., near Alton.
Hemphill, jump in here and elaborate…