Mississippi Central Railroad (1901–1967)

The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa (1870). There was a significant branch to Omaha, Nebraska (1899), west of Fort Dodge, Iowa, and another branch reaching Sioux Falls, South Dakota (1877), starting from Cherokee, Iowa. The Sioux Falls branch has been abandoned in its entirety.

The Canadian National Railway acquired control of the IC in 1998, and merged its operations in 1999. Illinois Central continues to exist as a paper railroad.

History

The IC was one of the oldest Class I railroads in the United States. The company was incorporated by the Illinois General Assembly on January 16, 1836. Within a few months Rep. Zadok Casey (D-Illinois) introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives authorizing a land grant to the company to construct a line from the mouth of the Ohio River to Chicago and on to Galena. Federal support, however, was not approved until 1850, when U.S. President Millard Fillmore signed a land grant for the construction of the railroad. The Illinois Central was the first land-grant railroad in the United States.

The Illinois Central was chartered by the Illinois General Assembly on February 10, 1851.Steamtown National Historic Site,
Illinois Central Railroad number 790
' . Retrieved February 10, 2006. Senator Stephen A. Douglas and later President Abraham Lincoln were both Illinois Central men who lobbied for it. Douglas owned land near the terminal in Chicago. Lincoln was a lawyer for the railroad. Illinois legislators appointed Samuel D. Lockwood, recently retired from the Illinois Supreme Court (who may have given both lawyers the oral examination before admitting them to the Illinois bar), as a trustee on the new railroad's board to guard the public's interest. Lockwood, who would serve more than two decades until his death, had overseen federal land monies shortly after Illinois' statehood, then helped oversee early construction of the recently completed Illinois and Michigan Canal.

Upon its completion in 1856, the IC was the longest railroad in the world. Its main line went from Cairo, Illinois, at the southern tip of the state, to Galena, in the northwest corner. A branch line went from Centralia (named for the railroad), to the rapidly growing city of Chicago. In Chicago its tracks were laid along the shore of Lake Michigan and on an offshore causeway downtown, but land-filling and natural deposition have moved the present-day shore to the east. Track from Centralia, Il north to Freeport, Il was abandoned in the 90s, as traffic to Galena was routed via Chicago, then to Galena and vice versa.

Following the American Civil War, in 1867 the Illinois Central extended its track into Iowa. During the 1870s and 1880s, the IC acquired and expanded railroads in the southern United States. IC lines crisscrossed the state of Mississippi and went as far as New Orleans, Louisiana, to the south and Louisville, Kentucky, in the east. In the 1880s, northern lines were built to Dodgeville, Wisconsin, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Omaha, Nebraska. Further expansion continued into the early twentieth century.

The Illinois Central, and the other "Harriman lines" owned by E.H. Harriman by the 20th century, became the target of the Illinois Central shopmen's strike of 1911. Although marked by violence and sabotage in the south, midwest, and western states, the strike was effectively over in a few months. The railroads simply hired replacements, among them African-American strikebreakers, and withstood diminishing union pressure. The strike was eventually called off in 1915.

The totals above do not include the Waterloo RR, Batesville Southwestern, Peabody Short Line or CofG and its subsidiaries. On December 31, 1925, IC/Y&MV/G&SI operated 6,562 route-miles on 11,030 miles of track; A&V and VS&P added 330 route-miles and 491 track-miles. At the end of 1970, IC operated 6,761 miles of road and 11,159 of track.

In 1960, the railroad retired its last steam locomotive, 2-8-2 Mikado #1518. On August 31, 1962, the railroad was incorporated as Illinois Central Industries, Inc. ICI acquired Abex Corporation (formerly American Brake Shoe and Foundry Co.) in 1968.

Illinois Central Gulf Railroad (1972–1988)

On August 10, 1972, the Illinois Central Railroad merged with the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad to form the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad . On October 30 that year the Illinois Central Gulf commuter rail crash, the company's deadliest, occurred.

At the end of 1980, ICG operated 8,366 miles of railroad on 13,532 miles of track; that year it reported 33,276 million ton-miles of revenue freight and 323 million passenger-miles. Later in that decade, the railroad spun off most of its east–west lines and many of its redundant north–south lines, including much of the former GM&O. Most of these lines were bought by other railroads, including entirely new railroads such as the Chicago, Missouri and Western Railway, Paducah and Louisville Railway, Chicago Central and Pacific Railroad and MidSouth Rail Corporation.

In 1988, the railroad's then-parent company IC Industries spun off its remaining rail assets and changed its name to Whitman Corporation. Whitman's businesses included Pepsi bottling, Hussman commercial refrigeration, Midas auto repair, and Pet Company, makers of Old El Paso, Progresso, and Whitman Chocolates food products. By 2000 Whitman had sold off all of its non-bottling interests, purchased Minnesota-based bottler PepsiAmericas and assumed the acquired company's name. On February 29, 1988, the newly separated ICG dropped the "Gulf" from its name and again became the Illinois Central Railroad.

Canadian National Railway (1998–present)

On February 11, 1998, the IC was purchased for about $2.4 billion in cash and shares by Canadian National Railway (CN). Integration of operations began July 1, 1999.

Locomotives

File:Locomotive ICRR LOC det.8d23306.jpg, An IC steam locomotive taking on coal at a Chicago rail yard in November 1942
File:Illinois Central 1234 (SW9) crossing B&O - C&EI crossing at Tuscola, IL on switching run. Tower is a C&EI tower. May 7, 1966 (27111081984).jpg, IC 1234, an EMD SW9, switching at Tuscola, Illinois in 1966
File:Illinois Central diesel.jpg, A preserved Illinois Central EMD GP11 locomotive on static display in downtown Carbondale, Illinois
File:Foreign Power on NS (4599474599).jpg, Illinois Central 1018, an EMD SD70, leads a Norfolk Southern mixed freight
File:IC 3115.jpg, IC 3115, an EMD GP40R, sitting in Waukesha, Wisconsin

Passenger train service

Illinois Central was the major carrier of passengers on its Chicago-to-New Orleans mainline and between Chicago and St. Louis. IC also ran passengers on its Chicago-to-Omaha line, though it was never among the top performers on this route. Illinois Central's largest passenger terminal, Central Station, stood at 12th Street east of Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Due to the railroad's north-south route from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes, Illinois Central passenger trains were one means of transport during the African American Great Migration of the 1920s.

Illinois Central's most famous train was the ''Panama Limited'', a premier all-Pullman car service between Chicago and New Orleans, with a section breaking off at Carbondale to serve St. Louis. In 1949, it added a daytime all-coach companion, the ''City of New Orleans