M&StL was Minneapolis and Saint Louis, later C&NW.
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| Roger Holmes posted A C&NW northbound at Molitor Jct., date unknown. For those unfamiliar with the area the Burlington Northern's track is to the right. For those familiar with the area, it is still the Burlington Northern's track to the right...the line from Peoria to Galesburg via Yates City. Molitor Jct., on Peoria's west side, was named after Val Molitor, a dispatcher on the C&NW. © Roger A. Holmes. David Jordan Matthew Erickson M&StL Jct. (later renamed Molitor Jct.) was built post-merger by the C&NW to eliminate an awkward and time-consuming see-saw for coal trains running out of Middle Grove to C&NW's S. I. Line that required movement via P&PU between Iowa Jct., the C&NW at Darst Street and the Adams Street Line out to the S. I. at Peoria Jct. The connection was laid in September 1964. The connection also proved handy for C&NW Granite City-bound ore trains, with one derailing 51 of 117 cars near Hermon (between London Mills and Abingdon) on November 2, 1967. (I'd guess negotiations with the CB&Q about crossing its Galesburg-Peoria line at grade and installation of interlocked approach and stop signals took awhile.) The ex-M&StL main to Bartlett Yard continued to be used by Cedar Lake (Minn.)-Peoria manifests 19 & 20 until April 1968, and local trains through November that year. The segment of the ex-M&StL from the new C&NW mainline connection to Iowa Jct. was abandoned at this time, and track removed about 1970. Paul Ümläüt Tincher I vaguely recall trains coming off the old M&STL over Creek Road at Molitor Jct when I was a kid. Years later, many of the old heads I worked with out of South Pekin said the Elm Mine runs were good jobs...except for the cringe-inducing 2% downhill grade (steepest grade on the C&NW when still in service!) down Maxwell Hill. A bad wreck occurred there in the early-mid-80's, but I have no great knowledge of it. Just know a coal train ran away because the engineer of the lead consist didn't charge the air up enough before leaving the top of the hill. Roger Holmes I was a clerk and extra board dispatcher out of South Pekin from 1974 to 1979. Generally speaking power would leave South Pekin and go to Elm Mine to collect the loads. Figuring the time they would be ready to depart there pusher power would be ordered, unless the local was in the area, to go to the mine, couple onto the train and bring it down Maxwell Hill with the road power trailing. Once on the main the road power would now be on the head end, etc. Generally officials would have the crews swap, since the pusher crew would have more time left and could make it to Nelson without risking running out of time, or at least as much. The pusher crew, now going to Nelson, would generally fight this. The bad wreck that Paul mentions above happened when I was working there. It happened on the coldest night of the year, something like 20 below. The pusher power cut off and dropped the brakeman off to flag the BN, and went up and coupled onto the train and started to ease it down the hill. I never did hear the cause of what happened next, if someone forgot to turn an angle cock or repump the air but almost immediately crews on both ends of the train knew that they had a runaway! As they hit the bottom of the hill the pushers and 15 or 16 loaded cars leaned way to the right then slammed back onto the rails and held. The next 36, 38 cars piled up, even wiped out the BN's bridge. My mind has lost track of the details over the years as to car count, etc. Both crews got time off for this very costly derailment, except for the brakeman who had been left to flag the BN. I wanted to drive over and get photos but due to the extreme cold, it would not start. Howard Keil That would explain several sets of wheels and axles in the big ditch on the north west side. David Jordan The C&NW derailed 52 cars of a 90-car coal train at Molitor Jct. the early morning, January 16, 1977. Was enroute from the Elm Mine to Oak Creek, Wisconsin. David Jordan The Elm Mine was accessed via a spur west of Trivoli. It opened in 1968 and closed in 1984. David Jordan Jan Smith The Rapatee Mine at Middle Grove re-opened in 1975 (after dormant for seven years), so C&NW's Elm Sub served two coal mines for nearly a decade. |
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| Todd Pendleton commented on the above posting Here's a BN coal empty at the same location on the BN line. June 1990. |
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| Paul Umlaut Tincher commented on the above posting Sorry for the pic of a pic, but I found it in an old issue of the CNWHS mag, Winter '93 issue. |
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| 1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
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