Monday, March 16, 2015

Streator, IL: Railroad Hub

Update: I just finished fixing some serious formatting issues. I wrote this before I learned that what the public sees is not what I see while writing the blog. I also discovered that the State of Illinois saw fit to break all of my aerial map references. The prefix needs to be changed from "isgs.illinois.edu/nsdihome/" to "clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/". That mind numbing clerical work is going to have to wait for another day. If you do get a 404, you know what to change in the meantime.

While researching the Illinois Valley and Northern Railroad (IV&N), I discovered quite a few railroads went through or to Streator, IL. Rather than trace each abandoned route individually, I decided to analyze all of the railroads in Streator so that I have to download and analyze the aerial maps only once. The railroads were built between 1867 and 1882.

My 1928 and 1973 Railroad Atlases show 8 lines going to Streator. The direction is where the route is from and the next town on the route is included in parentheses. The colors are for the map below. The "***" use below stands for the following corporate linage: BNSF(1996)/BN(1970)/Santa Fe(1888)/Chicago & St. Louis Railway (1885)/Chicago, St. Louis & Western Railroad (CSL&W, 1881)/Chicago, Pekin & Southwestern (CP&S) (Wikipedia).
  • Blue: East (Dwight) and West (Lostant): NS/NYC/Chicago, Indiana & Southern/Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, 1881 (StockLobster), 1882 (BiogInBlack).
  • Green: East (Dwight): Aband/ICG/GM&O/Chicago & Alton (C&A) (Dwight Division), 1870 (GenealogyTrails).
  • Green: West (Wenona) is Aband/ICG/GM&O/C&A/"Stub End Road," 1868 (BiogInBlack). In 1870 this segment would become part of the Dwight Division of Alton (GenealogyTrails)
  • Purple: Northeast (Mazon): ***/Chicago and Illinois River Railroad, 1876.  It was the CSL&W that extended the track from Mazon to Corwith in 1881. Before 1881 it used trackage rights on the Chicago & Illinois River Railroad (C&IR). The C&IR became part of Alton. (GenealogyTrails, Wikipedia)
  • Orange: North (Oglesby): Aband(1980)/BN/CB&Q/Ottawa, Oswego, and Fox River Valley (OO&FRV), 1867 (GenealogyTrails). 1867 is wrong. That is when the corporation completed the segment to Wenona (see below). Coal had been discovered in Streator, and they ignored their charter in order to get a quick connection to ship coal and bring in mining machinery. 1871 is when they completed work on the chartered route (BiogInBlack).
  • Yellow: Northwest (Oswego): Illinois Railway/Illinois RailNet/BNSF/BN/CB&Q/Illinois Valley and Northern Railroad (IV&N), 1870 (BiogInBlack).
  • Purple: Southwest (Ancona): ***, 1873 (GenealogyTrails, Wikipedia). This route included trackage rights on the Toledo, Peoria and Warsaw Railway (later, Toledo, Peoria and Western) between Eureka and Washington. Santa Fe's mainline to Kansas City joined the CP&S at Ancona making the Ancona-Pekin segment the only Santa Fe branch line in Illinois.  This branch is now abandoned except for a segment servicing Morton, IL from NS/N&W/NKP. (Wikipedia)
  • Light green: Southeast (Pontiac): Aband/N&W/Wabash/Chicago & Paducah/Fairbury, Pontiac and Northwestern, soon after CP&S was completed to the southwest (GenealogyTrails). 

Satellite plus Paint
Red is used for an abandoned track. Black is used for a connector for which I don't know the owner. It would be either BNSF/Santa Fe or NS/NYC. This connection allows about 8-10 trains a day to bypass Chicago. Light blue is an industrial spur. OO&FRV abandoned 0.4 miles in Streator ( BNSF Track Segments, Segment 60). Thus the south end of OO&FRC is "dashed." Looking at a satellite map, the tracks seem to stop 40 feet south of E. Grant St. But that does not make much sense. Why would they maintain crossing signals that protects only 40 feet of track?

