DwightBranch Interesting. I believe the proving grounds are in Washington now, right? But when I look at that truck I wonder how it made it across the Vermillion River bridge in Streator, which had a weight restriction that limited the line to four axle power.
Interesting. I believe the proving grounds are in Washington now, right? But when I look at that truck I wonder how it made it across the Vermillion River bridge in Streator, which had a weight restriction that limited the line to four axle power.
Caterpillar's proving grounds are located off Rt. 116 south of Germantown Hills and north of Washington (not to be confused with the Edwards Demonstration Grounds, which was served by the BN).
I'm not sure how often Caterpillar sent equipment to the proving grounds (and presumably back to the plant where built) but this truck might have been received from the Illinois Central at Wenona. The IC served the truck's Decatur assembly plant, so the one in the photo it may be returning there. The truck looks like a 769B.
bn13814 DwightBranch: Here is a photo of what is likely a Le Tourneau/ WABCO earth mover out of Peoria (Cat's are made in Decatur) moving north on the Dwight Branch as evidence of some interchange business: http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=574350 That's a Caterpillar truck. The reason it was on that GM&O train was that a loading/unloading platform served by the GM&O just north of Washington. This was for machinery and large vehicles going to or from Caterpillar's Spring Bay proving grounds.
DwightBranch: Here is a photo of what is likely a Le Tourneau/ WABCO earth mover out of Peoria (Cat's are made in Decatur) moving north on the Dwight Branch as evidence of some interchange business: http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=574350
Here is a photo of what is likely a Le Tourneau/ WABCO earth mover out of Peoria (Cat's are made in Decatur) moving north on the Dwight Branch as evidence of some interchange business:
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=574350
That's a Caterpillar truck. The reason it was on that GM&O train was that a loading/unloading platform served by the GM&O just north of Washington. This was for machinery and large vehicles going to or from Caterpillar's Spring Bay proving grounds.
DwightBranch Here is a photo of what is likely a Le Tourneau/ WABCO earth mover out of Peoria (Cat's are made in Decatur) moving north on the Dwight Branch as evidence of some interchange business: http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=574350
That's a Caterpillar truck. The reason it was on that GM&O train was a loading/unloading platform served by the GM&O just north of Washington. This was for machinery and large vehicles going to or from Caterpillar's Spring Bay proving grounds.
Too bad they couldn't save the Amboy district, I've never seen any reference to that before, thanks. I've made a few trips down Rt 89 to Peoria this week and I'm pretty sure I know where that trestle at Low Point was now. I found a couple more pics too: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2374066
Rockfan 71 All I can say is WOW! I was the one that originally posted this back on the "old" Trains site, and I never expected it to come back from the dead with such great info! This line has always interested me. I've made many trips along what's left of the right of way and I always have a hard time keeping my eyes on the road, the Amboy district has the same effect. I've spent hours looking for pictures of the Dwight-Washington branch but have only found a couple: http://www.flickr.com/photos/60523918@N02/5769566102 http://www.flickr.com/photos/29865095@N00/5924496989 Anybody that's interested in the ICG Amboy district, AKA "Charter" or "Gruber" line, there are tons of great pictures on Jim French's Flickr photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29865095@N00/sets/72157605240462693/ DwightBranch, have you read "Rails across the heartland" by R.G. Bluemer? Great book. Thanks to everyone that has replied and hopefully it won't end here...
All I can say is WOW! I was the one that originally posted this back on the "old" Trains site, and I never expected it to come back from the dead with such great info! This line has always interested me. I've made many trips along what's left of the right of way and I always have a hard time keeping my eyes on the road, the Amboy district has the same effect. I've spent hours looking for pictures of the Dwight-Washington branch but have only found a couple:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/60523918@N02/5769566102
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29865095@N00/5924496989
Anybody that's interested in the ICG Amboy district, AKA "Charter" or "Gruber" line, there are tons of great pictures on Jim French's Flickr photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29865095@N00/sets/72157605240462693/
DwightBranch, have you read "Rails across the heartland" by R.G. Bluemer? Great book.
Thanks to everyone that has replied and hopefully it won't end here...
