I started this IC history years ago. I came across this timetable map that I want to record somewhere in my notes. So I decided to add the map to this draft and publish what I had written.
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Bill Molony posted
From the March 30, 1969 timetable. |
I have researched some of the branches that were discarded by ICG in the 1980s.
As early as 1833 plans for a north-south railroad through Illinois were considered as a part of an internal improvement. But the Panic of 1837 put those plans on hold until 1850 when Illinois was awarded the first land grant authorized by Congress. Illinois Central received 2,005,095 [
La Salle History, p35] acres of land. [
ChicagoHistory indicates 2,600,000 acres.] The IC was charted in 1851 to build a line up the center of the state (thus the name of the railroad) from Cairo to the north at Freeport, IL, and then turn West to Galena. The I&M Canal had just opened in 1848 and Galena, a river town, was still more important than Chicago. But with the advent of the canal and the
Galena & Chicago Union RR, Chicago was quickly growing to be more important. So the IC also built a "branch" from Centralia to Chicago. The originally chartered trunk line was also known as the "Old Main" and the "Gruber line".
The trunk was completed in September 1856 at 705 miles, and the branch had been opened in 1855. When completed, the IC was the longest railroad in the world [
tdf23]. Given the completion dates, I speculate that by the mid 1850s, it was already recognized that the originally chartered route was a mistake but it was finished to avoid loosing the land grants. The railroad operated a steamboat line between Cairo and New Orleans. [
IChistorical]
The map on the right is a summary. The yellow line is the chartered route, the green line is the branch, and the orange line is the first two segments constructed by the IC described below by
La Salle History, p35.
The Illinois Central was chartered in 1851. The La Salle-Bloommgton line of the railroad was surveyed in the summer of 1851 under the general direction of Colonel Roswell B. Mason, chief engineer, and under the immediate direction of Timothy B. Blackstone, division engineer, who later figured prominently in railway developments in Illinois. Mr. Blackstone, a native of Connecticut, was one of the organizers and the first president of the Union Stock Yards and Transit Company of Chicago, the company which was largely instrumental in making Chicago the world's largest livestock and meat packing center. The Blackstone Hotel, Blackstone Avenue, and the Blackstone Memorial Library, all of Chicago, perpetuate his memory. In 1854, Mr. Blackstone was elected the second mayor of La Salle; he served one term.
Among the young men who came from New England with Mr. Blackstone was Grenville M. Dodge, who later became an outstanding general in the Civil War. Mr. Dodge also d'rected the building of many of the Western railroads including the Union Pacific, the first railroad to span the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Dodge, when he was in La Salle with the Illinois Central, was a young man of about twenty years of age, and the Illinois Central was his first railway employment. He married Miss Anne Brown of Peru.
The Illinois Central through La Salle is a part of the original main line which was opened between the Illinois River and Bloomington on May 16, 1853, and between the Illinois River and Mendota on November 14th of the same year. The opening of the line between La Salle and Bloomington marked the beginning of Illinois Central train service. The conductor in charge of that first train was A. D. Abbott who also served as United States mail agent handling the mail in bags between La Salle and Bloomington. Mail was heavy over this route because it formed a part of the first rail route for mail between Chicago and St. Louis, and it carried the mail also between Chicago and down-river points including Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, and New Orleans. The sixty-mile run between La Salle and Bloomington required four hours.
Today the "branch" still exists, but the Old Main was abandoned by 1990. A
small segment near La Salle, including
the impressive bridge across the Illinois River Valley, is still operational because
a cement company bought it.
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| Satellite plus paint |
(Unfortunately, I did not record my reference for this information.)
- Red: In September 1981, Junction City to Assumption part was abandoned.
- Purple: In 1984, the Maroa to Clinton section was torn up along with the Heyworth to El Paso section part.
- Black: In 1986, the Freeport to El Paso segment was pulled up.
- Blue: In 1990, the part between Decatur and Maroa was pulled up.
Below are some references I came across while researching the IC. Since it is obvious that I won't write more history myself, I simply record the references.
Detailed history:
https://archive.org/details/historyofillinoi00rail
What's left system map:
http://www.trainweb.org/icrr/sysmap/sysmap.htm
Track Profiles:
http://www.illinois-central.net/profiles/profiles99.pdf
1980 tonnage:
http://www.illinois-central.net/1980_ton_miles.php
Repeating the key to reduce the amount of scrolling needed to interpret the southern abandonments:
- Red: In September 1981, Junction City to Assumption part was abandoned.
- Purple: In 1984, the Maroa to Clinton section was torn up along with the Heyworth to El Paso section part.
- Black: In 1986, the Freeport to El Paso segment was pulled up.
- Blue: In 1990, the part between Decatur and Maroa was pulled up.
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Bill Molony posted
This map of the Illinois Central Railroad is from 1921.
Raymond Barr No Edgewood Cutoff yet!
Raymond Barr Carbondale was the heart of Southern Illinois lines. |
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Kirk Reynolds posted
This map of Illinois Central's predecessor lines was issued by the Engineering Dept. on July 31, 1971. I scanned it in high resolution to make it easier to read the data.
Randy James This was produced after the merger. (Post august 9th 1972) Note the solid i ball rail logo, which was illinois central gulf's.Richard A. I. Carlson Actually it is pre-merger. The merger occurred in 1972, the map is dated 1971. In addition the former GM&O lines are not shown. It might have been developed (and had the logo added) as part of the merger studies however.Kirk Reynolds I uploaded it in the files section of this page so you can download it from there.
Download .jpg File |
I include this excerpt to show the higher resolution of the file and because I was not aware the Peoria, Decature & Evansville had a spur to New Harmony.
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| An excerpt from the downloadable file |
I also included the first part of the directory with a higher resolution. Click the image and save it so you can pan and scan it with your favorite photo viewer.
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| An excerpt from the downloadable file |
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Bill Molony posted
This map of the Illinois Central is from the April 30, 1967 timetable.
Randy James The ic had trackage rights over the gm&o out of Jackson tn to corinth ms, where they had their trackage from corinth to haleyville al and from there they had trackage rights over the southern to jasper al. where they then had trackage rights over the Frisco into Birmingham, from there it was over the central of Georgia to albany Georgia, then over the seaboard to albany ga, then over the Atlantic coast line to Jacksonville & on the way to miami.
Andre Kristopans Randy James the Florida trains out of Chicago were all multi-railroad thru train operations. Not the same as trackage rights. Trackage rights would mean crews from one railroad operating over the tracks of another, as was the case of IC into Birmingham. A train running thru is a totally different matter. For instance, BNSF runs coal unit trains to Detroit area from Montana that are turned over to GTW in Chicago power and all, and empties come back the same way. But that is a thru train, not trackage rights. |
Dave Durham
posted an employee pamphlet dated June 20, 1921.
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