Railroaders' Nostalgia > The Day A Railroad Died

The Illinois Terminal officially died on May 8, 1982. The Norfolk and Western's acquisition of the IT had been approved some months prior, and although still operating (more or less) as a separate entity, the IT was basically a shadow of an independent operation.

On the evening prior to Demise-Day, I had caught the last "St. Louis Job" the IT ran. It was a light night, and we were back to our Madison, IL on-duty point well before 8 hours was up. As the current instructions precluded tying up short of 8 hours, we hung around the yard office and shot the breeze with whoever was there.

When it came time to call the daylight jobs, our crew dispatcher called over to the NW's office at Carr Street in St. Louis, and asked if he should follow what had been normal weekend protocol and call a daylight yard extra for Federal Yard in Alton, IL. The NW voice on the other end said, "No. We'll call our own people for that." To which our guy responded, "OK. Tell 'em the south end of the yard is six feet higher than the north end, and everything rolls out." The response to which was, "Maybe you better call your own people."

Most of the heavy industry that was the IT's life blood is long gone. Contractions in the industry would have certainly curtailed it's one time healthy bridge traffic. The busy little railroad that I started with in 1977 probably wouldn't have survived until today. But when the old girl died on 5/8/82, it wasn't without one last gasp.

 

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Excellent response to the turnover methods employed in many industries.

Don Allender

My hometown (Morton) railroad!  In 1952 in the first grade, the IT came past my grade school every day multiple times: electric passenger & freight.  On the school playground I would stop and watch the trains go by.  The Morton IT station was just across a local street from the school.  So, I got to know the agent, Charlie Cruz.  Charlie supplied me with public timetables, as he received current replacements.  People in Morton could go south to St. Louis or north 10 miles into Peoria.  Very convenient service on the IT.  

In the 3rd grade (1954-55), the IT received GP-7s and suddenly I was watching usually a pair of GP-7s pull freights, as electric service faded away.  Passenger service disappeared a few years later as well.  Then the IT came through Morton on the PRR tracks from Allentown to a connecting track on the westside of Morton.  My hometown railroad faded away and died.  And Jefferson Street, which contained the right-of-way of the IT was resurfaced and the electric traction wire removed.  Gone.  Some people were quite happy to have the IT gone, but we young railfans were sad.