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Illinois Central Railroad

The Illinois Central Railroad (reporting mark IC), sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States. Its primary routes connected Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, and thus, the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Another line connected Chicago west to Sioux City, Iowa (1870), while smaller branches reached Omaha, Nebraska (1899) from Fort Dodge, Iowa, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota (1877), from Cherokee, Iowa. The IC also ran service to Miami, Florida, on trackage owned by other railroads.

Not to be confused with Central Illinois Railroad.

Overview

Chicago, Illinois

Robert Rantoul Jr.
Robert Schuyler
Jonathan Sturges[2]

IC

Midwest to Gulf Coast, United States

1851–1999

Canadian National Railway

4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

5 ft (1,524 mm)

3,130.21 mi (5,037.58 km)

The IC, founded in 1851, was the first of many U.S. railroads whose construction was partially financed through a federal land grant. The Canadian National Railway acquired control of the IC in 1998, and absorbed its operations the following year. The Illinois Central Railroad maintains its corporate existence as a non-operating subsidiary.

An IC steam locomotive taking on coal at a Chicago rail yard in November 1942

An IC steam locomotive taking on coal at a Chicago rail yard in November 1942

IC 1234, an EMD SW9, switching at Tuscola, Illinois in 1966

IC 1234, an EMD SW9, switching at Tuscola, Illinois in 1966

A preserved Illinois Central EMD GP11 locomotive on static display in downtown Carbondale, Illinois

A preserved Illinois Central EMD GP11 locomotive on static display in downtown Carbondale, Illinois

Illinois Central 1018, an EMD SD70, leads a Norfolk Southern mixed freight

Illinois Central 1018, an EMD SD70, leads a Norfolk Southern mixed freight

IC 3115, an EMD GP40R, sitting in Waukesha, Wisconsin

IC 3115, an EMD GP40R, sitting in Waukesha, Wisconsin

a 2-4-4 suburban tank locomotive that participated in the "Wheels A-Rolling" pageant at the Chicago Railroad Fair, is displayed at Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois.

No. 201

No. 268, an switcher, resides in Laurel, Mississippi.[17]

0-6-0

No. 333, an 0-6-0 switcher, and several passenger cars are on display just outside the historic in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Company Depot

No. 764, a 651 class "Consolidation", was donated to the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1956.

2-8-0

is on static display at Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

No. 790

No. 1518, a 1500 series "Mikado", is on static display in Paducah, Kentucky. It was built by the Lima Locomotive Works in 1923.

2-8-2

No. 2500, the first of 2500 class "Mountain" types, is on static display in the Age of Steam Memorial in Centralia, Illinois.

4-8-2

No. 2542, a 2500 class 4-8-2, is on static display at .

McComb, Mississippi

No. 3525, an 0-8-0 switcher, is displayed at Tanglewood Park in while painted as a Southern Railway locomotive & was renumbered to 1894.[17]

Clemmons, North Carolina

No. 3706, a 2-6-0 "Mogul", resides at the Illinois Railway Museum.

[17]

A yard office and a coal-fueling tower remain at the Illinois Central yards in .

Council Bluffs, Iowa

IC No. 8408 GP10 locomotive/IC 9426 caboose static display Homewood, IL

Illinois Central #8701, along with an IC caboose, preserved on static display at the Carbondale passenger station in Carbondale, Illinois.

GP11

Illinois Central #8733 preserved at the Monticello Railway Museum in Monticello, Illinois.

GP11

Several pieces of IC rolling stock also reside at the Monticello Railway Museum: IC combine No. 892, IC Day Coaches Nos. 2920, 2855, and 2612, IC Business Car No. 7, IC 10-6 sleeper Nos. 3531 "Council Bluffs", IC Dorm-baggage No. 1906, IC No. 518 (MAIL STORAGE), IC Panama Limited Observation "Gulfport", ICG cement hopper No. 100040, IC No. 65018, IC bridge crane No. X238, IC No. X1957 Boxcar, IC No. X2000 Idler Flat, IC's No. X4342 and X4352 tenders, IC X9151 Jordan Spreader, and IC cabooses Nos. 9926, 9831, and 9880.

An Illinois Central caboose and banana car are preserved at the Casey Jones Railroad Museum in .

Illinois Central "Wickerliner" in Chicago, Illinois, 1967

Water Valley, Mississippi

An Illinois Central caboose is privately owned and preserved in at the old train depot in the center of the town.

Raymond, Mississippi

Illinois Central SD40X No. 6071 (Ex-Gulf, Mobile and Ohio) at the Monticello Railway Museum in Monticello, Illinois

Illinois Central Gulf GP8 No. 7738 at the in Versailles, Kentucky

Bluegrass Railroad Museum

1974 Illinois Central Gulf caboose (No. 199422) in service as IRM 9422 at the in French Lick, Indiana.[18]

Indiana Railway Museum

Illinois Central caboose on historic main street in .