Hi Rockfan, yes a subject dear to my heart. The second of those Flickr photos is not the Lacon depot, which is still standing. The photo is actually the Varna depot (I have a photo of it I am looking at that I took after the track was pulled up), looking west. The Lacon depot is right next to the marina at the bottom of the Illinois River/ Rt. 17 bridge, it didn't have eaves or gables, and is now a burger restaurant on the order of a Dairy Queen, called something like the "ice cream station" I think.
Here are a few other photos I know of:
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2558974
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2491360
Regarding the Amboy District: I lived around 7 miles west of there (either Rutland or Wenona) , and in 1984 when I was a student at IVCC in Ogelsby, I was hanging out in the yard in La Salle when the local turn came into the yard. I believe I spoke to the father of that guy who set up the Flickr account. The trains ended that year, but a cement company in Oglesby bought the Illinois River bridge and enough track to connect to the Rock Island near the old Westclox factory (that was on the national news earlier this year when some kids started a fire that gutted it). I have a set of train orders from that last year. The rest of the line was mostly torn up, I had no idea until a few weeks ago when I was looking for ICC reports on the Dwight Branch that someone tried to buy the whole Amboy line but couldn't come to terms with ICG, they were going to call it the Freeport and El Paso. (http://federal-circuits.vlex.com/vid/freeport-paso-intervening-37658168)
Here is a photo of engines at Wenona, it says it is on the wye with the Dwight Branch, I emailed the guy to see if he had any more photos but he didn't respond:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=131995&nseq=38
@mudchicken
Thanks for the info, I wonder if libraries along the line might not have copies, say Streator or even Peoria. When I go back through there I want to do some retracing of the line and will check it out. I would guess that Canadian National has a copy somewhere, just a few years ago they had to reopen the Amboy District abandonment case because IC sold land it didn't own but had been given as a land grant and was supposed to revert to the original owners' heirs, so I am sure that they must maintain their records. I don't doubt that they still own parts of the Dwight Branch as well even thirty-two years later. Coincidentally I also attended the University of Denver (international studies though, not the law school). The law school used to be located at the former Colorado Women's College campus near old Stapleton Airport, but relocated to a new building on the main campus (Evans Street) around 2004, I wonder if any of the ICC records still exist.
@greyhounds
Thanks for the tip on the book. Interestingly, I know a bit about "the coal company's rail line" this book refers to, it was the Rutland, Toluca and Northern, which was centered in Toluca (my hometown) and whose main purpose was to connect the mine in Toluca with the "coal washer", a place on Big Sandy creek north of Varna where they dammed the creek and used the water to separate small pieces of coal from rocks. A person wrote a self-published book on the RT&N available at the Toluca library that included some of what is in Glendinning's book, but not from the perspective of the C&A, I intend to pick it up, thanks for the tip. I wonder how much coal the C&A actually shipped, the mine in Toluca closed in 1924, and those in Wenona and Rutland at roughly the same time (due to competition from strip mines in southern Illinois), and I am sure that the IC and the Santa Fe (who had originally built the mine in Toluca for locomotive coal) got most of it . My Great Grandfather, a miner, was in poverty after the mines closed and earned a bit of money stoking engines for the RT&N at night. Every so often you will see a film clip of two steam engines crashing together, that was the RT&N, when the RT&N shut down during WWII they sold tickets in an idiotic spectacle by crashing two of their worn-out former C&A engines together, many were injured including losing eyes from flying debris. But back to the point, the branch stayed open for another 50 years, I would love to talk to someone who worked in planning at the GM&O post-WWII and ask what paid the bills for that branch, or what they were hoping would happen- export grain through Lacon maybe? BTW yes some people do say "warsh your car" in the area I live in but it was mostly the German farmer types for some reason, my town was mostly Italians who came to work the mines and they didn't say that so I escaped it.
