The Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway is a short line railroad that operates of track from

Mapleton, Illinois Mapleton is a small village in Peoria County, Illinois, United States. The population was 227 at the 2000 census. Mapleton is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area. There are four different plants in Mapleton, all located al ...

, through Peoria across Illinois to

Logansport, Indiana Logansport is a city in and the county seat of Cass County, Indiana, United States. The population was 18,366 at the 2020 census. Logansport is located in northern Indiana at the junction of the Wabash and Eel rivers, northwest of Kokomo. H ...

. TP&W has trackage rights between

Galesburg, Illinois Galesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois, United States. The city is northwest of Peoria. At the 2010 census, its population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County and the principal city of the Galesburg Micropolitan Statistic ...

, and Peoria, between Logansport and

Kokomo, Indiana Kokomo ( ) is a city in Indiana and the county seat of Howard County, Indiana, United States. It is the principal city of the Kokomo, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Howard County, the Kokomo-Peru CSA, which include ...

, and between

Reynolds, Indiana Reynolds is a town in Honey Creek Township, White County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 533 at the 2010 census. History Reynolds was platted in 1854 when the railroad was extended to that point. The town was named for Benjamin ...

, and

Lafayette, Indiana Lafayette ( , ) is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, located northwest of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, whi ...

. TPW has connections with UP,

BNSF BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

, NS,

CSXT CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

, CN, CP, CERA, CIM, KBSR and T&P. The railroad is now owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. The railroad's traffic comes largely from agricultural products, including both raw and processed grain products, as well as chemicals and completed tractors. The TPW hauled around 26,000 carloads in 2008.

Early history

Toledo, Peoria & Western's earliest ancestor was the Peoria and Oquawka Railroad. The eastern extension began construction, three years after its charter, in 1855. The Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw Railway was chartered in 1863, and opened in 1868 from the state line at Indiana across Illinois to the Mississippi River at

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

. This line was reorganized as the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroad in 1880 and leased to the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway. The lease lasted four years and the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway took over in 1887. The Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway was incorporated in Illinois on March 28, 1887, and consolidated the operation of the Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw Railway and the Logansport, Peoria & Burlington Railroad. The LP&B built from Galesburg to East Burlington, Illinois in 1855, and reached

Gilman, Illinois Gilman is a city in Douglas Township, Iroquois County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,738 at the 2020 census. Geography Gilman is located in the western part of the county at the intersection of three major highways: Interstate ...

in 1857 and Effner in 1859. A TP&W passenger train was involved in the Great Chatsworth train wreck in

Chatsworth, Illinois Chatsworth is an incorporated town in Livingston County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,332 at the 2020 census. Geography Chatsworth is located in southeastern Livingston County at (40.754256, -88.293023). The town is in norther ...

in 1887.

Courting the Pennsy and the Santa Fe

The Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroad was affiliated with the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

in 1918. This meant that the western terminus for the PRR was in Keokuk, Iowa and the Santa Fe interchange at Lomax, Illinois. In 1937, the TP&W purchased six Class H-10 Northerns from the American Locomotive Company. These locomotives were given road numbers 80 through 85 and were the lightest

4-8-4 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and four trailing wheels on two axles. The type w ...

ever built for a North American railroad, weighing only 361,000 pounds. They had 69-inch drivers, 23.5 x 30 cylinders, a boiler pressure and a

tractive effort As used in mechanical engineering, the term tractive force can either refer to the total traction a vehicle exerts on a surface, or the amount of the total traction that is parallel to the direction of motion. In railway engineering, the term t ...

of 51,000 pounds. TPW 400 20050716 Illinois Railway Museum

In January 1960 the ATSF and PRR gained joint control (half interests) of TP&W. When Conrail was created in 1976 the TP&W acquired the former Pennsylvania Railroad trackage from Effner into Logansport, the

Effner Branch The Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway is a short line railroad that operates of track from Mapleton, Illinois, through Peoria across Illinois to Logansport, Indiana. TP&W has trackage rights between Galesburg, Illinois, and Peoria, between Lo ...

