The Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis Railroad (CP&StL) was a railroad in the U.S. state of Illinois that operated a main line between Pekin (near Peoria) and Madison (near St. Louis) via Springfield. Its property was sold at foreclosure to several new companies in the 1920s; the portion north of Springfield has since become the Illinois and Midland Railroad, while the remainder has been abandoned, except for a portion near St. Louis that is now owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway.
The earliest predecessor of the CP&StL was the Illinois River Railroad, chartered by the Illinois General Assembly in February 1853 to build a line from Jacksonville north-northeasterly to La Salle through the valley of the Illinois River. [1] The line was opened from Virginia to Pekin in 1859, and in May 1864 the property was sold at foreclosure to the Peoria, Pekin and Jacksonville Railroad, which had been incorporated in June 1863 for this purpose. The company bought a line from Pekin to Peoria from the Peoria and Hannibal Railroad in May 1868, and in 1869 the road was extended southwest to the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railway (Wabash) at Jacksonville. The segment beyond Pekin acquired in 1868 was sold in November 1880 to the Peoria and Pekin Union Railway, a terminal railroad serving those cities. [2] [3]
A second line was chartered in March 1869 as the Springfield and Northwestern Railroad, to build from Springfield north-northwesterly to Rock Island. [4] It was completed in December 1874 from Springfield (also on the line of the Wabash) to Havana, where trains entered the Peoria, Pekin and Jacksonville Railroad to reach Peoria via trackage rights. On opening, the road was leased to the Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western Railway (which had lines east from Havana and Pekin [5] ), but the lease was forfeited in 1875, and the Springfield and Northwestern Railroad was soon reorganized as the Springfield and Northwestern Railway, incorporated in May 1878. [2] [6]
Both lines, connecting Jacksonville and Springfield to Pekin, were sold to the Wabash in 1881, but, after the Wabash defaulted, the lines were sold in mid-1888 to a new Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis Railway, [3] [6] a subsidiary of the Jacksonville Southeastern Railway (reorganized in 1890 as the Jacksonville, Louisville and St. Louis Railway). The latter company, with a main line from Jacksonville southeast to Centralia via Litchfield, soon assembled a system - the "Jacksonville Southeastern Line" - by leasing the St. Louis and Chicago Railway (Springfield to Litchfield) in September 1890, and building, as a part of the Chicago, Peoria, and St. Louis, a line from Litchfield southwest to Madison (near East St. Louis). The connection to East St. Louis was completed in November 1890, and in December the company inaugurated, in cooperation with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, a through Pullman car passenger service between Chicago and St. Louis. [2] [7] [8]
The system was broken up in 1893, as the Jacksonville, Louisville and St. Louis and Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis were placed under separate receivers. The latter's lease of the St. Louis and Chicago expired in December 1895, and that company soon became part of the new St. Louis, Peoria and Northern Railway. This left the Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis Railway, reorganized in January 1896 as the Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis Railroad of Illinois, with its original lines from Pekin to Jacksonville and Springfield and an isolated branch between Litchfield and Madison. Unable to use the direct line from Springfield to Litchfield, the CP&StL acquired trackage rights over the St. Louis, Chicago and St. Paul Railroad ("Bluff Line") to Waverly and the Jacksonville Southeastern to Litchfield; the route was modified in July 1896 to use the latter line from Jacksonville to Litchfield. [9] Several years later, the CP&StL would acquire the Bluff Line as its St. Louis connection, and sell off the Litchfield-Madison line. [2]
The Bluff Line began as the St. Louis, Jerseyville and Springfield Railroad, incorporated in November 1880 to build from Springfield to the Mississippi River near Grafton. The line was completed in 1882 from Bates, on the Wabash west of Springfield, through Jerseyville to Dow, where it descended the Mississippi River's bluffs to Elsah and followed the shoreline to Grafton. After a lease to the St. Louis and Central Illinois Railroad, begun in December 1886, the line was reorganized in November 1888 as the St. Louis, Alton and Springfield Railroad, which had been incorporated in June 1887. In 1889, that company built a branch from Dow to the river at Lockhaven, and then along the Mississippi to Alton, as well as a connection from Elsah to Lockhaven. (The Dow-Elsah segment would later be abandoned.) Another reorganization, in September 1892, created the St. Louis, Chicago and St. Paul Railroad which built a direct entrance to Springfield from Loami (south of Bates), as well as an extension from Alton to Granite City in July 1894. The company was reorganized yet again in October 1897, forming the St. Louis, Chicago and St. Paul Railway of Illinois. Finally, in March 1900, the Bluff Line was merged into the Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis Railway of Illinois, a reorganization of the Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis Railroad of Illinois, and at the same time the Litchfield-Madison line was split off as a new Litchfield and Madison Railway, which the CP&StL continued to operate under lease until June 1904. [2] [10] [11] [12]
This consolidated company, with a main line from Pekin to Granite City/Madison, and branches to Jacksonville and Grafton, continued to have financial problems, and the final company to bear the name, the Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis Railroad, was incorporated in December 1909 and took over the property of the Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis Railway of Illinois in January 1913. [13] Operations continued until November 1924, when four separate companies purchased portions of the property at foreclosure sale:
The Illinois and Midland Railroad is a railroad in the U.S. state of Illinois, serving Peoria, Springfield and Taylorville. Until 1996, when Genesee & Wyoming Inc. bought it, the company was named the Chicago and Illinois Midland Railway. It was once a Class I railroad, specializing in the hauling of coal. At the end of 1970 it operated 121 route-miles on 214 miles of track; it reported 255 million ton-miles of revenue freight that year.
