Two streamliner cars making up St. Louis-Peoria train 90 on Sept. 18, 1954, stop in Lincoln, Ill., at the GM&O depot, where IT was a tenant. IT quit this track for rights on IC in 1962. Bernard Rossbach photo
In an early 1950s scene looking west, Granite City-bound PCC 457, one of eight, holds for an interurban from Peoria to enter McKinley Bridge. John Humiston, Richard Humiston collection
Illinois Terminal 1,800-hp, four- truck Class D freight motor 72, one of five rebuilt during 1940-42 from 1920’s Class Cs, heads into the Edwardsville, Ill., yard on Aug. 20, 1953. Not far behind it is East Peoria-St. Louis passenger train 95 (car 273). Electric freight is all but done, as ITC already has GP7 diesels. Mert Leet photo
Having gone under the NYC, IT 30, one of three 1929 Baldwin 2-8-2s, is on the original (1895) Illinois Terminal linking Alton and Edwardsville with empties for Roxana refineries in the late ’40s. Illinois Terminal, Dale Jenkins collection
IT Springfield–East Peoria train 200, with two SD39s, waits on ICG rails at Mount Pulaski in June 1977 to follow the track owner’s train north. Mike Schafer photo
Illinois Terminal locomotives power a Norfolk & Western office car train from Granite City from Decatur, Ill., to inspect the road’s new ITC lines. John Beirne photo
For the 2011 Illinois Traction Society convention, Illinois Railway Museum lined up center-door car 101, a “Tangerine Flyer” train, and a freight led by class B motor 1565. Mike Schafer photo
Norfolk Southern EMD SD70ACe No. 1073 wears an Illinois Terminal heritage scheme. The railroad released the unit in 2012 in honor of its 40th anniversary. Casey Thomason photo
Illini Terminal GP10 No. 1604 wears a paint scheme reminiscent of the original Illinois Terminal Railway. Dale Jenkins photo
Illinois Terminal locomotives included steam, electric, and diesel over its existence.
The Illinois Terminal was an electric interurban line serving western Illinois down to the St. Louis area. In the mid-1950s the railroad abandoned its electric operations, moving to all-diesel operation — the last steam ran in 1950, and dieselization had begun with Alcos. The railroad had been owned by a group of 11 railroads since the 1950s.
IT began dabbling with diesels after World War II, in 1947 ordering from Alco the system’s first ones: 12 S2s and 7 RS1s. In 1950 IT picked up its lone SW8, a former EMD demonstrator. With IT’s Steam Division now fully dieselized, it was renamed the Diesel Division. As a portent of the future, two of the RS1s tested in road service on the electric main line to Peoria.
After the end of electric freight operations, its road freights were in the charge of EMDs: 6 GP7s delivered in 1953 and then 12 SW1200s, with Flexicoil trucks for road service, in 1955.
Beginning in 1968, management injected new life into Illinois Terminal with new motive power in the form of 6 SD39s in 1969, 7 SW1500s in 1970, and 4 GP38-2s in 1977.
In 1981 the IT was purchased by the Norfolk & Western and ceased operations as an independent railroad.
In the 21st century, both Norfolk Southern and St. Louis-area Respondek Railroad Corp. have honored the Illinois Terminal with green-and-yellow heritage locomotives.
