Illinois Central Railroad

“ The railway proved successful from the first; later it became part of the Illinois Central System. The locomotive Pioneer is still retained in the Field Museum of Chicago.
There is not space to trace the development of the railways in all the individual states. In all natural growths, increases at first are slow, then accelerated until a maximum is reached, followed by a gradual retardation. So with the railway growth. The number of miles of railroad constructed up to 1830 was 41 ”

“ The plaintiff's journey was confined wholly to Kentucky. Only the circumstance that the south-bound train from Paducah carried freight destined to beyond Fulton caused him to be engaged in interstate commerce while on that trip. On the return, when he was injured, all the freight had domestic destinations. It is true that the greater certainty of getting traffic going south probably was the chief reason for the establishment of the circuit; but they got what they could coming back; generally a train or a part of a train. ”

“ Third. That said company shall proceed to locate, survey, and lay out, construct, and complete said road and branches, through the entire length thereof, . . . with a branch also diverging from the main track at a point not north of the parallel of thirty-nine and a half degrees north latitude, and running on the most eligible route into the city of Chicago, on Lake Michigan. ”

“ The New Haven monopoly in New England might be managed rather in the interest of New York than of the port of Boston. The Illinois Central, once devoted whole-heartedly to the upbuilding of New Orleans, must now, as a part of the Union Pacific system, comprehend San Francisco and even Savannah within the scope of its plans. New systems implied new traffic arrangements. Railroad policy must of necessity involve a choice, not between two evils, perhaps, but between a resultant good and a necessarily attendant evil. ”

“ It seems to us extravagant to subordinate the northerly to the southerly journey so completely that if, on the latter, there happened to be a parcel destined beyond the state, the conductor should be regarded as still engaged in commerce among the states when going from Fulton to Paducah, even though he had a full train devoted solely to domestic commerce. ”

“ Recognizing the future of Cedar Rapids as a railroad, manufacturing and distributing center, the railroads have all been expending vast sums of money in [Pg 339] the past few years in the acquisition of property for terminal purposes. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Illinois Central, and the Rock Island now control absolutely the entire section of the city lying between Fifth and Ninth avenues, the river and Third street, and it is only fair to presume that the four blocks between Third and Fourth streets and Fifth and Ninth avenues will also be devoted exclusively to railway purposes. ”

“ Twenty-six independent railroad lines enter the city, making it the greatest railroad centre in America. The principal roads are the Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fé, Baltimore & Ohio, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City; Chicago & Alton, Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Chicago & Grand Trunk, Chicago & Northern Pacific, Chicago & Northwestern, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis; Illinois Central, Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, Louisville, New Albany & Chicago ”

“ Meanwhile the increasing traffic in farm products, mules, and cattle from the Northwest to the plantations of the South created a demand for more ample transportation facilities. In the decade before the Civil War various north and south lines of railway were projected and some of these were assisted by grants of land from the Federal Government. The first of these, the Illinois Central, received a huge land-grant in 1850 and ultimately reached the Gulf at Mobile by connecting with the Mobile and Ohio Railroad which had also been assisted by Federal grants. ”

“ The statute in question is as follows: 'Every railroad corporation shall cause its passenger trains to stop upon its arrival at each station, advertised by such corporation as a place for receiving and discharging passengers upon and from such trains, a sufficient length of time to receive and let off such passengers with safety: provided, all regular passenger trains shall stop a sufficient length of time at the railroad station of county seats, to receive and let off passengers with safety.' Rev. ”

“ In the case under consideration the supreme court took the view that the controversy in that case concerned only the 200-feet strip for the location of the main track; that no question was raised or decided in regard to the right of the railroad company to go beyond the 200-feet right of way, and take submerged lands for an engine house or other purposes named in the charter. This is entirely true ”

“ Such seems to have been the practical construction placed upon it by the city and the railroad company. If the position of the company, that it applies only to the main track, were sound, it would be possible for it, upon establishing the necessity for additional facilities, to locate these engine houses and work shops in localities where they would be an intolerable nuisance to the inhabitants ”

“ Finally in 1907 Morgan sold his Georgia properties to Charles W. Morse. They subsequently passed to Edward H. Harriman, who afterwards merged them into the Illinois Central system, under which control they have since remained.
As compared with the old Richmond Terminal aggregation with its broken-down rails and roadbed, poor equipment, and miserable service, the modern Southern Railway system shows startling changes. The Southern States have grown enormously in population and wealth during the last generation ”

“ I should advise the traveler who is interested in cities not to enter Vicksburg by the Alabama & Vicksburg Railroad, which has a dingy little station in a sort of gulch, but by the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad—a branch of the Illinois Central—which skirts the river bank and flashes a large first impression of the city before the eyes of alighting passengers. ”

“ Chicago, has prepared plans for the electrification of 325 miles of its suburban lines, and radical enlargement of terminal facilities. The Illinois Central has been very progressive in its methods of handling the Commuter traffic. Its side-door cars, permitting quick loading and unloading, have long marked a progressive step in equipment. The Chicago and Northwestern, in its splendid new white marble terminal on the West Side of Chicago, will give its chief use toward the upbuilding of a suburban traffic, already strong and well developed. ”

“ Throughout their constituencies, by reason of the sparse population, freedom from competition, inequality of east, and westbound tonnage, and low-grade freight, western railroad rates per ton mile are very much higher than on the trunk lines. Moreover, they are naturally desirous of as long a haul as possible, namely into Chicago. To turn over their local Illinois traffic to the trunk line feeders exposes them financially to the same losses as those above mentioned in the case of lateral independent lines further east. ”

