South of Springfield, IL

[dhaugh]

I have a couple questions about lines south of Springfield that have kind of confused me - esp after reading the latest issue of Trains magazine.
First - the article talks about CN getting a more direct route from Chicago to St. Louis by using NS tracks. But didn't they once have a direct route through Springfield, passing through Virden and Girard? Older maps show that line to be GM&O, but newer ones show it as UP. How did that come about?

Second - both old and new maps show a branch line going straight south of Springfield to a town called Farmersville. However, the NEWER maps actually show the track continuing past the town a little and then going straight west a little bit, while the OLDER map has the track ending in Farmersville. What's the reason for that?

Thanks - Dave

[GWoodle]

South of Springfield is a "North-South" railroad that links with the C&IM at Cimic. The old Alton/IC line goes west of there. There may have been an old coal mine west of Farmersville? I hope someone in the area can clear this up.

THe "shorter" route from Springfield seems to use the old Wabash lines instead of the IC route? I one rode a IC scoot with 2 passenger cars pulled by GP's because it left Springfield about an hour before the GM&O offerings. I think it was called the "Governor's Special". Perhaps the branch line can be sold to the Bloomer line or some other short line outfit?

[inch53]

#1, I can’t help any on how the UP ended up with the GM&O tracks thru Virden n Girard. Our daughter n her family lived in Chatham for awhile and now in Girard, the last several years and I’ve never seen any trains on the line, other than Amtrak.

#2, the line at Farmersville ends up at a coalmine, I forget the name. The mine may have been one of those that closed late 2007. The tracks were once part of the IC’s Springfield to Alton, through Litchfield.

inch

[spoony1999]

I posted this in the UP forum

From Wikepedia:
The Chicago and Alton Railroad had built and operated lines between Chicago, Illinois, Springfield, Illinois, St. Louis, Missouri and Kansas City until that railroad was merged into the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad in 1947. The GM&O itself was merged into the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad in 1972. When the ICG began spinning off its redundant lines, the Chicago, Missouri and Western Railway purchased the lines from the ICG on April 28, 1987.

The line struggled financially, leading to deferred maintenance on the track, and the company was bankrupt within the year.

The Southern Pacific Railroad purchased the Saint Louis to Joliet, Illinois line from the CM&W to extend itself into Chicagoland in 1989. Another new railroad, the Gateway Western Railway, purchased the Springfield to Kansas City line in 1990.

So when Southern Pacific was absorbed into UP this line came into UP's lap..
As far as CN goes they serve a mine west of Farmersville IL, im not sure when they abandoned the rest of the line south of that

[GWoodle]

With a closer look, the C&NW line appears to run west of Springfield. Perhaps under the UP banner, there is now a link to the "new" UP-SP Alton route?.
I have an IC book that clerly shows the IC running south from Springfield before heading over to St Louis. I can see no need to keep 2 mainlines so close to each other. The IC must have maintained some trackage right agreement to maintain a Springfield-St Louis connection via the old Alton route. The branch to Farmersville would last till the coal runs out.

[inch53]

The branch to Farmersville would last till the coal runs out.

If I remember right, there are elevators in Farmersville and Divermon that ship over the line. Also Illinois-Midland has trackage rights to their turn east at Cimic, towards Taylorville. So, I’m guessing, if the line is abandoned, they’ll pick it up.

inch

[DC49]

The IC line terminates at the Freeman mine, a mile or two west of Farmersville. The elevators at Farmersville and Divernon do not ship - I'm not sure if they have sidings anymore. There is an occasional car of fertilizer that is dropped at an elevator between Divernon and Farmersville, visible from I-55, but other than that all the traffic is coal that goes to Decatur to ADM and Illinois Power - at least that's the last information I had.

The former C&NW line is abandoned south of Barr, just outside of Athens, northwest of Springfield. UP uses trackage rights over I&M into Springfield where they join the former GM&O line to St. Louis. A short section is still intact near Carlinville where NS has used it to access the Monterrey Mine, which is shut down for the time being.

IC moved nearly all their Chicago-St. Louis traffic south of Springfield over to the former GM&O after the merger and used a short portion of the former Illinois Terminal at the south end of town to connect the two lines. My understanding is that IC used trackage rights over C&NW for a few miles to access their yard at Madison and the congestion with all the crossings made that line much less desireable than the GM&O line. When they decided to downsize they must have felt that the amount of business between Chicago and St. Louis didn't justify keeping the GM&O line so it was sold to Chicago, Missouri & Western but they kept trackage rights for their trailer trains, which were soon removed and re-routed through DuQuoin to an all IC routing, although out of the way. They also kept the lucrative Joliet-Chicago part of the GM&O so left CM&W with the scraps as far as on-line traffic. They went under in short order and SP bought the line for Chicago access. When UP merged with SP it ended up with 3 Chicago-St. Louis routes (GM&O, C&NW and MP's former C&EI). C&EI is the favored route. Without Amtrak it's hard to say what would happen to the former GM&O line.

Duane

[Tadman]

From first person knowledge, I can make these observations:

1. C&EI/MP route through Chicago Heights is busy. My office was nearby and the traffic levels were quite high.
2. I used to drive down I-55, which parallels the former GM&O route. I've hardly seen any trains on this route. Parked freight cars, and about one Amtrak corridor train on each trip I've made.