Riding the Illinois Terminal

[KCSfan]

Todays CT Photo of the Day brought back fond memories of the day in 1952 (could have been "51) when the ITC ended its service to Danville. I was a student at Purdue at the time and a railfan friend and I decided to visit the IT for this memorable occasion. We boarded Wabash No. 3, the Detroit - St. Louis overnight train, in Lafayette, IN around 1:00 am on a Saturday morning for the 50 mile trip to Danville. After arriving in Danville around 2:00 we walked from the Wabash depot to a spot where the IT car that would be the morning train for Decatur and Springfield was parked overnight right in the middle of a city street. The car was open so we climed aboard and stretched out on seats to catch a few hours sleep.

Around sunup we were wakened when a car cleaner came aboard to sweep out the car, service the water cooler, etc. and upon completion of these tasks move the car and spot it in the middle of a main street in front of the downtown hotel that housed the IT station agent and waiting room. After a quick breakfast we returned to the hotel where a dozen or so passengers had gathered and the motorman and conductor were receiving their train orders from the agent. Somewhere in my archives I have an ITC timetable signed by both men and a yellow flimsie copy of that train order addressed to "C&M train No.61 car XXX".

Soon after the conductor called "All Aboard" to the waiting passengers we were off and once we left the city streets for the IT's private ROW the motorman notched his controller open and we sped along rocking rather wildly stopping only at Ogden to board another passenger before reaching Champaign. Several passengers left the train there and my friend and I got off  to walk around the station and to observe the loading of LCL freight and express shipments into the car's baggage/express compartment. There was a good bit of activity and several new passengers boarded the car. As I recall it was about 10 minutes before we left Champaign enroute to Decatur.

I recall the car stopping  to let an elderly lady off right in front of her house in Monticello. The ITC truly lived up to its slogan as "The Road of Personal Service". Somewhere we had a meet with eastbound train No.60 from Springfield and Decatur but I don't recall exactly where and would have to find the copy of that train order I have to pinpoint the location.

We asked the conductor to stop at North Junction on the east side of Decatur where we got off the train to await the arrival of the early morning train from Peoria on the line through Bloomington. After that big orange car passed by we hiked down the track to the IT's large Decatur car and motor shop. It was Saturday and the shops were idle with only a friendly watchman on duty. We identified ourselves as railfans and he gave us the run of the entire shop and yard. There were a number of cars and Class B and C freight motors in the shop area and we spent the entire day clambering over and around everyone of them. My only disappointment was that there wasn't a single Class D streamlined  motor in the shops that day.

A bit before 5:00pm we flagged down and boarded east bound train No.64 for the return trip to Danville. To our surprise the train was made up of a motor car followed by a trailer and was likely the only two car train on the Danville line since WW2. Both cars were packed with railfans and regular (mostly elderly) riders who wanted to ride the very last ITC train to serve Danville. Most of the trip was made with the horn blaring away as we sped past people standing at nearly every grade crossing to wave goodbye to the IT.

After that day IT service on that line ended at the Ogden Wye about 10-12 miles east of Champaign. By 1954 passenger service was cut back to end at Champaign but freight service lasted a few more years all the way to Ogden. In 1954 I transferred to the Univ. of Illinois and had the opportunity to take several middle of the night rides from Urbana to Ogden in the motor and caboose with the freight crew  - but that is another story.

Mark

 

 

 

[daveklepper]

You are lucky.  I got to St, Louis a few days after the very last IT passsenger service quit, the local to Granit City, really a suburban streetcar line.   Sopme of the streamlined equipment and several of the double-end PCC's were parked in the basement of the IT building, the St, Louis Station.   But nothing was operating.

[MP173]

Mark:

Great story.  I have often looked at old Official Guides and wondered what it must have been like in the small communites thru Central Illinois to have had IT service.

Thanks for sharing....any photos?

Ed

[KCSfan]

daveklepper

You are lucky.  I got to St, Louis a few days after the very last IT passsenger service quit, the local to Granit City, really a suburban streetcar line.   Sopme of the streamlined equipment and several of the double-end PCC's were parked in the basement of the IT building, the St, Louis Station.   But nothing was operating.

Dave, I take it that the streamliners were still in good condition when you saw them. I understand they were stored for quite some time in the subway leading to the IT's St. Louis terminal where they were vandalized and lived in by derelicts. I know I have read what finally became of them but can't for the life of me remember what that was, I have a very vague recollection that they were sold and returned to service perhaps in Mexico or South America. Do you (or anyone else) know the disposition of the IT's streamlined cars?

Mark 

[daveklepper]

As far as I know, all IT equipment, even the very useful PCC's (MUNI, San Francisco, would love to have them right now, and they would fit in their E-line plans well) were scrapped, except for one or two of the "standard" modernized cars that went to museums and one PCC.   If anyone knows anything different, I would be most interested.

Branford, now the Shore Line Trolley Museum, would have bought a PCC, if we could have afforded it.

[gbrewer]

The University of Illinois owned a test car used by the electrical engineering
department . My father took a class in electric railroads and got to ride in that car when he was a
student at the University (he graduated in 1926). The class trip was from Urbana to Ridge Farm and back.

