Chicago and Illinois River Railroad

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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.

Alton Railroad former American railroad

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.

Coal City, Illinois Village in Illinois, United States

Coal City is a town in Grundy and Will Counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is considered a fringe town of the Chicago metropolitan area. The population was 5,587 at the 2010 census. Its school district serves over 11,000 residents. It is served by Interstate 55. The Santa Fe Railway formerly served Coal City at Coal City Station.

The Mazon River or Mazon Creek, is a tributary of the Illinois River in the United States. The confluence is near Morris, Illinois.

Contents

History

The Illinois General Assembly chartered the Chicago and Illinois River Railroad on February 28, 1867 to build a railroad from Chicago through Lisbon and Ottawa (the latter on the Illinois River) to the Mississippi River opposite Keokuk, Iowa, with a branch in the vicinity of Streator. [1] An amendment passed March 24, 1869 removed the requirement to serve Lisbon and Ottawa. [2] Construction began in 1873 on a route south of the Illinois River between Chicago and Streator, but in 1875 it ran out of money and leased the unfinished line to the Chicago and Alton Railroad. The grade southwest of the Mazon River crossing at Gorman was sold to the Chicago, Pekin and Southwestern Railroad that year, and the Alton opened the railroad between Joliet and the Mazon River on July 1. [3] The Alton bought the property at foreclosure sale on September 4, 1879, and in 1881 built a connecting line from Coal City south to its main line at Mazonia (near Braceville), [4] giving it two tracks between Chicago and Odell. [5] Beyond the Mazon River, the Chicago, Pekin and Southwestern completed the line to Pekin on May 21, 1876, and obtained trackage rights over the Chicago and Illinois River to Joliet. [6] Successor Chicago and St. Louis Railway, however, opened a parallel line to Chicago on December 21, 1885, [7] and the old Chicago and Illinois River line between Coal City and the Mazon River was subsequently abandoned. In 1905 the Alton and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe) began operating these two parallel tracks as a joint double-track line between Joliet and Pequot, just northeast of Coal City.[ citation needed ]

Illinois General Assembly


The Illinois General Assembly (IGA) is the bicameral legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois and comprises the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. The State Senate has 59 members while the House has 118 members, all elected from single-member districts. A Senate district is formed by combining two adjacent House districts. The current General Assembly is Illinois's 100th. The General Assembly meets in the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. Its session laws are generally adopted by majority vote in both houses, and upon gaining the assent of the Governor of Illinois. They are published in the official Laws of Illinois.

Chicago City in Illinois, United States

Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,716,450 (2017), it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the United States, and the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, which is often referred to as "Chicagoland." The Chicago metropolitan area, at nearly 10 million people, is the third-largest in the United States; the fourth largest in North America ; and the third largest metropolitan area in the world by land area.

Illinois River Illinois tributary of the Mississippi River in the United States

The Illinois River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 273 miles (439 km) long, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The river drains a large section of central Illinois, with a drainage basin of 28,756.6 square miles (74,479 km2). The drainage basin extends into Wisconsin, Indiana, and a very small area of southwestern Michigan. This river was important among Native Americans and early French traders as the principal water route connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi. The French colonial settlements along the rivers formed the heart of the area known as the Illinois Country. After the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the Hennepin Canal in the 19th century, the role of the river as link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi was extended into the era of modern industrial shipping. It now forms the basis for the Illinois Waterway.

At some point, Alton successor Illinois Central Gulf Railroad (ICG) sold the line between Plaines and Pequot to the Santa Fe for continued use as a second main track. When the Chicago, Missouri and Western Railway (CM&W) bought most of the old Alton in 1987, it acquired only a short piece of the ex-Chicago and Illinois River between Joliet and Plaines,[ citation needed ] as well as Pequot-Coal City and the Coal City-Mazonia connection. [8] Ownership is now split among CM&W successor Union Pacific Railroad (from Joliet part of the way to Plaines, as the Plaines Industrial Lead [9] ), ICG successor Illinois Central Railroad (the rest of the way to Plaines, also known as the Plaines Industrial Lead [10] ), and Santa Fe successor BNSF Railway (Plaines to Pequot, as one track of the Chillicothe Subdivision [11] ), and the Union Pacific again (from Pequot to Mazonia, as the Pequot Subdivision [9] ). Illinois Central affiliate Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway leased the IC's segment in 2009. [10] [12]

The Chicago, Missouri and Western Railway (CM&W), was a Class II railroad that operated in the midwest of the United States between 1987 and 1989. Never financially stable, less than a year after it was created it was bankrupt and sold off its lines piecemeal to other railroads in 1989.

