I took a drive this weekend to Modesta to an IC historical society meeting (bought a new car with power steering in both directions; driving is fun again–tangent, if you have the money, go buy a car; the deals are simply unbelievable).
On the way home, I decided to go check out the Rock’s line from Bureau to Peoria. Man, Bureau is a sad looking town–kind of emblematic of the Rock in many ways.
Does anyone know what the traffic is like on this line? I didn’t notice any significant industries on the line itself prior to reaching Peoria. Yet, the line looked like it was in remarkably good shape.
If so, I believe they run a local from Bureao to Peoria every day. I was in Peoria a couple of weekend’s ago and noticed it in town as I was leaving and heading toward Chilicothe. (I was late to catch it along the river… it leaves at the crack a dawn.)
The best source for this kind of information on the web is David P. Jordan’s Peoria Station blog. On this and his previous website (“West Presence Gateway,” IIRC), he profiles railroad-served industries in and around Peoria in detail.
Another good source is the Yahoo IAIS group, one of the more active and informative railroad groups on Yahoo.
Well, the line did go on south of Peoria. The Rock Island bought an interurban linking Peoria and Pekin and used it to access industries in Pekin.
They sure had an opportunity to go on to St. Louis. There was a railroad that connected at Peoria/Pekin called the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis. The CP&St.L was the pathetic end result of some railroad construction through rural central Illinois that began around 1860. It never went north of Peoria. Its lines were chronically unprofitable. It was up for abandoment in the early 1920’s. (That’s got to tell you something.) The Rock Island could have had it cheap and gone on to St. Louis. But why?
There were already “a lot” of rail lines linking Chicago and St. Louis and the RI had its own route from Chicago to Texas precluding the development of connecting St. Louis traffic. Some of the CP&St.L became part of the C&IM and focused on hauling coal to the Illinois River barges. The line south of Havana, IL to St. Louis was, in fact, abandoned as being of no economic use.
The reason for a Rock Island branch into the Peoria/Pekin area was two fold.
First, there was a significant industrial base that generated rail traffic. Both freight and passenger. Caterpillar has its headquaters in Peoria and a huge plant in E. Peoria. The worlds largest bourbon distillery was there, as was a large Pabst brewery, Keystone Steel and Wire, corn processing, a couple more distilleries, slaughterhouses, scrap yards, a large facility for producing animal food, a chemical plant west of Pekin, etc. They made things in Peoria (and Pekin) and they shipped 'em by rail. The Rock Island had the best passenger route to Chicago, and that counted when people and m
Ken, didn’t I hear somewhere that the Santa Fe’s line into the area (to Pekin, actually) was at one time supposed to be their main line? If so, I’m not sure where it would have gone from there. I’m sure they never regretted their choice of the high route through Chillicothe, though.
Does anyone know what the traffic is like on this line? I didn’t notice any significant industries on the line itself prior to reaching Peoria. Yet, the line looked like it was in remarkably good shape.
The now-Iowa Interstate Railroad “Subdivision Two” serves the following customers:
Emerald Performance Materials – Henry (IB chemicals)
PolyOne Corp. – Henry (IB vinyl chloride/OB PVC resins)
United Suppliers LLC - Henry (IB potash, phosphate, urea and phosphoric acid)
Galena Road Gravel – Chillicothe (OB construction sand)
The biggest source of traffic, however, is the interchange with the Tazewell& Peoria RR at Peoria where corn and soybeans, DDGS, scrap metal, corn syrup, gluten feed pellets and PVC resins are delivered, and alcohol, DDGS, scrap metal, chlorosulfonic acid, organic corn and wheat and coal trains are received.
I never heard that. I recall that it was some short line they picked up. But could be.
What I’ve heard is that that Santa Fe was seeking access to Chicago and approached the Chicago & Alton. The guy in charge of the C&A was named Blackstone and he only wanted to serve the local market on the C&A, so he rebuffed the Santa Fe’s purchase offer. So then the president of the Santa Fe called in his chief engineer, took out a map and a ruller, drew a straight line from Kansas City to Chicago and said: “Build That”.
The thought of the Super Chief, Super C, #188, et. al. rolling through Pontiac, Bloomington-Normal, Lincoln, Springfield is interesting. Might have happened if it weren’t for Mr. Blackstone.
I’ve loaned my C&A history to a friend so I’m going from memory, but the Santa Fe tried to get at least part of the C&A a second time. They wanted the C&A from Kansas City to St. Louis and were promising to operate sections of the Super Chief and El Capitan from St. Louis to L.A. if they got it. Would have been nice. Government turned 'em down. Bad government, Bad.
I heard a somewhere that Santa Fe could not get through Peoria because they were unable to obtain the Bradley farm, now Bradley University and Bradley Park. At one time Santa Fe got into East Peoria through owning the TP&W.
There is a Peoria Rails site on yahoo that is helpful.
While Peoria Union Station is long gone the Rock Island downtown station is once again an eating establishment. I think the Peoria RI Morton Street station still exists. RI’s Chillicothe station is a museum. I believe the Rome, Sparland, and Henry Stations are gone without a trace. Further up river on the RI Bureau and Depue are about in the same shape, LaSalle Peru is a hardware store. Utica’s station (or what’s left of it) took a hit from a tornado and I doubt it would be repairable. I believe the rest of the stations between Peoria and Chicago still exist. Ottawa’s was a CSX facility when I saw it in 2006.
Organic Grain? From Mason County Illinois? Shirley, you jest.
Anyway, I grew up in Manito (pop. around 1,000 back then–me, born in 1950). Rickett rarely shipped grain by rail being so close to the Illinois River barges. When I was last there over Labor Day for the Popcorn Festival there were five covered hoppers spotted at Rickett’s for loading. Nice to see.
The Popcorn Festival celibrates the area’s development as a major popcorn producing region. I have no idea why popcorn production developed. Nobody grew popcorn back in my day. In any event, I’ve watched the I&M pick up six covered hoppers of popcorn headed to Ohio at Forest City and set out another five for loading. Also nice to see.
The main traffic on the I&M is Powder River coal headed for power plants at Havana and Kincade, and to river transfer at Havana. The BNSF and UP distributed
Organic Grain? From Mason County Illinois? Shirley, you jest.
No, I do not jest…and don’t call me Shirley. [(-D]
I own a video by John Swajkart called “C&IM as it was,” or something like that, and footage appears to be from the late 1980’s. A cab ride past Rickett Grain in Manito shows a short MOW stub track but no elevator siding. I figure C&IM went after Rickett Grain’s short-haul truck move to Pekin Energy Company about 1994-1995 as the Havana coal died and the C&NW built (in early 1993) the Crescent connection track, relegating C&IM to mere switching carrier for remaining coal trains.
I saw the elevator siding in place when I first visited Manito in 1997.
The Weaver Popcorn operation in Forest City started about 1995 (and the current transloader was built about five years later), though I think shipments go to Van Buren, Indiana, not Ohio…I could be wrong, however.
I went through Forest City in spring 2006, but not again until September of last year, which is when I noticed a rehabilitated (read: track out of the mud) Rickett Grain elevator stub and three covered hoppers either loaded or waiting to be loaded.