The attached advertisement for the Peoria & Pekin Union (dated 1974) makes the claim that Peoria, Illinois was an advantageous place to interchange between railroads (ICG, C&NW, BN, Santa Fe, etc) because of low congestion and short delays.
Question: Has Peoria ever become an important “gateway”? Is there, and has there ever been, much interchange taking place there?
(click to enlarge)
Well part of that is, 1) If that’s the only place you go, then you tell everyone it’s the only place to go! I think the Green Bay & Western and the Columbus & Greenveille also used the same avertisement. 2) Anywhere was (is) a quicker interchange than Chicago…well, seems like it sometimes.
There sure was some attraction, though. Besides the Minneapolis & Saint Louis, some other lines that pop into my mind while I’m too lazy to grab an OGR from across the room are: the IC, WAB, NKP, NYC, PRR and B&O (the last three via comparatively long branches IIRC) and, oh yes, the RI. I’m only speculating here but my guess is that it was a big enough city and the territory was easy enough to build through at minimal cost (no great mountains or rivers, just kinda flat midwestern cornfields) that everyone in the neighborhood just “joined the party” to get a share of the traffic. Once the were there, interchange was an additional possibility.
Peoria has a population of about 125,000 the fifth largest city in Ill., in 1974 it was third, back in the thirties it was in the second spot, so you can see it hasn’t grown that much.
It’s located along the Illinois River Which had 3 Railroad bridges(P&PU,TPW,and Illinois Terminal) , and one 10 miles south at Pekin (UP) and one in Chillicothe (BNSF) now only 1 bridge(P&PU now T&P) in Peoria, ones in Pekin and Chillicothe are still there.
There’s no great mountains here but the railroads are in the Ill. River valley, the steepest grade on the MStL( which somtimes need helpers) was coming out of the Kickapoo Creek valley in Peoria, also during steam era CNW sometimes need helpers coming out of the same valley.
Here’s a link to Yahoo group Peoria Rails.
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/PeoriaRails/?yguid=195649990
Far from being flat, between the river bottom and flatlands were some respectable bluffs. The Illinois Terminal RR had “Caldwell Hill”, a 2.65 % grade that went vertical for two and a half miles uphill. Helpers in both the diesel and electric era was a common occurance as well as doubling. Peoria had, at one time, a good industrial base and was an important point on the IT system.
Oh, how I miss the days of regulated railroads (not). It was only 26 years ago!
Under regulation, Peoria was a viable gateway and quite important, particularly for transcontinental traffic such as lumber where brokers were seeking to delay or accelerate shipments to optimize market timing on delivery. In terms of total carloads interchanged it was no Chicago or St. Louis, but it wasn’t insignificant, either. Back then, you paid by rate territories, and convoluted routings and all the costs associated with extra handling were simply absorbed in the system. Post-regulation, shippers now had to pay for any extra handling, reroutes, and diversions, and Peoria’s value as an interchange point went to nil very quickly.
S. Hadid
Let’s not forget about Caterpillar, which is a shipper. ADM has a plant there, I believe it is on the Illinois River, so I am not so sure how much rail traffic they have.
I spent quite a bit of time there in the 90’s while on business. While it was an interesting rail area, there wasnt a heavy amount of thru traffic as the major trunk lines missed it.
TPW was always entertaining.
ed
I believe A.O Smith was a big shipper as well. I have no idea if they still are.
One line that did not make it to Peoria was the C.M.St.P&P, but I’ve heard they we’re at one time interested in gaining access to Peoria as a condition of the Burlington Northern merger. Never came to pass.
I know it closed in the early 1970s, but was the Hiram Walker distillery a big shipper?
PZ: Looks like it was and surprisingly, looks like it still is. “TAZEWELL & PEORIA RAILROAD: The lessor of the Peoria & Pekin Union Railway functions as the area’s terminal railroad and thus serves most of the area’s customers… The TZPR’s largest customer is Archer Daniels Midland, along with its subsidiary ADM/Growmark. ADM’s Peoria plant, located at the former Hiram Walker & Sons distillery at the foot of Edmund St. receives large quantities of corn for alcohol production andalso receives corn screenings for animal feed production. The plant’s barge loadout also handles large quantities of corn, winter receipt of gluten feed pellets from the company’s Cedar Rapids and Clinton, Iowa plants, distillers’ grains and probably corn gluten meal for shipment downriver. Ethyl alcohol, denatured alcohol and beverage alcohol are loaded into tank cars for which TZPR performs all switching…”
What are you quoting from here, Wally? Sounds good!
Commenting on some earlier responses: PRR, NKP, Wabash, and B&O didn’t get to Peoria. NYC did, though, via its Peoria & Eastern subsidiary. And Santa Fe got there, too, via a branch to Pekin from its main line (now gone).
The hill out of the valley used to be an obstacle for CNW, too–I heard plenty of tales about Pioneer Hill.
My interest in Peoria came from the same interest directed toward the ITRR. The Santa Fe branch you mention was seriously looked at as a candidate for IT’s entry into Chicago via stringing of wire on same. Interestingly, the purchase of IT by a consortium of roads was a blocking move against the Santa Fe’s entry into St Louis. Here’s the source of the Peoria info: http://www.wpgrr.com/index.php?action=view_month&month=1141192800&module=weblogmodule&src=%40random43d2d1383bd1d
Pennsylvania RR through its subsidiary Terre Haute and Peoria reached Farmdale Jct. and had trackage rights into Peoria over the Nickel Plate.
Nickel Plate got into Peoria over the former Lake Erie & Western. Nickel Plate merged this road during the Van Sweringen era.
Santa Fe did not reach Peoria until it merged the TP&W in 1984. The Santa Fe Pekin Branch did not go to Peoria.
I had Morton in mind with a connection at Streator with the Santa Fe but it was Peoria that my squandered braincells chose. Envisioning St Louis bound sleepers in IT orange on the Douglas Park L clouded my rational choice.
With most of the old railroad names that used to call in the Peoria area now gone I think it would be fair to say that the “gateway” has shifted to Galesburg. The TP&W never made it as a bridge route that bypassed Chicago. If it did, then maybe Peoria would have become the “gateway” that the brochure claimed it was back in '74. Now, the TP&W has dropped it’s west end in favor of running trains to Galesburg.
CC
I don’t know if you could call Peoria a gateway, but the M&StL designated itself as the gateway to Peoria. Two different concepts.
An Illinois Terminal map showing connections.
(click to enlarge)
What year is the map from?
Last I heard ADM in Peoria, stop making beverage alcohol.
-Tiskilwa