Junctions:



Railroads were needed to serve the coal mines in the town.
Streator was known for its coal. It had 25,000 acres of un-mined coal that was pronounced by the C.B. & Q. fuel inspector as the best engine coal in Northern Illinois. It had a mining capacity of ¾ of a million tons of coal annually. (Museum)
Other industries developed that also needed the support of railroads. They helped sustain the town after the coal ran out in the 1920s. Because of shale and clay deposits, plants that made bricks, tiles, etc. started in the mid-1870s. Because of the 99.44% pure silica St. Peter Sandstone and limestone in the region and coal to heat those ingredients, a glass industry started in the early 1880s. One plant, sponsored by Anheuser-Busch breweries made bottles and other plants made flat glass. (BiogInBlack) By the early 20th century, Streator held the title of "Glass Manufacturing Capital of the World"

In 1912 Streator reached the markets through seven lines of railroad radiating in twelve different directions, covering 45,000 miles and reaching thirty-one states and territories. It had thirty passenger and forty freight trains daily and handled eight million pounds of freight. (Museum)

Road Map
In 1928, Streator had 9 "spokes." Five of these still exist --- Illinois Railway and two each for SanteFe and NYC. Note above that there were 12 spokes in 1912, so 3 were gone already by 1928.

I used a 1939 aerial map that I downloaded from the ILHAP site. The first issue I addressed is that it looks like there used to be a connection across the north part of town between Sante Fe east and NYC west, but it is now severed. Looking at a satellite image, the connection is not only severed, the road map is wrong because all of Sante Fe's east/west track across the north has been removed.



To confirm that the connection between the Sante Fe and NYC east existed back in 1939, I got an aerial map to the southeast of Streator. Not only did it exist, what is now Katchewan Park was a rail served industry back then.
ILHAP: Aerial Map
While I was looking at the aerial map, I found Santa Fe's roundhouse. I also spotted a depot on the west side of their yards. Looking at a satellite image, it not only still stands, it looks well maintained. As I would expect, the freight house that was north of the depot is gone. But I can't reconcile the crossing and tall building in the background of the following photo with the aerial photo. This looks like an issue for a field trip. 

Photo from  Depots
There is another set of tracks leaving Streator along the NYC east route because it keeps going southwestish after the NYC turns east. You can easily follow the tree lines and land scars on the satellite map to Cornell, which has a big isolated grain elevator, to Rowe and through Pontiac. This would have been the Wabash. Following this RoW back into Streator on the west side of the NYC RoW, there are trees to follow until you get south of Lundy. Switching to Streator's aerial map makes it obvious why I could not trace it any further on the satellite image --- buildings have been built over the RoW.

Satellite plus Paint
Before discussing the Wabash RoW some more, I'm pursuing an industrial branch that used to go towards the river.  The red lines to the right indicate most of the trackage of the spur. The industrial area was an industry that evidently had tank farms. And between that industry and Shale Road was a strip coal mine!
ILHAP: Aerial Map
ILHAP: Aerial Map
Rather than describe were the RoW went, it is time for another aerial map excerpt. Note that the nw/se diagonal tree line on the right of the above satellite image was the Wabash RoW. What is now a park was vacant land in 1939. I wonder what used to be there. The Wabash connected with the Sante Fe at the top of this triangle. It then continued a few blocks north and terminated in a small yard and connected to the NYC, which connected to the two CB&Q routes.

The NYC RoW goes up along the right side of the aerial map excerpt to the right until it turns northwest when it meets the Alton RoW. To investigate the Alton route, I include another excerpt that has the NYC and Alton crossing of the Santa Fe in the lower-right corner.
ILHAP: Aerial Map
The Alton entered a small yard before it curved west as it crossed the NYC and went westish across the Vermillion River. It then turned southwestish in what is now the River View Cemetery. Then it is easy to follow the RoW on the satellite map until it gets to Wenona. I think the IC route through Wenona was the originally chartered and constructed route. It looks like that IC segment is now also abandoned.
Photo from Depots
Based on the aerial photo, I originally thought the Alton depot was near Broadway and Vermillion. But now I suspect it was on the east side of Bodznick Park.

