Track on S.W. May street in Peoria
Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 8:13 pm
Who serviced this line and when service ended. Thanks from Michigan.
That was the "Alley Track," built by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy RR in the early 20th century to serve new industries locating between S. Adams and S. Washington ("SW" came later). Originally two sections, they were connected (I'll have to look up the end points) in 1925 after CB&Q assumed switching duties (replacing Illinois Traction System) for customers of bankrupt interurban, Peoria Railway Terminal.M.D.Bentley wrote:Who serviced this line and when service ended. Thanks from Michigan.
Many customers were located on the Alley Track in the 1950s, but late in the decade, some of the Q's major shippers had begun moving to greenfield on the TP&W in East Peoria so they could grow. By the late 1970s, most industries on this now-Burlington Northern track had either closed, moved away or switched to trucks. Amazingly, several did last into the 1980s and one - junk yard A. Miller & Co. - continued to ship two or three scrap metal loads per week until the late 1990s, and then on occasion until the last two cars were loaded in January 2002. Track was rendered impassable after an adjacent building was demolished several months later. Track was completely OOS by 2005 and portions were removed in 2012-2013.
It should be noted that for the last six years or so, the Toledo Peoria & Western actually switched this customer for BNSF.