The Rise and Fall of Illinois Central Railroad
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- Опубликовано: 6 мар 2024
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Born from a vision to connect Illinois' north and south, the Illinois Central Railroad rose in the 1850s, fueled by land grants and a booming economy. Its tracks stretched across the state, fostering the growth of cities and industries. It became a prominent player, hauling not only passengers but also the lifeblood of the nation: grain, coal, and manufactured goods. However, the 20th century brought new challenges. Competition from other transportation modes, coupled with economic downturns and mismanagement, chipped away at the railroad's dominance. By the late 1990s, the Illinois Central, once a symbol of progress, merged with another struggling railroad, marking the end of an era. Its legacy lives on in the infrastructure that still crisscrosses the landscape, a testament to a time when the iron horse ruled the American heartland.
» CREDIT
Scriptwriter - Gregory Back
Editor - Karolina Szwata
Host - Ryan Socash
Music/Sound Design: Dave Daddario
» NOTICE
Some images may be used for illustrative purposes only - always reflecting the accurate time frame and content. Events of factual error / mispronounced word/spelling mistakes - retractions will be published in this section.
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Thank you for the video on the Illinois Central railroad and the trip down memory lane
Lived on a farm growing up on the Kankakee to Bloomington line. Train rolled right past our front yard. Loved running out to wave at engineers, put pennies on the tracks, count the cars. I miss IC
Kankakee to Bloomington? do you mean Kankakee to Champaign or is that a line that doesnt exist anymore
I see.
One important thing to mention. In the mid 1920s, the residents along the southern Lakefront in Hyde Park ( Vhicago] complained about the smoke from the trains. The Illinois Central response was to elecate the traxks from 47th Street south and then Separated the commuter trains from the freight trains. Tge IC electrified the commuter train service which operated on different tracks from the freight trains and ling distance service. This elimibated conflucts and today is still the onky commuter lube that operates on separate tracks from the freight and Amtrak servuces.
In one Illinois Central case that Abe Lincoln handled successfully, he presented a legal bill to the IC for $5,000! That was probably the largest fee ever demanded by a lawyer up until that time. I recall that the IC balked at paying it so Lincoln sued. The IC lawyer, if my memory serves me, did not show up in court so Lincoln won by default. Also, George B. McClellan, Lincoln's chief general during the early part of the Civil War and his nemesis, became a president of the IC before war broke out.
I lived in Centralia for 10 years. I remember when IC was bought out by CN. It was a bit of a shock. Both Lincoln and McClellan stayed at the Centralia House, probably not at the same time. It was the premier hotel at that time.
Will forever be remembered for The City of New Orleans train (Thanks, Arlo!)
I have always loved the fact that the City is the less glamorous equivalent to the stately Panama Limited but the City is the every-mans version and the one romanticized/immortalized in song.
You know, Chicago native Steve Goodman wrote the song and recorded it first... Arlo just got a hit from his cover.
Thank you, I couldn't remember his name!@@MrKrinkly
True. And Willie Nelson's cover might have been bigger than Arlo Guthrie's.
Did he do it in F Sharp, or was that just the record company speeding it up?@@MrKrinkly
IC's main legacy today is that their former line is the only electrified Metra commuter line
and i use to commute on it all the time!
I grew up in East Hazel Crest where the IC had it's Markham Yards. They had 3 hump yards there and their big engine facilities. That's now called Woodcrest Shops ( combination od Homewood and East Hazel Crest). I rode the IC from Homewood to Champaign to the University of Illinois in the late 1960's, they used light weight and heavy weight cars and pulled by those great E9 engines. If they were running late they would leave Kankakee and do 100 mph down to Champaign, cars would shake and the conductor would always say" we'll make up some time now". Railfanned the IC for many years and took rolls of 35mm slides. Such were some great times. It truly is / was a one of a kind railroad. Nice video.
My grandpa retired from the IC as a Forman.., he raised five children with grandma and they were always being relocated from one place to another while he overseen Maintenance of Way workers during the Great Depression
They had some good stories about that as they got older
I still run intermodal freight through one of old IC route, which is now part of Canadian National
Fun fact I live on part of the old route here in Iowa!