, which otherwise would have been abandoned. The value of this trackage diminished in 1981 when Conrail closed the Logansport interchange. At the end of 1970 TP&W operated 239 miles of road on 323 miles of track; in 1970 it reported 520 million ton-miles of revenue freight. On June 21, 1970, the TP&W's eastbound freight train No. 20 derailed mid-train in

Crescent City, Illinois Crescent City is a village in Iroquois and Crescent townships, Iroquois County, Illinois, United States. The population was 615 at the 2010 census. Geography Crescent City is located in central Iroquois County at (40.770448, -87.857823). U.S. ...

. One of the tank cars punctured, with the released propane igniting and engulfing the other tank cars, destroying most of the business district and several homes and injuring 64. In 1979 the Santa Fe reached agreement to acquire the former Pennsylvania Railroad's interest in TP&W. TP&W was merged into ATSF on December 31, 1983.

From Santa Fe to Susquehanna

The ATSF sold the Lomax-Peoria-Logansport main line on February 3, 1989, to new investors, former Boston & Maine railroad managers Cynthia O'Connor and Michael Smith, who revived the TP&W name making it an independent railroad again. This represented one of the first female owned acquisitions in the new short-line age. When the parent companies of ATSF and Burlington Northern merged in 1995 TP&W was granted operating rights over BN's line between Peoria and Galesburg, Illinois. In 1995, the

New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (or New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad and also known as the Susie-Q or the Susquehanna) is a Class II American freight railway operating over 400 miles (645 km) of track in t ...

acquired a 40% interest in the TP&W, with full control going to Delaware Otsego Corporation in 1996. During this time, this regional railroad that operates in Illinois and Indiana was dispatched from the DO offices in Cooperstown, New York. Some TP&W locomotives were painted in the NYSW's distinctive yellow-and-black paint scheme during this time. In 1998, TP&W had revenues of approximately $13.4 million and moved over 59,000 freight carloads and intermodal units. It was acquired by RailAmerica in 1999, and it is still operated as TP&W. The Genesee & Wyoming acquired RailAmerica in late 2012, gaining ownership of the TP&W.

Keokuk Junction Railway purchases

The

Keokuk Junction Railway The Keokuk Junction Railway Co. , is a Class III railroad in the U.S. states of Illinois and Iowa. It is a subsidiary of Pioneer Railcorp. History The present company was incorporated in 1980 as the Keokuk Northern Real Estate Co., formed in M ...

now owns parts of the old TP&W line, including the Western Illinois & Keokuk section of TP&W (Fulton, McDonough and Hancock counties in Illinois). In December 1986, KJRY purchased 33.5 miles of former TP&W trackage (then owned by the

Santa Fe Railroad The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and ...

) from

Keokuk, Iowa Keokuk is a city in and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States, along with Fort Madison. It is Iowa's southernmost city. The population was 9,900 at the time of the 2020 census. The city is named after the Sauk chief Keokuk, who is ...

, and

Warsaw, Illinois Warsaw is a city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,607 at the 2010 census, a decline from 1,793 in 2000. The city is notable for its historic downtown and the Warsaw Brewery, which operated for more than 100 years ...

, to La Harpe, Illinois. KJRY's feeder line application with the

Surface Transportation Board The Surface Transportation Board (STB) of the United States is a federal, bipartisan, independent adjudicatory board. The STB was established on January 1, 1996, to assume some of the regulatory functions that had been administered by the Interstat ...

(STB) to acquire the assets of the west end of the new TP&W was granted on 2004-10-28. KJRY completed the acquisition on 2005-02-11, adding 76 miles from LaHarpe to Peoria, the old TP&W main line west of Peoria.

References

External links

Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway (TPW)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toledo Peoria Western Railway Railway companies established in 1887 Railway companies disestablished in 1927 Railway companies established in 1989 Illinois railroads Indiana railroads RailAmerica Companies affiliated with the Pennsylvania Railroad Former Class I railroads in the United States Former regional railroads in the United States Predecessors of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Spin-offs of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Defunct Iowa railroads Toledo, Peoria, and Western Railway