WWPCM05208
decks "Illinois Central Railroad"
(USA)
1. WWPCM05208/01:
by "Brown&Bigelow"
WWPCM05208/01A:
standard,
1943
WWPCM05208/01B: 1950s
WWPCM05208/01C: probably by
"B&B"
WWPCM05208/01D: probably by
"B&B"
2. WWPCM05208/02:
by "USPCC"
WWPCM05208/02A:
brand "Congress", 1953
3. WWPCM05208/03: unknown
brands
HISTORY OF THE
MAIN LINE OF
MID-AMERICA
The
Illinois Central is the only major rail carrier in the United States still
operating essentially under its own name without interruption after nearly a
century-and -a-half since its founding. In its long and colorful history, the IC
achieved many "firsts" in the fields of commerce, transportation and western
settlement.
The
Illinois Central Railroad was chartered in 1851 to build a railroad from Cairo,
Illinois, at the joining of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, to Galena, in the
extreme northwestern corner of the state (the "Old Main"), with a branch from
Centralia (named for the railroad) to Chicago (the "Chicago Branch"). A previous
effort in the late 1840s resulted in a few miles of grading north of Cairo but
little else. However, the Federal Land Grant Act signed by Millard Fillmore in
late 1850 aided the IC in becoming the first railroad to receive a land grant.
The line was finished in 1856, giving Chicago a route to New Orleans by way of a
railroad-operated steamboat line between Cairo and New Orleans.
During
the Civil War, the IC played a pivotal role in funneling Federal troops and
supplies southward to open the Mississippi River to the Gulf. After the war,
many famous generals and civil engineers from both sides served with distinction
in positions of leadership with the IC.
In
1867 the Illinois Central, which by then progressed beyond Galena and across the
Mississippi to Dubuque, Iowa, leased the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad,
extending its western line to Iowa Falls. This line reached Sioux City in 1870.
Soon
the Illinois Central realized that it was necessary to extend its rails south to
the Gulf of Mexico. The railroad made a traffic agreement in 1872 with the New
Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern Railroad, to Canton, Miss., and the
Mississippi Central Railway north to Jackson, Tennessee. A new railroad line
would be necessary to connect Jackson, Tenn. with Cairo to replace the existing
arrangement via the Mobile & Ohio to Columbus, Kentucky, and a riverboat from
Columbus to Cairo. The new line was completed in 1873. In 1874 the Illinois
Central, the principal bondholder of the other two lines, took them over and
organized them as the New Orleans, St. Louis & Chicago Railroad. The NOJ&GN and
Mississippi Central were then reorganized in 1877 as the New Orleans, Jackson &
Northern and the Central Mississippi, respectively, and then consolidated as the
Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans Railroad, a subsidiary of the IC.
Like
most of the railroads in the South, the route from Cairo south to New Orleans
was built to a 5-foot track gauge. The entire 550-mile route was converted to
standard gauge (4-foot-8-1/2 inches) in one day on July 29, 1881.
About
this time, a young eastern financier took an interest in the Illinois Central
Railroad who would have a profound effect on the Illinois Central and indeed
throughout the railroad industry. His name was Edward H. Harriman.
In the
1870s railroads began to penetrate the fertile Yazoo Delta along the western
edge of Mississippi. IC's entry was the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad,
incorporated in 1882 to build a railroad westward from Jackson, Miss. Meanwhile,
a rival route, the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas Railway, was under
construction between Memphis and New Orleans via Vicksburg and Baton Rouge, west
of the IC's main line. That line obtained the backing of C. P. Huntington, who
saw the route as a connection between the Southern Pacific at New Orleans and
his Chesapeake, Ohio & Southwestern at Memphis. Huntington's forces completed
the LNO&T in 1884 and then purchased the Mississippi & Tennessee Railroad, whose
line from Grenada, Miss., to Memphis funneled traffic to IC.
Saber
rattling in the form of cancelled traffic agreements ensued, but Huntington's
empire was in trouble. The IC purchased the LNO&T and the Mississippi &
Tennessee and consolidated them with the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley. The
acquisition not only increased significantly the IC's mileage, but also greatly
expanded the IC's presence in the South. The southern lines were finally
connected by rail to the northern part of the IC with the completion of the Ohio
River bridge at Cairo in 1889. In 1893 IC purchased the Chesapeake, Ohio &
Southwestern (Louisville to Memphis) and in 1895 built a line into St. Louis
from the southeast.
In the
late 1880s under the leadership of E. H. Harriman the IC began expanding toward
the west. The Chicago, Madison & Northern was incorporated in 1886 to build from
Chicago to a connection with the IC's western line at Freeport, Ill., then north
to Madison and Dodgeville, Wisconsin. The IC also constructed branches from its
line across Iowa to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Omaha, Nebraska, and Sioux Falls South
Dakota.
In
1900 a minor train wreck at Vaughn, Miss., achieved worldwide fame because an
engine-wiper named Wallace Sanders wrote a song about the incident. The
engineer, the only person killed, was one John Luther Jones, nicknamed "Casey".
The
Illinois Central Railroad continued to expand in the twentieth century. In 1906
the Indianapolis Southern Railroad, an IC subsidiary, completed a line from
Effingham, Ill., to Indianapolis. Part of the line was of new construction and
part was a rework of existing narrow gauge lines. In 1908 the IC assembled a
route from Fulton, Ky., to Birmingham, Alabama, largely using trackage rights,
and in 1909 IC purchased the Central of Georgia Railway.
In
1926 the IC electrified its suburban line along the Chicago lakefront. The
suburban tracks were separate from the tracks used by mainline passenger and
freight trains. In 1928 the railroad constructed a cutoff line between Edgewood,
Ill., and Fulton, Ky., to bypass congestion at Cairo, the waist of its system.
After
World War Two, the Illinois Central began to simplify its corporate structure by
purchasing and dissolving subsidiaries and neighboring short lines. Among the
subsidiaries absorbed in 1945 and 1946 were the Gulf & Ship Island and the Yazoo
& Mississippi Valley. Illinois Central lost its Central of Georgia holdings in
1948 when CofG reorganized after bankruptcy.
The IC
and Rock Island jointly organized the Waterloo Railroad in 1956 to purchase the
Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Northern; IC bought the Rock Island's half interest in
1968. Other short lines purchased by the IC were Tremont & Gulf (1959), the
Peabody Short Line (1960, merged 1961), the Louisiana Midland (1967, regained
independence 1974), and the Hopkinsville, Ky., - Nashville, Tenn., segment of
the Tennessee Central (1968).
In
1972 the Illinois Central merged with the parallel Gulf Mobile & Ohio to form
Illinois Central Gulf. By 1990 the road was a trimmed and rationalized
Chicago-to-Gulf railroad returned to ownership by individual shareholders and
operational management by a team of serious minded railroad people. The name
Illinois Central Railroad was restored.
Most
recently the Illinois Central name was dropped completely after merger with the
Canadian National.