DwightBranch As has been mentioned, the main route used by the C&A/ GM&O to serve Peoria was a combination of the Jacksonville District (the original main line to St. Louis south of Bloomington, the south end of which is still used by KCS to reach St. Louis from Kansas City) and the Peoria District (part of a bankrupt line the Alton bought), which crossed at San Jose. Up until the ICG merger a train a day left the big yard in Bloomington for the P&PU yard in East Peoria. I think the latter, the district from Springfield to Peoria, crossing at San Jose, is what you are mentioning as having bad track. In the late 80s when I was a student at ISU in Bloomington/Normal there were still former GM&O operating employees out of Bloomington who had worked that line and they also talked about the bad track. The Dwight Branch on the other hand had been an Alton line all along, and was laid with 90lb. rail as I recall. There was one large bridge that needed replacement, crossing the Vermillion River in Streator, and for that reason the line was restricted to four-axle power. The Dwight Branch was the shortest distance for cars to travel between Peoria and Chicago on the C&A/ GM&O/ ICG, but the longer route via Bloomington was more convenient. Here is a photo of what is likely a Le Tourneau/ WABCO earth mover out of Peoria (Cat's are made in Decatur) moving north on the Dwight Branch as evidence of some interchange business: http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=574350 BTW thanks for the ICC number. Now, does anyone know how to find the application for abandonment for the Dwight Branch online? So far it has been extremely frustrating trying to find it in the Federal records database.
As has been mentioned, the main route used by the C&A/ GM&O to serve Peoria was a combination of the Jacksonville District (the original main line to St. Louis south of Bloomington, the south end of which is still used by KCS to reach St. Louis from Kansas City) and the Peoria District (part of a bankrupt line the Alton bought), which crossed at San Jose. Up until the ICG merger a train a day left the big yard in Bloomington for the P&PU yard in East Peoria. I think the latter, the district from Springfield to Peoria, crossing at San Jose, is what you are mentioning as having bad track. In the late 80s when I was a student at ISU in Bloomington/Normal there were still former GM&O operating employees out of Bloomington who had worked that line and they also talked about the bad track. The Dwight Branch on the other hand had been an Alton line all along, and was laid with 90lb. rail as I recall. There was one large bridge that needed replacement, crossing the Vermillion River in Streator, and for that reason the line was restricted to four-axle power. The Dwight Branch was the shortest distance for cars to travel between Peoria and Chicago on the C&A/ GM&O/ ICG, but the longer route via Bloomington was more convenient. Here is a photo of what is likely a Le Tourneau/ WABCO earth mover out of Peoria (Cat's are made in Decatur) moving north on the Dwight Branch as evidence of some interchange business:
BTW thanks for the ICC number. Now, does anyone know how to find the application for abandonment for the Dwight Branch online? So far it has been extremely frustrating trying to find it in the Federal records database.
(1) You are NOT going to get the application online. Not gonna happen for pre-1996 documents.
(2) You may want to see if Librarian Christine Glaab at STB and see if she has any of FD-26764 on film and pay a modest copy fee.
(3)Because this is an FD- docket instead of an AB- docket, there is a chance that the abandonment process started prior to 1976 and those records went to National Archives 2 (College Park) during the 1976 pre-Staggers restructuring and downsizing of the ICC.
(4) More likely, the records no longer exist. The 1976-1996 files and records were turned over to the Intermodal Institute of the University of Denver Law School instead of NARA (Archives) . Those idiots recklessly managed to allow 6 1/2 of the 8 semi trailers sent to them by ICC/STB to be destroyed by a combination of water damage, mold and pure neglect. Still trying to figure out how some of the file cases (shrink wrapped and on pallets) were crushed. The surviviving documents (1 1/2 truckloads) were recovered by the State of Colorado and placed in a climate controlled warehouse on the Fitzsimmons Campus of the CU medical complex here in Denver/Aurora. Hard to find, harder to get at.
"Buttonpushers' don't get far with survey or railroad records; you're actually gonna have to get out there and dig, using good-old fashioned detective work. If you can't get access to a bound set of volumes of the ICC, drop me a note offline. (The firm I currently work for, headquartered at Bloomington, has dealt with multiple projects on that former C&A/GM&O line.)
That picture is just so central Illinois. I love the place. I think it's wonderful. I once took one of my X's down to the annual Popcorn Festival. After seeing the place, she described my hometown as "This little town surrounded by corn." I had never thought of it that way, but she was right on with her description.
That's definitely a Le Tourneau truck. Cat never has made off road trucks in the Peoria area. But they have factories in both Decatur and E. Peoria. I don't know what they manufacture in Decatur now, but E. Peoria has always been where they make the big stuff. You know, like D-11 bulldozers. (Cat's future in Illinois --?) They'll not move out of the US, in fact they're moving production from Japan to the US. But they're not bringing it to Illinois.
The railroad obviously should have dumped that line long before they did. The pictured train has at least a four man crew. Ain't no way that's gonna' work.