I still have the text book he used for his class (The Electric Railway, by A.
Morris Buck, M.E., copyright 1915).

I also graduated from the U of I in EE but just a bit too late for the IT.  I always regretted missing out on the IT.

I did have the opportunity to ride both the Chicago Aurora & Elgin and the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee, however. Details are on my web site (see link).

 

Glen Brewer

Railroad Glory Days

[KCSfan]

Glen, Thanks for telling us of that electrical test car. I received my BS in ME from the UofI in 1955 and I am sure it was long gone by that time. However they still had an operable dynamometer car for measuring the performance of steam locomotives which was a joint venture between the University and the Illinois Central. In my senior year I was one of only four students who took the only remaining course the University offered in Railway Engineering. I only vaguely remember how that dynamometer car worked but I know it measured speed, drawbar pull, and other parameters. Boiler water usage was measured by a recording flowmeter placed in the feed water line from the tender to the engine and coal consumption was determined by weighing the engine's tender at the start and end of a test run. All this data was supplied to an on-board mechanical integrator which calculated and plotted the engine's efficiency and other performance data. One Saturday we four students and our professor took the dynamometer car on a round trip brom Champaign to Centralia behind the tenders of two of the IC's 2500 series Mountains. Going south I and another student rode and operated the dynamometer car while the other two rode the engine cab. We swapped positions for the northbound run and I remember the thrill of sitting ahead of the engineer with my hand on the throttle. We were cautioned not to use the brake valve. I remember reaching the first grade crossing whistle post and grabbing the whistle cord to blow the two obligatory longs, a short and another long. The engineer was annoyed when I stopped whistling well short of the crossing and took the whistle cord and continued blowing until we had passed the crossing. All in all it was a great and memorable day. Mark

[gbrewer]

Mark,

An even more thrilling account than the title one.

I wish I had been there. I have had a few cab rides however. I tell about a few on my web magazine, Railroad Glory Days.

There are a few pictures on the internet of the electric test car. Here is a link to one: archives.library.illinois.edu/archon. Ah, I found a better one: University of Illinois Test Car

The University also had a steam locomotive mounted on a treadmill for testing. I presume you missed that one too as did I. The huge Corless stationary engine was still there though and I even  got to see it run.

Glen Brewer

Railroad Glory Days

[KCSfan]

Glen, Many thanks for the link to the excellent info and photos of the electric test car. I too never saw the treamill mounted steamer and think it was gone before my time at the UofI. I remember the Corliss stationary engine well and I often marvelled at that monster. I found the info about the K&UT interesting also and it increased my very sparse prior knowledge about that line. I do remember seeing faint traces of its old ROW on the west side of the highway between Champaign and Rantoul around Thomasboro. The K&UT was, IMHO, a prime example of the many interurbans that never should have been built. While at the time there was a fascination with electric traction, the towns of any size on its route were already pretty well served by the parallel ICRR. I'm looking forward to reading all the articles you've published in Railroad Glory Days. I've lived in Shreveport since 1965 and could kick myself for never having taken the time to visit the nearby Reader RR. I envy you for having seen and ridden it. In the near future I will be writing of my several trips on the ITC's late night freight between Urbana and Ogden. Mark

[gbrewer]

Mark,

I'll be looking forward to the IT freight story.

As a boy my family regularly traveled from our house in the Chicago suburbs to Philo near Urbana to see relatives. Somewhere along the K&UT right-of-way, nowhere near a town, there was a grain elevator looking forlorn and completely out of place. There was scarcely evidence that there had ever been track passing by.  It was my father who pointed out to me that an interurban used to be there. I always meant to stop and take a photograph of that elevator but never did.

Glen Brewer

Railroad Glory Days

[thick]

I n the late 60's, I would ride the GM&O between St. Louis and Chicago on a regular basis. On the near north side of St. Louis, a trackside scrap yard held the remains of both the IT Streamliners and some of the PCCs. I'm told that they languished there well into the 1970's. The owner of the scrapyard, I have read, turned down any and all overtures from fans, museums, etc. to purchases any of the cars. I had ridden the IT a few times in my life, so each passing of the scrapyard was kind of sad.

[DSchmitt]

gbrewer

still have the text book he used for his class (The Electric Railway, by A.
Morris Buck, M.E., copyright 1915).

 

You can read the book on-line and download a PDF at

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=3QU9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PR2&lpg=PR2&dq=The+Electric+Railway,+by+A.+Morris+Buck,+M.E&source=bl&ots=gd7CqsXoY7&sig=AhJejxoa7gE2i7z-SvjiO1vp5H0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sV7oUd3NAYiQ9QSEtYGwBg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=The%20Electric%20Railway%2C%20by%20A.%20Morris%20Buck%2C%20M.E&f=false

[NP Eddie]

I HAVE ALSO HEARD THAT THE MCKINLEY SCRAP YARD TURNED DOWN ANY AND ALL REQUESTS FOR A TRAIN SET OR AT LEAST ONE CAR.

THIS WAS VERY SELFISH ON THEIR PART.

ED BURNS

RETIRED NP-BN-BNSF CLERK FROM MINNEAPOLIS

[wallyworld]

I second the anticipation of hearing the freight story.

Bruce