The Alton RoW to the east leaves town as a straight line to the southeast. It crosses the NYC line that has already turned east, then a couple of tributaries to a creek, then heads due east through Blackstone, and enters Dwight on the south side where it connects with the UP/SP/ICG/GM&O/Chicago & Alton mainline.

Satellite plus Paint


Just north of where the Alton crossed the NYC, the IV&N connected to the NYC. I could not find an entry on Bridge Hunters for the ghost bridge over the Vermillion River.

Need to add: branch of Chicago, Ottawa and Peoria Railways interurban from Ottawa to Streator was built in 1908. In 1923, the CO&P became the Illinois Valley Division of the Illinois Traction System. It was abandoned in 1929. (Wikipedia)

Jerry Jackson -> Chicagoland Railfan
Update: Jerry's comment:
Leaving Streator headed west. GP35 2835 leads a typical lash-up back in 88'. Those were the days.
I may be able to recreate the tree colors, but there is no way I could recreate the engine colors. Two of the six engines are in the "Shouldn't Paint So Fast" livery because SP and SF where expecting to merge as SPSF. Also known as the Kodachrome livery.
Richard Fiedler comment
Richard's comment: "Alton gas electric in Streator crossing the Santa Fe" It was posted because it was an example of a gas electric unit. But I include it as insight of the track layout in the town.
Dale Burkhalter posted
At Streator, Illinois NYC Kankakee Line. Around 1962.
Looking Northwest.
Other comments by Dale:
 The building on the left is the NYC depot. The signal is for the AT&SF Chicago mainline.
At one time, Streator had five railroads coming through town. The NYC, AT&SF, GM&O, N&W, & CB&Q. All were branch lines except the AT&SF. Also, at one time, Streator was known as the glass bottle capitol of the world.
After I posted a link to this article:

Hired onto the NYC in 1967. At that time there were 5 railroads going into Streator.
Dennis - The black connector line connects the NYC track to the AT&SF track at NYC's Streator Jct. I believe the Eastern section was NYC and the Western section was AT&SF. We interchanged trains their instead of taking them downtown to AT&SF's Streator yard. So, I assume it was jointly owned. 
(Facebooked)

Bricks and glass is why so many railroads built to this town.
Roger Kujawa posted
Streator, Illinois Clay & Coal Pit Mining Barr Clay Plant 1913 Postcard


4 comments:

  1. The industry that the Wabash ended at was a Brick yard called Bar Bricks. Look up what some of those go for as reclaimed bricks. The strip mine was the clay pit. There were a couple coal mines west of the river also. The northern connection for the railroads was to service the northern Glass plant Thatcher's Glass. Were the IRN cut the tracks south of Grant street was so they could avoid having to maintain a set of switches at the next crossing they are still in place however and also abandoned their line into Owens when they stopped getting rail service for their sand in the early 2000's.

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    1. You are so correct I took a load up from the yard to the brickyard crazy trip on NW line then we came uncoupled limb got the pinlifter the conductor Dewey Wharton, was riding the shove,bout crapped his pants as he rolled into this crazy fast street without warning Nobody crashed but the brakes an rubber was squealing..

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  2. We derailed our locomotive in the diamond of Conrail then at Streator Jct. It was actually a Santa FE unit,we were heading south to Smith Douglas for a switch. I called Decatur and next thing I knew the Superintendent was on the phone, I explained to him we got the lead axle in the middle of the diamond, and hadn't tried to get it out. He said they run 15 trains an hr and they would get fined for every delay we made there. Go ahead and try anything we had 8lds of solution behind the engine, and the track rolled north so we were doubtful. After making sure the air and handbrakes were off I had the hogger floor it in reverse the sparks flew and the bitch backed up on the ground cleared there trains by 2ft.
    I got a letter out of that!

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    Replies
    1. They rolled south not north and when I called the superintendent back he was happy and I got a good attaboy letter. The superintendent was Frank Turner ex military a hard man.

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