OK, I'll try to summarize the account of Gene V. Glendinning in his book "The Chicago & Alton Railroad." (pp 83-85)
Railroads were expanding in 1869 and Lacon, IL had been bypassed. They were on the east bank of the Illinois River and a railroad had been laid on the west bank. The C&A was in no mood to build new lines. It was happy with a Chicago-St. Louis Route that served major coal fields needed to supply Chicago.
But, there was coal west of Streator and the coal company was building a railroad to an IC connection on the IC's "Charter Line" that ran from E. Dubuque through Freeport, Bloomington, Decatur, to Centrailia and on to Cairo (Kayro!). But also, the good people of Lacon wanted access to Chicago, not Cairo, etc.
So they formed a delegation that journeyed north to Chicago to meet with C&A Superintendent McMullin and asked for the C&A's help. And to the Lacon delegation's delightful surprise, a deal was cut.
If the Lacon delegation could get the line graded, the C&A would do everything else. (McMullin knew a deal when he saw one. The C&A had plans to build north from Hopedale, IL into the coal fields. If he could get someone else to pay for grading a line, he'd take the deal. It really didn't matter to the C&A if they accessed the coal from the north or the south.)
The C&A bought the coal company's rail line and laid track to Washington, IL (It's pronounced "Warshington". People in central Illinois put an "R" in the word "Wash" or "Warsh")
So, the C&A made a rare expansion and built to the coal as well as to (as promised) Lacon and on to "Warshington, IL" At "Warshington" they connected to what was to become the TP&W and ran on in to Peoria. They developed a lively passenger trade in competition with the Rock Island for the Chicago-Peoria passenger business. But the coal mines played out and the passengers went away. Lacon never did develop into anything.
The railroad should have dumped the line long before they did. But that sure is a great picture.
Finally, get a copy of Glendinning's "The Chicago and Alton Railroad". Look at the maps.
CSSHEGEWISCH The town in Illinois is pronounced San JO-See, the town on IC's Iowa Line near De Kalb (Genoa) is pronounced Je-NO-uh, etc., etc., etc. Illinois is full of butchered place names.
The town in Illinois is pronounced San JO-See, the town on IC's Iowa Line near De Kalb (Genoa) is pronounced Je-NO-uh, etc., etc., etc. Illinois is full of butchered place names.
Salute!
Although I'd phonetically spell it San Joze. It's in Mason County, IL; where I grew up. I recall it as having around 600 inhabitants. Mason County has about 13,500 people total. Which is less than it had in 1857.
The line abandoned officially June 19, 1979 under Interstate Commerce Commission Finance Docket FD-26764 (Federal Citation 360ICC188)
The reason the line survived as long as it did was because it had few bridges, long tangents and was flat. I know the last Division Engineer for the GM&O at Bloomington and when they pulled the plug on the line, it was horribly light rail (70#; the newest was laid in 1900) with Weber joints () and an adventure to run on. The IC had access into Peoria via a different route (Old PD&E), so the line went away at merger into ICG.
artschlosser At one time the Chicago and Alton provided service from Chicago, via Dwight, through Streator down to Washington, over to Peoria, using trackage rights to Pekin, and using its own tracks to San Jose, IL, and then using its own tracks to Kansas City, Art
At one time the Chicago and Alton provided service from Chicago, via Dwight, through Streator down to Washington, over to Peoria, using trackage rights to Pekin, and using its own tracks to San Jose, IL, and then using its own tracks to Kansas City,
Art
I'll give a congratulatory salute to anyone who knows the correct pronunciation of "San Jose", IL.
There's a short history of the Dwight branch in Glendining's "The Chicago and Alton Railway." I'll look it up and post. My 1926 Official Guide shows no through service from Chicago via Peoria and Glendining doesn't mention such service. But, the guide does show a Chicago-Kansas City overnight passenger train that left the main line at Bloomington and ran through San Jose, Mason City, Petersburg, and Jacksonville rejoining the KC main at Roodhouse, IL.
The train picked up two Kansas City sleepers at San Jose that had been forwarded from Peoria. Two ex C&A lines crossed at San Jose. They're both gone now.
