Nostalgia & History > The Oil Belt Railway

I've lived in Crawford County, IL my entire 50 years and only learned today that there was another railroad in this county in the early 1900's. While looking at my home area in the SPV atlas, I saw where there had once been a line that originated here and ended about 25 miles south in Bridgeport, which is in Lawrence County. It had an unfamiliar reporting mark attached to it, "OB". I found that referred to the Oil Belt Railway, which originated in Oblong in 1909 and eventually made it to Bridgeport from what I've read so far. Sounds like it was a poorly run narrow gauge railroad with only one locomotive and was shut down by creditors in 1916.

I'd love to learn more about the Oil Belt. I've Googled and found a little bit, but would love learn more. If anyone knows about it, I'd love to hear more.

Ken

Ken Pryor
Flat Rock, IL

Looking at a 1916 railroad map of Illinois.
The Oil Belt Railroad connected with the I.C. RR.
at Oblong and connected with the B&O Southwestern RR.
at Bridgeport.

Here is a link to the map. http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16614coll7/id/32
From there you can zoom in on Crawford and Lawrence Counties.

PS: It was the Oil Belt Railroad. I got a lot of hits on Google using that name.
 

I believe Chris Rund's Indiana Rail Road book has some of the history of the Oil Belt RR in it.  Worth the read if you have an interst in railroads in that region.  Also quite a bit about the Marathon Refinery and the chocolate factory too.

BaltoJoey Wrote:
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> Looking at a 1916 railroad map of Illinois.
> The Oil Belt Railroad connected with the I.C. RR.
> at Oblong and connected with the B&O Southwestern
> RR.
> at Bridgeport.
>
> Here is a link to the
> map. http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/ref/collectio
> n/p16614coll7/id/32
> From there you can zoom in on Crawford and
> Lawrence Counties.
>
> PS: It was the Oil Belt Railroad. I got a lot of
> hits on Google using that name.
>  
Great, thanks for the help!

Ken Pryor
Flat Rock, IL
http://kpryor.rrpicturearchives.net/

junctiontower Wrote:
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> I believe Chris Rund's Indiana Rail Road book has
> some of the history of the Oil Belt RR in it. 
> Worth the read if you have an interst in railroads
> in that region.  Also quite a bit about the
> Marathon Refinery and the chocolate factory too.

Excellent! I'll see if I can find a copy of Mr Fund's book, thanks.

Ken Pryor
Flat Rock, IL
http://kpryor.rrpicturearchives.net/