Union Pacific Railroad Class I railroad in the United States

Union Pacific Railroad is a freight hauling railroad that operates 8,500 locomotives over 32,100 route-miles in 23 states west of Chicago and New Orleans. The Union Pacific Railroad system is the second largest in the United States after the BNSF Railway and is one of the world's largest transportation companies. The Union Pacific Railroad is the principal operating company of the Union Pacific Corporation ; both are headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.

See also

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Gateway Western Railway

The Gateway Western Railway was a Class II railroad that operated 408 miles of former Chicago and Alton Railroad track between Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri. It also operated between Kansas City, Missouri, and Springfield, Illinois on the old Alton Railroad line that eventually was the Chicago, Missouri and Western Railway.

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Joliet Union Station

Joliet Union Station is a former commuter and long-distance railroad station in Joliet, Illinois serving both Amtrak long-distance and Metra commuter trains. It was replaced by the new Joliet Transportation Center in 2018, a train station that was constructed adjacent to the Union Station's location. Train service to Joliet Union Station permanently ceased in September 2014. The station is 37.0 miles (59.5 km) from Chicago Union Station on the Heritage Corridor, and 40.1 miles (64.5 km) from Chicago LaSalle St. Station on the Rock Island District.

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The Kankakee Belt Route is the nickname for the Illinois Division of the New York Central Railroad, which extended from South Bend, Indiana, through Kankakee, Illinois, and westward to Zearing, Illinois. This line was sometimes referred to as the "3 I Line", in reference to a corporate predecessor, the "Indiana, Illinois & Iowa Railroad". That portion of the line west of Kankakee to Moronts, Illinois, roughly parallels the Illinois River in Northern Illinois and was used, in large part, to transport corn toward eastern markets. See Kankakee Outwash Plain

The Chicago, Ottawa and Peoria Railway, or CO&P, was an electric interurban railway running along the Illinois River Valley between Joliet and Princeton. It was one of the longest lines in the state and was unique as an isolated section of the Illinois Traction System. Intended to be a part of the planned Chicago-Peoria-St. Louis system, the section between the CO&P at Streator and the ITS at Mackinaw Junction was never built, leaving the former line separate from the rest of the ITS. The CO&P provided regular service to the cities along the Illinois Valley until its failure at the height of the Great Depression.

Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis Railroad

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 and Madison 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.

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Streator station

Streator Station was a train station located in Streator, Illinois, United States. It was served by numerous Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF) passenger trains during its heyday. Amtrak served the station until 1996 with the Southwest Chief between Chicago and Los Angeles daily. When the Burlington Northern and the AT&SF railways merged, BNSF built a connecting track between the two main lines east of Cameron, Illinois,. This allowed passenger trains to change from the former Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) main line to the Southern Transcon freely. This along with the amendment of a stretch of track that was essential for getting to Chicago Union Station forced Amtrak to reroute the Southwest Chief to bypass Chillicothe and Streator.

Mazon station

Mazon Station was a small Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway station in Mazon, Illinois. The station was 66 miles west of Chicago on the BNSF Southern Transcon line. It also served the Kankakee and Seneca railroad. The most famous Santa Fe trains such as the Chief, Super Chief, and El Capitan didn't stop at Mazon. The Grand Canyon Limited train numbers 123 and 124 were the only service to Mazon. Even though passenger service has long left Mazon, the building still stands and is used by BNSF maintenance workers.

The Cameron connector is a section of track built in 1995–1996 which connects the former Burlington Northern Railroad and the former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway tracks, both which are currently part of the BNSF Railway, to each other near Cameron, Illinois.

References

  1. ↑ An act to incorporate the Chicago and Illinois River Railroad Company, approved February 28, 1867
  2. ↑ An act to amend an act entitled "An act to incorporate the Chicago and Illinois River Railroad Company", approved March 24, 1869
  3. ↑ Henry V. Poor, Manual of the Railroads of the United States, 1876-77, p. 271
  4. ↑ Interstate Commerce Commission (1932), Valuation Docket No. 851: Chicago and Alton Railroad Company , 40 Val. Rep., p. 1
  5. ↑ A. T. Andreas, History of Chicago from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, 1886, Volume III, p. 205
  6. ↑ Henry V. Poor, Manual of the Railroads of the United States, 1880, pp. 754-755
  7. ↑ Poor's Manual of Railroads, 1887, pp. 407-408
  8. ↑ Michael W. Blaszak, The road of misfortune, Trains , September 1992, p. 57
  9. 1 2 Union Pacific Railroad, St. Louis Area Timetable #3, effective July 2, 2006
  10. 1 2 Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway, submission to the Surface Transportation Board (Finance Docket No. 35224), February 26, 2009
  11. ↑ BNSF Railway, Chicago Division Timetable No. 6, in effect July 20, 2007
  12. ↑ STB Finance Docket No. 35224, March 13, 2009
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