@ artschlosser:
When did you work on the Dwight Branch (I am guessing out of Bloomington)? Do you have any photos?
artschlosser I worked several times on that branch. It ran from Dwight to Varna where there was a wye. One leg went to Lacon, the other to Washington, IL where it crossed the TP&W. Until the line was sold to the B&O, it had trackage rights on the TP&W and thus its passenger trains could continue to Peoria. The line terminated at Washington and never ever continued southward. At one time the Chicago and Alton provided service from Chicago, via Dwight, through Streator down to Washington, over to Peoria, using trackage rights to Pekin, and using its own tracks to San Jose, IL, and then using its own tracks to Kansas City, Art
I worked several times on that branch. It ran from Dwight to Varna where there was a wye. One leg went to Lacon, the other to Washington, IL where it crossed the TP&W. Until the line was sold to the B&O, it had trackage rights on the TP&W and thus its passenger trains could continue to Peoria.
The line terminated at Washington and never ever continued southward.
I have a 1970s ICG timetable somewhere that showed the P&PU yard in East Peoria as the terminal where the locals tied up. The last year it was a once a week train running east from Dwight to Varna and then south to Washington, and then as normal on trackage rights on the TP&W into East Peoria, Saturday morning around 7 or so at Evans/ Varna. I was 11 or 12 then but a big railfan already, and I wish I would have been more willing to get on my bicycle and ride the two miles to Evans at 6 or so on Saturday morning to see it, I would ride my bike from Florida now to see it. Very, very little traffic, Evans had piles of corn cobs that were loaded in antique 40 ft. high gondolas to be used to make perfume I believe, but as I recall even the elevators didn't ship grain because of competition from barge traffic on the Illinois River only 18 miles away. We didn't like the ICG because they ripped up all of their track in Marshall, Woodford, Livingston, La Salle etc. counties in 1980-1990 or so, including the Dwight branch, the former IC Charter Line (Amboy District, which crossed the Dwight Branch in Wenona), the Pontiac District, etc., but I doubt the GM&O would have been able to keep the Dwight Branch either. I have been unable to find the ICC abandonment application anywhere online (I have a copy for the Amboy District) but would love to see one, it would tell who shipped what and how many cars in the last year or so before abandonment. My guess is that Metamora Woodworking, which made displays for Hallmark Cards, would be the only major shipper/ receiver of any size on the line, everything else was a car or two of fertilizer per year, etc.
http://www.gmohs.org/SecondaryPages/Maps.htm
To Art S. and Dwight Branch:
I thought the above link would be appropriate to add here. It is a part of the GM&O Historical Society's website and contains enlargable maps.. (click on appropriate map to enlarge)
No, it was a true branch (originally of the Chicago and Alton) off of the main line at Dwight, and ran from roughly 75 miles south of Chicago to Peoria, all of the track in Central Illinois. That is roughly 150 miles from Cairo IL or Kentucky.
DwightBranch Sorry this is such a late response but I was searching for posts on this branch and thought someone might still be interested. I grew up two miles from this branch in Toluca IL, and my first ride on a locomotive occurred on this line in 1977 (age 12), on an ICG Paducah rebuild, at Evans Station, which is essentially a grain elevator between Wenona and Varna. I have a copy of the abandonment notice that was printed in the local paper (I believe in 1978), all trains stopped running in 1979, and the track was pulled up beginning in 1980. Very little still remains unfortunately, and not one rail is still in use.
Sorry this is such a late response but I was searching for posts on this branch and thought someone might still be interested. I grew up two miles from this branch in Toluca IL, and my first ride on a locomotive occurred on this line in 1977 (age 12), on an ICG Paducah rebuild, at Evans Station, which is essentially a grain elevator between Wenona and Varna. I have a copy of the abandonment notice that was printed in the local paper (I believe in 1978), all trains stopped running in 1979, and the track was pulled up beginning in 1980. Very little still remains unfortunately, and not one rail is still in use.
Dwight Branch:
First of all Welcome here! Hope you enjoy your visits.
Just Curious. Did this branch continue South from the Varina area and cross the Ohio Rive in the area of Cairo,Il OOPS! I had my spellings confused! Varina is in Iowa and Farina is in South Central, Illinois...My mistake.
The line then went thorough Columbus,KY, on through Union City Tn, Jackson,Tn. IT was a t Jackson,Tn that the line split into two parallel railroads down to the Gulf Coast.
The GM&O when merged into the ICRR in 1973 or so, pretty much found itself the poster child for redundant, and was in large part rationalized out of the ICRR system by salvage and sale to other railroads.
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