PERU, Ill. — The City of Peru and OmniTrax have received a $6.08 million federal grant to upgrade right of way on the Illinois Railway between Peru and Zearing, Ill.
The project is one of the 45 to receive Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement grants announced last week. [See “FRA awards $326 million in grants to 45 rail projects,” Trains News Wire, June 12.]
The grant will be used to improve grade crossings and upgrade right-of-way with 25 miles of 115-pound rail, 20,000 ties, 7,600 tons of ballast and seven switch sets in a 17-mile segment of the railroad. The work will begin early in 2020 and will take several months to complete.
Illinois Railway operates four disconnected segments of railroad totaling 113 miles.
I actually thought this was an old NYC line, but Mr. Rice is probably correct.
@Logan Geigner: You aren’t to far off. The NYC had a line that ran right next to the Burlington between Ladd and Zearing. But the NYC turned southwest at Ladd to Seatonville (along with the MILW and CNW) and then crossed the Illinois River at Howe. NS uses that line as far west as Moronts south of the river to service Marquis Energy.
That Burlington line used to cross the I&M Canal at Lock 14 and ran under the Illinois Central “spine line” and south down the Vermillion River valley to Streator.
There is an industrial spur at Hegeler that used to be part of the LaSalle & Bureau County Railway that ends at IL-251 north of LaSalle. Illinois Railway also services that line.
This is a former Burlington line that brings NW Illinois grain hoppers to the large Consolidated grain barge complex and plastic pellets to the Flint Hills plastics plant in Peru on the Illinois River.
The line runs from Zearing Siding off the BNSF Galesburg line and finally ends at Bucklin Street in LaSalle across the IAIS tracks from the LaSalle-Peru Rock Island train station.