Falcon, you’re correct on February 1953. They filed for abandonment with the FCC in 1952 and it took a while before they got the OK.
Gabe, IT had been losing money on both passengers and freight on the Bloomington line for a long time. They were converting to diesel locomotives and would have had a hard time operating on their interurban curves. Also, the city of Bloomington wanted the tracks out of the street, which would have been a major expense. So they just abandoned the line. Too much competition anyway, from IC among others.
Spoony, that is an excellent book. You’ll learn a lot.
Mom used to talk about riding the Illinois Terminal from St. Louis to Dupo, IL to visit an aunt who lived there. She said it was like riding a streetcar. They didn’t leave from Union Station but had their own terminal near 12th Street (now called Tucker).
I never saw it and only know how she described it.
Sunnyland, your mother probably rode the East St. Louis and Suburban. (Don’t get excited, when that line was in operation, E. St. Louis was safe.) They ran to Columbia, IL by way of Dupo. The IT didn’t go south.
I live on the old River Line of the Frisco and will certainly never forget it. In fact, I remember the Sunnyland running past the back of my house at full speed. It took three people to spot it; one to say here she comes, one to say here she is and the third to say there she goes, all at the same time.
As to reviewing Spoony’s book, it would take a long time but it covers the IT from beginning in Danville to the end in 1981. It covers the interurban period, the freight line period and the end. There are hundreds of photos, maps, you name it. I think it’s the best book I’ve ever seen on any RR.
IT had trouble running any kind of freight through Bloomington even in the electric era. They had developed a special jointed drawbar to pull conventional freight cars through the city streets and around the tight curves. Bloomington/Normal was the only sizable city where IT did not develop a freight bypass to get the freight trains off of the city streets.
I remember seeing photos of those drawbars. They looked like something a model railroader might devise for tight curves. And the lack of a bypass around Bloomington was another of the strange business decisions the IT was stuck with. That’s what makes them so interesting.