Ask Peoria Station 6-13-19
Time for more Transportation Q & A!
Feel free to post your questions in the comments section on any transportation topic. If I don't have an answer, I'll find one.
Feel free to post your questions in the comments section on any transportation topic. If I don't have an answer, I'll find one.
I am still working on the next "PIA - A History" post that will cover the years 1997-1998.
- David P. Jordan
Sorry if this is late, but as a young man living in Morton(1985-86), I remember that there was a line that went from a junction in E.P. up a ravine near Veterans Road in Morton and served Dunlop Tire, Morton Buildings, and perhaps other industries in Morton. It crossed the ATSF/TP&W branch in the area of Prairie Creek and crossed S. Main near what is now the Memorial Park in Morton.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering what the lineage of the line might be, as well as any help in finding photos of the line if they exist. If memory serves me right, I believe it was originally a cutoff that the Illinois Terminal constructed to bypass the route up Matheny Hill in East Peria. Is that correct?
Hi Ron,
DeleteIn the time period you specified, this line would have been Norfolk & Western Railway's Northern District, which ran between Decatur (via trackage rights on then-Illinois Central Gulf between Decatur and Maroa) and a connection with the ex-Nickel Plate Peoria District at Farmdale Junction. N&W inherited the line through its acquisition of the Illinois Terminal RR in 1981.
The Iine's heritage dates back to late 1874 when the Illinois Midland RR opened a route to Terre Haute, Indiana. The line was reorganized as the Terre Haute & Peoria RR in 1887 and came under Vandalia RR control in 1905. The Pennsylvania RR gained control of the Vandalia by 1917.
The line's usefulness declined after WW2, especially after 1960 when the PRR and Santa Fe became joint owners of the TP&W. Joint TP&W-PRR routings for traffic moving to and from Peoria area industry proved faster than an all-PRR routing via Terre Haute and Indianapolis, especially when those carriers inaugurated run-through service between East Peoria and Logansport (Ind.) in Summer 1964. But local business and Decatur's heavy industry justified a pair of daily freights between Terre Haute and P&PU's East Peoria Yard through the 1960s. Lack of traffic, particularly during the summer, likely caused many trains to be annulled north of Decatur.
The February 1, 1968 Penn Central merger brought an end to through traffic, though the Terre Haute-East Peoria freights continued to operate until well into 1969. After that, a pair of alternate-day locals plied the line between Decatur and East Peoria. A July 1973 washout between Atlanta and Waynesville severed the line, and changed local service to an East Peoria-Atlanta turn. Penn Central discontinued operations on this line at the end of February 1976.
Illinois Terminal RR, which had been using the PRR route in Morton since December 1955 to get off of interurban street trackage, purchased the Decatur-Farmdale Junction route on April 1, 1976. The ITC served two customers (84 Lumber and Grimm Propane) on an old interurban stub west of Morton and three customers on the ex-PC route - Dunlop Tire, Morton Buildings and Mathis Lumber. Dunlop, interestingly, announced its facility in late-summer 1975 when PC still owned and operated the route.
Norfolk & Western acquired Illinois Terminal on September 1, 1981 but labor opposition delayed the operational merger until 11:59pm, May 7, 1982. Earlier, on February 27, N&W decided that ITC Trains 200 and 201 between Decatur and East Peoria would operate on N&W lines via Gibson City. The Allentown-E. Peoria Switcher handled local work at Morton using a rented TP&W SW-1500.
Following the merger, operations on the ex-ITC/PC/PRR route are a little vague, but it is known that N&W closed Wilson Yard at Allentown in June 1982. Decatur-Minier locals operated as needed. I've been told that N&W's Bloomington roadswitcher handled Morton industries for a time. Sometime in 1983, however, train FP-65 (Frankfort, Ind. to East Peoria) began handling this work, dropping its train on the main track short of Farmdale Junction to make a side trip to Morton. (Counterpart PF-62, running from East Peoria to Frankfort, Ind., handled cars back east, mostly likely picking them up at the interchange adjacent the TP&W's East Peoria Yard.).
DeleteDunlop Tire was probably the reason N&W continued to operate the north end of the line until 1988. Morton Buildings constructed a truss manufacturing facility on then-Santa Fe's Pekin District in 1980, though I've seen evidence that both that and the older N&W-served plant were getting rail service for several years. 84 Lumber probably ceased direct rail deliveries not long after the N&W-ITC merger, and propane deliveries to Grimm Propane, rare anyway, dried up completely. It is believed that Mathis Lumber (Affiliated Home Center) had ceased rail delivery even prior to the N&W-ITC merger, though I can't confirm that.
The date for end of operations on N&W's Northern District is unclear. Abandonment filings were made in mid-1987 covering three segments (Farmdale Jct.-South Morton, South Morton-Minier and Minier-Maroa). The middle segment had been embargoed since June 1982 due to a deteriorating Mackinaw river bridge, and was approved for abandonment first. The other two segments were approved for abandonment in December 1987, but apparently continued service into 1988.
I remember seeing the old PRR line and a stub of the old ITC line overgrown with vegetation before being removed in 1989-1990.
I saw on Flightaware that last night, 7/2/19, a JetBlue 190 from JFK-ORD got diverted to PIA and was sitting on the ground for three hours. It landed just before sunset. Sat for three hours, then at 11pm went to ORD.
ReplyDeleteMakes me wish I still worked on day shift...
DeleteThank you for the in depth reply, David.
ReplyDeleteI do remember the line being serviced by NS and it's predecessors' locomotives (mostly NW and SOU) at that time. It was quite a sight to see a single black locomotive pushing the cars up through the ravine and up the hill to reach customers.
Again thank you for all that information.