Smithfield is a village in Fulton County, Illinois, United States. The population was 191 at the 2020 census. The village is named in honor of Dr. Joseph N. Smith.
The Chicago and North Western was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over 12,000 miles (19,000 km) of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s. Until 1972, when the employees purchased the company, it was named the Chicago and North Western Railway.
The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company was an American subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railway, later of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Since a corporate restructuring in 1971, the railroad has been under CN's subsidiary holding company, the Grand Trunk Corporation. Grand Trunk Western's routes are part of CN's Michigan Division. Its primary mainline between Chicago and Port Huron, Michigan serves as a connection between railroad interchanges in Chicago and rail lines in eastern Canada and the Northeastern United States. The railroad's extensive trackage in Detroit and across southern Michigan has made it an essential link for the automotive industry as a hauler of parts and automobiles from manufacturing plants.
The Kankakee, Beaverville and Southern Railroad Company is a Class III railroad serving agricultural communities in east-central Illinois and west-central Indiana.
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 Chicago Rail Link is a shortline switching railroad in Illinois. It owns and operates more than 72 miles of track on the South Side of Chicago. It is owned by OmniTRAX.
The Three Notch Railroad runs from a connection with CSX Transportation at Georgiana to Andalusia, Alabama, 36 miles (58 km). This short line railroad was created in 2001 and is currently a subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming.
The Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway is a short line railroad that operates 247 miles (398 km) of track from Mapleton, Illinois, through Peoria across Illinois to Logansport, Indiana. TP&W has trackage rights between Galesburg, Illinois, and Peoria, between Logansport and Kokomo, Indiana, and between Reynolds, Indiana, and Lafayette, Indiana. TPW has connections with UP, BNSF, NS, CSXT, CN, CP, BL, CERA, CIM, KBSR and T&P. The railroad is now owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. The railroad's traffic comes largely from agricultural products, including both raw and processed grain products, as well as chemicals and completed tractors. The TPW hauled around 26,000 carloads in 2008.
Illinois Route 9 is a 218.31-mile-long (351.34 km) cross-state, east–west rural state highway in the central part of the U.S. state of Illinois. It travels from Niota at the Fort Madison Toll Bridge, that crosses the Mississippi River into Iowa, eastward across central Illinois to State Road 26 at the Indiana state line.
The Tazewell & Peoria Railroad (T&P) is a short-line railroad, running entirely in Peoria County and Tazewell County, Illinois, and formed by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. to lease the assets of the century-old Peoria and Pekin Union Railway (P&PU), which is owned by Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern and Canadian National. It switches close to 100,000 cars per year and has about 142 miles of track. Genesee & Wyoming owns 81 miles of TZPR and can handle freight cars with up to 286,000 pounds of cargo.
Pioneer Lines was a holding company for a number of American short-line railroads. Other subsidiaries offered locomotive and freight car leasing to its own railroads and to third parties, and also freight car cleaning. Pioneer Lines also had interests in real estate and newsletter publishing. It was previously owned by BRX Transportation Holdings starting in 2019.
The Winamac Southern Railway is a short-line railroad in northern Indiana, United States, operated under lease by the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway. It owns two lines radiating from Logansport to Kokomo and Bringhurst, and formerly a third to Winamac, all former Pennsylvania Railroad lines acquired from Conrail in 1993. It hauls mainly outbound grain and inbound agricultural supplies, connecting with the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway at Logansport and with the Central Railroad of Indianapolis at Kokomo. Until 2009, the Central Railroad of Indianapolis operated the company as agent.
The Prairie Marksman was a daily passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago's Union Station and East Peoria, Illinois. The route was an indirect successor to the Rock Island's Peoria Rocket.
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 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.
Keokuk Union Depot is a historic train station on the west bank of the Mississippi River near downtown Keokuk, Iowa, United States. It was built from 1890 to 1891, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.
