I studied the Illinois Valley and Northern Railroad (IV&N) because the western portion was used by the
Indiana, Illinois and Iowa Railroad. I learned the names of both of these railroads from some
Facebook postings concerning
Zearing, IL. The yellow line is still in service (
Illinois Railways, LaSalle to Zearing) and the red lines are abandoned. Of special interest is
their bridges.
Freight was handled on this branch by trains #85 and #86 that went between Cicero and Zearing via Streator.
IV&N was incorporated on May 25, 1887. While it was being constructed, CB&Q leased it January 2, 1888 and bought it on June 1, 1899. (
CorporateHistory, pp. 66-67)
Between June, 1886, and September, 1887, the Star Coal Company constructed a track from a connection with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company at Streator northwesterly at a point near the village of Ripley. This track was purchased by this company and extended
to Walnut. Construction commenced at connection near Ripley in August, 1887, and the road was completed between Streator and Walnut June 1, 1888, a total distance (first main) of 59.9 miles. (CorporateHistory)
The town of Ripley must have been located near Streator in 1888 instead of the
current location southwest of Peoria.
BNSF Track Segments has the abandonment information:
61. Streator-Zearing
History: 1888 by CB&Q
Abandoned: 1946-Kasbeer-Walnut (connected to segment 9 at Walnut)
1954-Zearing-Kasbeer
1977-L&S Jct-La Salle
1980-L&S Jct-Streator
Sold: 2004-Illinois RailNet
Note that
Illinois RailNet became
Illinois Railways (IR) on May 1, 2005.
The eastern terminus of the IR Zearing-LaSalle segment is
just before Bucklin Street. The
IV&N RR Bridges posting follows the abandoned route across the I&M Canal and the Illinois River. The land scar becomes obscure south of IL-351. So I looked at some
aerial maps. First of all,
03035 confirms the IV&N bridge location. Photo
03083 shows that it followed the Vermillion River very closely around its first two bends. Photos
03096 and
03144 show that it then headed south to just northeast of Tonica. It is then easy to follow on satellite images because it cuts diagonally across fields. I see there is a rather large grain elevator in Leonore that is now isolated. My
Streator, IL posting traces the route in that town.
The western terminus of the IR Zearing-LaSalle segment is a connection with the BNSF mainline to Colorado --- the Mendota subdivision. The reason the original western terminus was Walnut, IL is because that was a connection with CB&Q/
Illinois Grand Trunk Railway.
It is hard to trace the remaining segment to Walnut, IL. This makes sense since this part was abandoned during the middle of the 20th century instead of after the 1980 Staggers Act. Based on the circled (actually, ovaled) diagonal land scars, I assume it was a straight line between Zearing and
Kasbeer, which has an isolated grain elevator. When I zoomed into the only
obvious evidence of a RoW between Kasbeer and Walnut, I found land scars still visible in tilled fields.
West of Kasbeer, the scars appear along a straight line until it gets to
a tree line. Actually, there are a couple of tree lines. The yellow line denotes the CB&Q/
Illinois Grand Trunk Railway
(IGT) to which the IV&N connects. I used the aerial photo
4b018 to confirm that the IV&N (red line) did follow the IGT for a couple of miles before it connected with the IGT, which was built in 1871-2.
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| Michael Matalis posted in Facebook |
Update: In this map, Ill 4A would be the CB&Q mainline whereas Ill 9A would be the IV&N route. Note that the roundhouse and a few spurs were owned by the
NYC/Chicago, Indiana & Southern/Indiana, Illinois & Iowa, which had trackage rights from Ladd, IL.
Don's comment:
Eastbound Illinois Railway job returns from Zearing, IL, to La Salle, IL, behind CF7 No. 5 and Great Western Railway GP20 5625. 5625 was originally one of the EMD demonstrator set for the GP20 model. The Brush Creek trestle is located west of Ladd, IL, on the former CB&Q - BN branch. January 5, 2012.
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