“ Naturally this concentration of industry and the economic resources of the country in the East led to the rapid extension of railways into the West and South. The New York Central, the Erie, the Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore and Ohio systems had already been founded, and they made connections in 1850-53 with the canals and railways of the Middle West. The Illinois Central, which connected the lower South with Chicago, was affiliated by means of interlocking directorates with the New York Central before 1856. ”

“ Every large city has become, in a sense, a bottle-neck for the important railroads that pierce it. In some cases like Chicago or St. Louis or Kansas City or Indianapolis, the situation has been solved by the creation of belt-line freight railroads partly or entirely encircling the town. At Buffalo, the New York Central lines have built a connecting line to enable through traffic to escape the congestion of city yards and terminals, while at New Haven, the road of the same name has recently spent several million dollars in enlarging its narrow throat in the middle of the town. ”

“ Nothing has done so much for the rapid growth of Illinois as her canal and railroads.
As early as 1833 several railroad charters were granted by the legislature; but the stock was not taken, and nothing was done until the year 1836, when a vast system of internal improvements was projected, intended "to be commensurate with the wants of the people,"—that is, there was to be a railroad to run by every man's door. About thirteen hundred miles of railroads were planned, a canal was to be built from Chicago to the Illinois River at Peru, and several rivers were to be made navigable. ”

“ It is said that these necessary changes were hastened in the spring of 1865 by the demand that the new "Pioneer" be attached to the funeral train which conveyed the body of President Lincoln from Chicago to Springfield. In this way one railroad was quickly adapted to the new requirements, and a few years later when the "Pioneer" was engaged to take General Grant on a trip from Detroit to his home town of Galena, Illinois, another route was opened to its passage. ”

“ It is a curious fact that the conclusion reached by the English statesmen in 1874, was reached in Illinois in 1873; the conclusion that railroad companies ought to have the right to control their own affairs, fix their own rates of transportation, be free from meddlesome legislation, and, as has been said, work out their own destiny in their own way, just so long as they show a reasonable regard for the requirements of the community. ”

“ But with the decline of water transportation the city has not suffered, for it stands at one of the natural cross roads of trade and travel. Today it is the chief railroad centre not only in the U.S. but in the world. Not counting subsidiary divisions there are 27 railroads entering Chicago, which is the western terminus of the great New York Central System.
Chicago is thus the focus of the activities of half a continent. It is the financial centre of the west and the metropolis of the richest agricultural section in the country. ”

“ The Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad (C&EI) filed a notice under § 13a (1) of the Interstate Commerce Act, 72 Stat. 571, 49 U.S.C. § 13a (1) , proposing to discontinue a pair of trains known as the 'Georgian,' operated by it between Chicago, Illinois, and Evansville, Indiana, and operated in conjunction with trains of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N) between Evansville, Indiana, and Atlanta, Georgia, crossing Kentucky and Tennessee en route. ”

“ The first locomotive in the United States was imported from England and placed upon the rails in 1829, and in 1830 the first American locomotive was built. It was, however, very near the middle of the century before the system of railroads had been completed so as to materially improve the condition of agriculture; and although the fact may sound strange to some, the first railroad train ran into Chicago in 1852. During these years of depressed agriculture, however, the population of the country was rapidly increasing. ”

“ It was years before the first railroad was built in Illinois, and as all inland travelling was on horseback or in the stage-coach, each year hundreds of miles of wagon road were opened through woods and swamps and prairies. As the county of Sangamon was large and eagerly sought by immigrants, the county surveyor in 1833, one John Calhoun, needed deputies; but in a country so new it was no easy matter to find men with the requisite capacity. ”

“ Express train, you will look at with wondering eyes. Well, or rather wâàl, as they pronounce it here, that is the explanation of the whole city, and accounts for all that is going to happen on this glorious prairie. A line of rail has been built right across it by some enterprising folk in New York, who want now to lease it to the Illinois Central Railway, with which it makes connections at Fort Dodge. We left Chicago yesterday morning, got to Dubuque on the Mississippi by night, travelled all through the night to Fort Dodge, and are on here now fifty-three miles farther inspecting. ”

“ The idea of joining Buffalo, Cleveland, and Chicago with the interior—an idea as old as the Indian trails thither—still dominated men's minds even in the early part of the railroad epoch. Chicago desired to be connected with Cairo, the ice-free port on the Mississippi; and Cleveland was eager to be joined to Columbus 171 and Cincinnati. The enthusiastic railway promoters of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois drew splendid plans for uniting all parts of those States by railway lines ”

“ When the fleets of the Great Lakes plow the Atlantic, and when Duluth and Chicago become seaports, the water transportation of the Middle West will have completed its evolution. The significance of the development of the railway systems is not inferior to that of the great water way. Chicago has become the greatest railroad center of the world, nor is there another area of like size which equals this in its railroad facilities ”

“ Illinoisans who take public transportation spend an extra 68.3% of their time commuting and non-White households are 1.9 times more likely to commute via public transportation. 21% of trains and other transit vehicles in the state are past useful life. The American Jobs Plan will modernize public transit with an $86 billion investment. Resilient Infrastructure: From 2010 to 2020, Illinois has experienced 48 extreme weather events, costing the state up to $50 billion in damages. ”