I grew up in Memphis, on yet another old line.
@@scenariomckinney nice!
My father worked for the IC. Office was in Chicago, but spent a lot of time at the Woodcrest shops which is where the CN’s US headquarters is at now. Drive by there every day. Miss the IC days.
Nothing like a video on vintage rail, a very enjoyable watch. Ryan, thanks for your time, work and posting.....
Many thanks!
The only problem with this channel is it doesn’t release content everyday.
This is great stuff!
I lived in Elmhurst Illinois which is right along the Iowa Division of the Illinois Central which was the first look i got of trains and the Illinois Central railroad was always one of my favorite Railroad lines. Thanks for posting this. Have a blessed weekend everyone
Thanks for sharing!
I live near Bardwell in western Kentucky. I can hear the City of New Orleans passing through on some nights.
I have the old IC main line through Bloomington/Normal turned bike trail in my back yard.
Great video! The IC is my favorite railroad (Possibly obviously by the green diamond logo that I made my logo as well lol) I’ve railfanned on the CN/IC for a while now, amd it’s always cool to see people actually give it some attention lol. It should be noted that while the ICRR is gone, many parts of it still 😊exist. The company still exists on paper, meaning all old IC units have to be patched because they still don’t technically fully belong to CN. Employees still get IC branded things as well. And there’s still a good few ICRR painted locomotives out there running around CN lines!
Oh man. I grew up taking the IC Rock Island line from New Lenox to downtown to go hang out around the loop. Late 1990’s. Good safe times.
This was my favorite rail line as a child. I used to travel with my grandmother one The City of New Orleans from the 63rd and Woodlawn station to the south.
"Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail
15 cars and 15 restless riders
Three conductors, 25 sacks of mail…"
👍awesome song!
@@jamesleyda365 ❤👍
At one of Arlo's concerts, he said people would always come to him and ask him to listen to their songs. Arlo would say "Buy me a beer. If I'm still here when you finish your song, you've got a winner".
Steve Goodman walks up.
"Best beer I ever had."
You forgot to mention this was the railroad Casey Jones worked on that made him a railroad legend.
Also, possibly the only railroad where meat trains had priority over passenger trains whereas most railroads had freight yield to passengers. It was mostly true here except the meat had priority.
My grandfather, Edward Brumley, was an engineer and conductor for the Illinois Central Railroad. He retired in 1955 after 50 years of service, all under the steam engine era.
I live in Jackson TN, I pass over the IC tracks currently used by CSX and the West TN Railroad with the occasional UP engines coming through we have an old train depot that used to be a museum, but it’s beautiful and sits along those very tracks
3 things that brought the IC to its knees:
1. The merger with the Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio. A lot of trackage the GM&O operated on was redundant to what the IC already possessed. The merger never should’ve happened and the IC should’ve looked for a different merge partner that offered a point to point connection with different ports.
2. IC Industries. IC’s parent company would often invest the railroads money into new ventures such as Pepsi and Taco Bell to name a few, not returning the money invested back to the railroad
3. Hunter Harrison. IC’s last President was seeking a merger with other railroads during his tenure. Once the deal fell through with the Kansas City Southern, CN came in and swooped them up.
I never knew that they had tried to merge with the Kansas City Southern. Those are the two lines that run parallel on the east bank of the Mississippi west of New Orleans (with the Union Pacific route on the west bank and the former Southern Pacific route towards the southwest).
@@richardparisi9747 Yeah a lot of people forgot this was going to happen. It was reported by the New York Times, LA Times, and Chicago Tribune in 1994 and the deal was supposedly valued at $1.63 billion. IC was going around trying to repurchase a lot of its old trackage that IC Industries decided to spinoff. Hence the buyout of the Chicago Central and the failed attempt of MidSouth Rail who was bought out by KCS in the early 1990s.
the Merger mess over the Gulf Mobile and Ohio, the GM&O was making money
Great video on the IC! Thank you!
Excellent video. GM&O your next documentary?