Palestine, Illinois

One Illinois Central Caboose resides in .

Former Illinois Central "Highliner" built by Bombardier on the Metra Electric, 2002

Grayville, Illinois

IC Nos. 1198 and 1380 "Wickerliner" (built by Pullman 1926) electric commuter cars at

Illinois Railway Museum

IC Nos. 1534 and 1630 "Highliner" (built by St Louis 1971-1972) electric commuter cars at (these cars were renamed "Highliner I" in 2005 well into their Metra Electric when Metra ordered the all-new "Highliner II")

Illinois Railway Museum

IC Nos. 1637 and 1645 "Highliner" (built by Bombardier 1978-1979) electric commuter cars at (these cars were renamed "Highliner I" in 2005 well into their Metra Electric when Metra ordered the all-new "Highliner II")

Illinois Railway Museum

Several locomotives and rolling stock formerly owned and used by Illinois Central are preserved, and many of them reside in parks and museums across the United States.

Mississippi Central (1852–1878)[edit]

The original Mississippi Central line was chartered in 1852. Construction of the 255 miles (410 km) 5 ft (1,524 mm)[19] gauge line began in 1853 and was completed in 1860, just prior to the Civil War, from Canton, Mississippi to Jackson, Tennessee.[20] The southern terminus of the line connected to the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad at Canton. It also connected to the Memphis and Charleston Railroad at Grand Junction, Tennessee and the Mobile and Ohio Railroad at Jackson, Tennessee. The Mississippi Central was the scene of several military actions from 1862 to 1863 and was severely damaged during the fighting.[21] Company president, Absolom M. West succeeded in repairing the damage and returning it to operating condition soon after the end of the War.


By 1874, interchange traffic with the Illinois Central Railroad was important enough that the IC installed a Nutter hoist at Cairo, Illinois to interchange between its standard gauge equipment broad gauge used by the Mississippi Central. This allowed the trucks to be exchanged on 16-18 freight cars per hour; a Pullman car could be changed in 15 minutes.[22] The original Mississippi Central line was merged into the Illinois Central Railroad subsidiary Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans Railroad in several transactions finally completed in 1878.[23][24]

general manager, Illinois Central Railroad

Edward Turner Jeffery

David L. Gunn

Tammany Trace

A unique railroad crossing signal erected in Grenada, MS

Billups Neon Crossing Signal

the world's longest swing bridge when constructed

Illinois Central Missouri River Bridge

History of rail transportation in the United States

Railroad land grants in the United States

Daly, Aiden Thomas. "Homes for the Industrious in the Garden State of the West: The Illinois Central Railroad's Role in the Economic, Environmental, and Agricultural Development of Illinois, 1850–1861" (PhD dissertation, Iowa State University; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing,  2022. 29261430).

Downey, Clifford J. Chicago and the Illinois Central Railroad (Arcadia, 2007), popular history.

Gates, Paul Wallace. "The promotion of agriculture by the Illinois Central Railroad, 1855-1870." Agricultural History 5.2 (1931): 57-76.

online

Gates, Paul Wallace. The Illinois Central Railroad and its Colonization Work (Harvard UP, 1934)

excerpt

Lightner, David L. Labor on the Illinois Central Railroad, 1852-1900 : the evolution of an industrial environment (1977)

online

Murray, Tom. Illinois Central Railroad (2006), photographs, many in color, with brief text

online

Stover, John. History of the Illinois Central Railroad (1975), a standard scholarly history

online

Stover, John F. "The Illinois Central and the Growth of Illinois and Chicago in the 1850s." Railroad History 159 (1988): 39-50.

online

Stover, John F. "The Management of the Illinois Central Railroad in the 20th Century." Business and Economic History (1979): 55-60.

online

Sutton, Robert M. The Illinois Central Railroad in peace and war, 1858–1868 (1948).

Notes


Bibliography


Further reading

Official website, archived 1999

Illinois Central Historical Society

Illinois Central Railroad On-Line

Illinois Central Resource Page

(granting CN control of the IC)

STB decision, docket number FD_33556_0

at the Newberry Library

Illinois Central Railroad Company Archives

Guide to the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. Memorabilia, 1857–1971. 5197. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Martin P. Catherwood Library, Cornell University.

Encyclopedia of Chicago "Illinois Central Railroad".

Archived March 18, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, McLean County Museum of History

Illinois Central Railroad Collection

at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center

Guide to Tracy W. Simpson, Electrification Project : The Illinois Central Railroad Company Suburban Service at Chicago, Ill. 1909