The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, commonly called the Pan Handle Route, was a railroad that was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. Its common name came from its main line, which began at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, crossed the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, and continued west to Bradford, Ohio, where it split into a northern line to Chicago and a southern one through Indianapolis, Indiana, to East St. Louis, Illinois.
The Alton Railroad was the final name of a railroad linking Chicago to Alton, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri. Its predecessor, the Chicago and Alton Railroad, was purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1931 and was controlled until 1942 when the Alton was released to the courts. On May 31, 1947, the Alton Railroad was merged into the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Jacob Bunn had been one of the founding reorganizers of the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company during the 1860s.
The Gateway Eastern Railway is a railroad subsidiary of the Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS), owning a 17-mile (27 km) main line between East Alton and East St. Louis, Illinois, United States. Originally created in 1994 as a subsidiary of the Gateway Western Railway, which acquired the East St. Louis-Kansas City line of the Chicago, Missouri and Western Railway in 1990, it was acquired by KCS along with its parent in 1997.
The Vermilion Valley Railroad is a 5.9-mile (9.5 km) short-line railroad that operates across the Indiana-Illinois state line, connecting the Flex-N-Gate Corporation facility west of Covington, Indiana with CSX Transportation in Danville, Illinois. The line is owned by the FNG Logistics Company, a subsidiary of auto parts manufacturer Flex-N-Gate, its primary customer. Operations by the VVRR, owned by the Indiana Boxcar Corporation until 2019 and the Midwest and Bluegrass Rail since, began in 2003 after CSX abandoned the ex-New York Central Railroad line.
Springfield Union Station in Springfield, Illinois, is a former train station and now part of the complex of buildings that together form the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is located at 500 East Madison Street in downtown Springfield, adjacent to the Lincoln Presidential Library.
The Indiana, Bloomington and Western Railway was a railroad that once operated in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.
The Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Western Railroad was established in 1915 as a reorganization of the Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Western Railway, which in turn had been created in 1902 as a merger of the Indiana, Decatur and Western Railway (ID&W) and the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Indianapolis Railroad (CH&I).
The following is a brief history of the North American rail system, mainly through major changes to Class I railroads, the largest class by operating revenue.
The following is a brief history of the North American rail system, mainly through major changes to Class I railroads, the largest class by operating revenue.
The following is a brief history of the North American rail system, mainly through major changes to Class I railroads, the largest class by operating revenue.
The Litchfield and Madison Railway was a Class I railroad in Illinois in the United States. Its nickname was the St. Louis Gateway Route. The railroad operated 44 miles (71 km) of track from its creation in 1900 until it was absorbed by the Chicago and North Western Railway in 1958.
The Chicago and Southern Railroad built a rail line in northeastern Illinois, extending south from Chicago to Thornton. It now mainly forms part of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, while the north end has been operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, the Illinois Northern Railway, and most recently the Central Illinois Railroad.
The Chicago and Illinois River Railroad was a predecessor of the Alton Railroad that built a line from Joliet southwest through Coal City, Illinois, to the Mazon River. A portion is now a second main track on the BNSF Railway's Southern Transcon.
The Chicago and St. Louis Railway was a predecessor of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway that owned a line between Chicago and Pekin, Illinois. More than half of the line is now part of the BNSF Railway's Southern Transcon.
The Wabash Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. It served a large area, including track in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri and the province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Chicago, Illinois; Kansas City, Missouri; Detroit, Michigan; Buffalo, New York; St. Louis, Missouri; and Toledo, Ohio.
The Vandalia Railroad Company was incorporated January 1, 1905, by a merger of several lines in Indiana and Illinois that formed a 471-mile railroad consisting of lines mostly west of Indianapolis.
The St. Louis, Peoria and Northern Railroad Depot is a historic railroad station located at 1408 Broadway Street in Pekin, Illinois. The station was built in 1898 when the St. Louis, Peoria and Northern Railway built a line into Pekin; the railroad had formed only two years earlier as an amalgamation of ten other railroad companies. The new railroad provided direct passenger routes to Springfield, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri and opened up better options for shipping freight north through Peoria. The depot became part of the Chicago & Alton Railroad in 1900 when it purchased the St. L. P. & N. line from Peoria to Springfield. The station served both passenger and freight traffic until passenger service ended in the 1930s; the railroad also served as an important part of Pekin's economy, both by employing residents and stimulating local industry. The station is one of the only historic rail-related buildings remaining in Pekin.