Yes., please do a segment on GM&O. It is an interesting story.
My grandfather was from Mobile, and was the chief solicitor at the now former he chief soliciter of the Interstate Commerce Commission in Washington. DC, and handled many complex railroad legal issues, some ending up in the US Supreme Court. He had been involved with these issues since WWII, when railroads were vital to the war effort. After retiring from DC, he moved back home to Mobile and worked there as the head attorney for GM&O, working largely on the merger with Illinios Central. I recall him talking often about the need for consolidation and cooperation between the many railroads to be able to continue to provide vital transportation services. He passed many years ago now, but he would be pleased to know GM&O. Illinois Central, Illinois Gulf now survives as part of Canadian Nstional and the freight, and even some passenger service still thrives today.
Possibly!
Another very well done video. Thank you.
I was hired by ICRR in the late 60s. Thought I had found a really good job with a future. However, despite working very hard to be a good railroad worker I was laid off on day89. I would have had a permanent position on day 90. So much for a “good job with a good future “
My grandfather retired from the Illinois Central.
This video shall be of interest to me
I love this channel can’t believe my city was talked about! Jackson Tn, been in that train station many times!
Excellent Video. Makes me wish to visit some of the classical US railroad towns. Thx
The Illinois Central still technically exists. Most of the railroads that CN has absorbed still exist to allow duplicate numbers and as paper companies for operating in the US. If you look at a lot of CN rolling stock it will say IC, GTW, WC, etc on the side and locomotives will sometimes have it under the unit number on the side of the cab. Thats because this equipment was either originally owned by those railroads or purchased under that reporting mark.
CN also has an Illinois Central heritage unit, CN 3008. They also have some ex-IC heritage equipment. The EMD E8s that used to haul their business train were IC units, and the most of the passenger coaches that make up that train are IC as well, still retaining the ornate "Illinois Central" brass carvings on the vestibule railings.
Another great video.
Thanks again!
I wish that railroad was still running today
I.C. Industries I was born & raised in Belleville, Illinois We had the Illinois Central Railroad.
You forgot the Edison Cars on the electrification,and the tie in to the DL&W! Alan Lind had a book on the Chicago suburban operations of the IC,and its worthy of its own video! Comparable to the NYC electrification,just not as well known! Thank you 😇 😊!
Thank you!!!
You're welcome!
Great bit of history. Very cool that your first CN picture is of a GMD/EMD canadian only loco ( they've since been spread far and wide after their retirement) the GMD-1. Developed for CN and NAR to be used on lightly laid priarie rail lines.
AS A LIFE TIME (62) YRS ...CHICAGOAN...AND TRAIN YARD HOSTLER FOR MY LAST 20 YRS THIS WAS VERY INTERESTING TO ME.....WELL PRESENTED ...I ENJOYED VIEWING
Top 3 favorite railroad
they didnt really fall, they were too profitable to be independent for long
I grew up with the ILLINOIS CENTRAL in Bardwell and Paducah Kentucky from 1984-2005
Two things have me intrigued here, #1, i model the I.C.R.R.in several scales, along with its partner in demise, the GM&O. #2, my son-in-law is a CN engineer, on the Iowa division, he has gone from Dubuque, where he is based, to both Chicago and Omaha on that line, but not on one trip.
Seen one of the sd45_2 operation lifesaver a couple of years ago sitting on a siding north of Byron Wisconsin , wished I could have stopped to take a photo.
Rode the City of Miami and the Hawkeye. Two trains different as night and day but both did their jobs very well providing regular and safe service.. Thanks for sharing and doing the research.
Thanks for the info!
Do we have a source for the comment made about the IC having considered Steam Turbine Motive power? I am a fairly big IC guy and never heard mention anywhere that the IC was entertaining the idea. Would love to be shown that and to dive down the rabbit hole.
Life insurance.. come on Ryan lol.
Great research as always.👍
Many of my ancestors worked for the Illinois Central RR. One, an uncle of mine died in an accident in Decatur, Ill in 1914 by decapitation. As a kid my dad would show me where it happened & of course I wasn't too interested. But, Ill Central RR carries a lot of history for me personally. :) Thanks for the video.
