Illinois Terminal Railroad

Illinois Terminal Railroad

Overview
Headquarters	St. Louis, Missouri
Reporting mark	ITC
Locale	St. Louis, Missouri and central Illinois
Dates of operation	1896–1982
Successor	Norfolk and Western Railway

The Illinois Terminal Railroad, known as the Illinois Traction System until 1937, was a heavy duty interurban electric railroad with extensive passenger and freight business in central and southern Illinois from 1896 to 1982. When Depression era Illinois Traction was in financial distress and had to reorganize, the Illinois Terminal name was adopted to reflect the line's primary money making role as a freight interchange link to major steam railroads at its terminal ends Peoria, Danville, and St. Louis. Interurban passenger service slowly was reduced, and it ended in 1956. Freight operation continued but was hobbled by tight street running in some towns requiring very sharp radius turns. In 1986, ITR was absorbed by a consortium of connecting railroads.

History

ITR was a successor in interest to a series of interurban railroads that were consolidated in the early 1900s by businessman William B. McKinley into the Illinois Traction System (ITS), an affiliate of the Illinois Power and Light Company. The Illinois Traction System, at its height, provided electric passenger rail service to 550 miles (900 km) of tracks in central and southern Illinois. The system's Y-shaped main line stretched from St. Louis to Springfield, Illinois, with branches onward from Springfield northwest to Peoria and eastward to Danville. A series of affiliated street-level city trolley lines provided local passenger service in many of the cities served by the main line. The longest-lived segment was at East St. Louis area of the line descended from an Edwardsville-Alton interurban line bought by the Illinois Traction System in 1928. Because the Illinois Traction/Illinois Terminal traversed some towns on street trackage with very tight turns, freight operation required the use of short trains and special hardware. New bypass trackage was constructed around some towns for freight operation to partially solve this problem. Springfield was an example of this. In a few other towns, arrangements were made with a parallel steam railroad for trackage rights in order to provide a bypass. An example of annoying town running (for the town as well as the railroad) was at Morton, Illinois, just south of Peoria, where a heavy duty well maintained track with trolley catenary suddenly found itself running down the center of the town's brick paved main street.

With the Great Depression, the Illinois Traction System staggered. The ITS relinquished many of its city streetcar lines in the 1930s, and it was forced to cut its ties with an affiliated firm that provided electrical utility services. The passenger railroad reorganized in 1937 as the Illinois Terminal Railroad (ITR) and continued to provide electric-powered interurban, long-distance multiple car passenger train service Peoria/Danville to St. Louis for almost another two decades. United States postal contracts helped provide revenue to make this service viable. In the 1950s, with the final dominance of the automobile, ITR's passenger service became hopelessly unprofitable. This was even after IT had earlier purchased two expensive electric multiple car streamlined train sets from St.Louis Car Company designed somewhat upon the North Shore Line's Electroliners. These were capable of decent speeds on ITR's well maintained open country roadbed but had to slowly negotiate tight streetcar style curves in the numerous towns along the line. In March 1956, passenger service ended. Because the ITR had some very usable trackage and line side freight customers, it was acquired in June 1956 by nine Class I railroads. These collectively continued to operate ITR as a diesel-powered short line to carry freight to the acquiring railroads. The co-owned reorganized Illinois Terminal Railroad took down its trolley wire and abandoned much of its trackage, particularly the interurban street running in towns and villages. At some points ITR track was connected to trackage of the adjacent lines and was available for optional routing. For the following 25 years (1956-1981) the ITR continued to operate diesel-powered trackage north and east of St. Louis, providing freight business for the railroads that owned it. The Norfolk and Western Railroad purchased its partners' interests in the Illinois Terminal Railroad on September 1, 1981, and ITR officially merged into the N&W on May 8, 1982.

The Illinois Terminal Railroad today

Illinois Terminal 1605, a GP7 preserved in operating condition at Illinois Railway Museum.

The McKinley Bridge across the Mississippi River, originally built in 1910 to carry the Illinois Traction System's trolley cars over the river to St. Louis, survives to this day. Some sections of the Illinois Terminal Railroad and its affiliated lines have become rail-trails, such as the Interurban Trail south of Springfield.

The Illinois Traction System's generating plants also sold electricity to customers in many towns and cities serviced by the electric railroad. In the 1930s, the railroad and its electrical utility separated from each other. The formerly-affiliated electrical utility was spun off to form the Illinois Power and Light Company. Illinois Power provided electrical service to much of central and southern Illinois before its acquisition by Ameren. Consolidation into the parent firm occurred in 2004.

References

2. Middleton, Wm D., The Interurban Era, Kalmbach Publishing Co, Milwaukee, WI. A historical review of U.S. interurban railways state by state. Extensive photographs and commentary.

3. Hilton, George and Due, John, The Interurban Electric Railroad in America, Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, CA. Reissued. A very thorough publication about the interurban transportation industry in general. Covers initial financing, construction, physical structures, cars and equipment, freight business, power generation, impact of the Depression, and decline.

4. Young, Andrew, St. Louis Car Company Album, Interurbans Special #91, Interurban Press, Glendale CA, 1984. St. Louis Car constructed the streamliners in late 1940s that failed to revive Illinois Terminal Railroad's passenger business.

External links

• Illinois Terminal Railroad heritage society
• Sample Illinois Terminal PCC
• Illinois Terminal System Maps
• Illinois Traction System Photo Gallery, Historical Society of Montgomery County Illinois