I wish you would do one on the Missouri Pacific. That would be neat too. I like the Illinois Central very much too.
Always great stuff, especially RR topics. You should look itno the New York, Westchester and Boston, an Electrified subsidiary of the Hew Haven that served westchester county into the south bronx and ceased operations due to bankruptcy in 1938. I used to investigate the derelict station in my neighborhood when young and found out years later the building was designed by Cass Gilbert ! There are many ruins of the system still in existence, a station was actually turned into a luxurious home
I'll check it out!
When I was in college in the mid-90s I had a friend who was an engineer for Illinois Central.
You mispronounced the city in Illinois. It is KAY-row, not KI-Row, like in Egypt.
I'm told that locals pronounce the name of Cairo as "Kay'-row"
I worked for CC then IC, then CN....whats not stated here was the grade crossing accident in bloomingdale that put IC in debt. The lady lived but is now a human vegetable, if she is still living i dint know. The attorney asked for a amount and it turned out to be the largest lawsuit in railroading at the time. CC was bought back as IC took the CNW UP merger as a threat.
its fine they still have plenty of locomotives operating today under CN
I see a newer illinois central go through my town!
The first railroad in Chicago was the Galena & Chicago Union, which was chartered in 1836 to build tracks to the lead mines at Galena in northwestern Illinois. The first tracks were laid in 1848, and then not to Galena but to a point known as Oak Ridge (now Oak Park ).
I thought I heard you say the IC was the first railroad in Chicago, but that is incorrect. Thnx
Ryan, being from Chicago, the people native to Southern Illinois pronounce Cairo as KARO.
0:11 The other is the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific which went from Cincinnati to Chattanooga and became part of the Southern Railway
Where was the depot at 8:21 located? Can't hardly red the name of the town. Looks like Clarksdale maybe. Nice looking depot though. Like the picture.
What about the C&EI rr ?? They played a large part of making Illinois mapworthy
Part of Amtrak’s City Of New Orleans still part of the Illinois Central route?
If the government supported the railroad system like they do the interstate system, we would have rail everywhere in the country and wouldn't have to spend 5 to 10 grand a year on a car just to go somewhere.
What was the RR that passed through Wenona, Il in the early 50’s..steam engines pulling coal cars?
I wish thed kept their Pontiac division
Listen to the Music.
CN owns the connection through Chicago from Canada to the gulf coast, Canadian Pacific has access to Mexico, BNSF connects the Pacific to the Gulf. Seeming competitive along the way to a mega corporate railroad until ships can bypass Canada or through the northeast passage
CP (now CPKC) got its access to Mexico by merging with Kansas City Southern, the other north-south line. KCS had bought a portion of the Mexican rail system when that country privatized its railroads
6:40 Jamie Hyneman?
Long Live the Great Name of Casey Jones, Illlinois Central Hog Head ! And of his faithful Fireman, Simeon T. Webb.
Engine is like Big Alex of snow piercer
💛💛💛
I found an old train the looks like this not to far from where I live n Chicago
The "Banana Train"
The original main line of America was the Amboy and Clinton districts i always thought.....Abe would be rolloing over in his grave...at least the IC Bridge still stands and is used across the Illinois River at LaSalle, IL....nice vide.o sir..👉🏻
Lesson learned, Canadian National kills and takes over most early American railroads that are left. What a shame.
The first rail road in Illinois was at my hometown of meredosia Illinois it was called the Northern Cross rail road. It is documented so get your history straight before posting anything about Illinois r r history
there is no noise in Illinois learn to pronounce names if you you are going put something on youtube!
Belt Railway Company of Chicago aka BRC clearing yard. Is Trying to Force, in 2024,... One Man Crews. That's Not Safety, First.
Irrelevant USA informercial before this video
I live in Illinois. Please don’t call it the “Home of Chicago”. We don’t want that city.
Illinois would be nothing but corn, without it. Racist, anyone?
Who is "we"? 😂