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Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway

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Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway
Map
TP&W GP30 No. 700 and GP35 No. 902 maneuvering in Logansport, Indiana, November 25, 1966
Overview
Parent companyGenesee & Wyoming
HeadquartersEast Peoria, Illinois
Reporting markTPW
Dates of operation1864–present
PredecessorToledo, Peoria and Warsaw Railway
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length247 miles (398 km)

The Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway (reporting mark TPW), formerly nicknamed the "Tip-Up", is a shortline railroad that operates 247 miles (398 km) of trackage between Mapleton and Peoria in Illinois, and Logansport, Indiana.[1] TP&W also interchanges with multiple surrounding railroads, and they have trackage rights over other railroads between Peoria and Galesburg, between Logansport and Kokomo, and between Reynolds and Lafayette. As of 2024, the railroad is owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. The railroad's traffic primarily consists of agricultural products, including raw and processed grain products, chemical products, and completed tractors.[1]

Company formation and expansion

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The Toledo, Peoria and Western's earliest predecessor was the Peoria and Oquawka Railroad, which was chartered in 1849, with the goal of providing a rail connection between the Illinois River in Peoria and the Mississippi River.[2] In 1857, they completed construction on their route between Peoria and East Burlington, Illinois. Despite "Oquawka" being incorporated in the name, the railroad was forced to bypass Oquawka, since town officials were reluctant to permit trains in their area.[2]

By 1860, the Peoria and Oquawka extended their route to the Illinois-Indiana state line in Effner, where they interchanged with the recently-chartered Logansport, Peoria and Burlington Railroad (LP&B).[2][3] By 1859, the Peoria and Oquawka fell under receivership, and the company was quickly absorbed into the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q).[3] In 1861, the line between Peoria and Effner was sold to the LP&B, and then in 1864, the LP&B was reorganized as the Toledo, Peoria and Warsaw Railway (TP&W).[2][3]

Despite "Toledo" being incorporated in the name, the railway never extended their route to Toledo, Ohio.[3] In 1868, the TP&W absorbed the Mississippi and Wabash Railroad, which had constructed a route between Peoria and Warsaw, Illinois. In 1871, the TP&W opened two routes; one main line over the Mississippi River between Hamilton and Keokuk, Iowa; and one branch line between La Harpe and Lomax.[3] The latter allowed the TP&W to interchange with the CB&Q, and the railway was granted trackage rights over the CB&Q's branch between Lomax and Burlington, Iowa.[4]

Later in the 1870s, the TP&W experienced some financial problems. In 1880, the TP&W was reorganized as the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad (TP&W), and the company became leased by the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway. The lease lasted until 1884, and then on March 28, 1887, the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway was incorporated and took over operations.[5] In 1893, a controlling interest of the TP&W was purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), who interchanged with the TP&W at Effner, and the purchase allowed the PRR to move their western terminus to Keokuk, and to interchange with the CB&Q at Lomax. The CB&Q and the PRR both quickly became joint owners of the TP&W.[2]

George McNear ownership and disputes

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By the early 1900s, the Peoria area became a primary hub for multiple class I railroads with their own direct routes to the area, including the CB&Q and the PRR. The TP&W consequently began to operate at a financial loss from declining traffic, and in the mid-1920s, the railway fell under receivership.[2] During that time, the railway's passenger operations experienced ridership losses, since some newly-paved state highway roads paralleled their trackage.[2] The CB&Q and the PRR both attempted to absorb the TP&W, but in 1926, the railway was purchased for $1.3 million by George P. McNear Jr., who was a former New York Central (NYC) executive and investor.[6]

George McNear became the TP&W's newest president, and he quickly brought the railway out of receivership by selling some of their property for $500,000, including a terminal facility to the Peoria and Pekin Union Railway, and he floated a bond issue for $800,000.[2][6] One of McNear's other tasks for the TP&W was the abandonment of their surplus CB&Q connection in Lomax, which was replaced with a new connection with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe).[7] The railway began marketing their operations as a bypass route around the congested railroad traffic of Chicago and St. Louis, to which multiple surrounding railroads favored.[8][7]

The TP&W also worked to upgrade their equipment roster and to speed up their freight operations, and they discontinued their passenger and mail operations.[2] In 1937, the TP&W purchased six H-10 class 4-8-4 "Northern" locomotives (Nos. 80-85) from the American Locomotive Company (ALCO). The H-10s were the lightest 4-8-4s ever built for a North American railroad, weighing only 361,000 pounds (164 tonnes). They were equipped with 69-inch (1,800 mm) diameter driving wheels, 23.5-by-30-inch (600 mm × 760 mm) cylinders, and a boiler pressure of 250 psi (1,700 kPa), and they produced a tractive effort of 51,000 pounds-force (230 kN).

Under McNear's leadership, the TP&W became one of very few railroads in the United States to turn profits during the Great Depression of the 1930s.[6] Despite his successful efforts to reorganize the TP&W, McNear became unpopular with labor unions; McNear enforced his own personalized labor rules and methods, to which all thirteen of the TP&W-tied unions disagreed with, and they initiated multiple unsuccessful labor strikes to restore the railway's previous conventional rules.[6][8]

On December 28, 1941, another TP&W strike was initiated, after the TP&W announced a new wage scale and another new set of rules.[6] The strike was quickly stopped on March 21, 1942, when U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered for the federal government to confiscate control of the TP&W, to have the railway aid the ongoing World War II effort, and John W. Barriger III was appointed their federal manager.[2][6][8] In 1945, when World War II ended, control of the TP&W was returned to George McNear, but the thirteen unions instantly reinitiated the strike, consequently shutting the railway down.[6]

The strike lasted for nineteen months, and it involved multiple shootings; on two separate occasions, some gun shots were fired into an automobile with non-union employees and into a locomotive cab; on February 6, 1946, some armed guards hired by the TP&W shot five strikers (two killed; three wounded) at Gridley, Illinois.[6][8] In December 1946, federal judge J. Leroy Adair ordered for the TP&W to resume operations, and he issued an injunction to prevent interference from strikers.[6]

On the night of March 10, 1947, George McNear was shot and killed while walking back to his home from a Bradley Braves basketball game during a power outage.[6] McNear's murder case remains unsolved, but it was believed to be connected to the lengthy strike.[7] Following McNear's death, the TP&W fell under control of McNear estate trustees, and Frisco Railway executive J. Russell Coulter became the TP&W's newest president.[8] In May 1947, Coulter restored most of the older labor rules, and the strike quickly ended.[8]

The labor strike disputes resulted in 50% of the TP&W's traffic being lost, and they resulted in some traffic employees and executives leaving the company, but by the early 1950s, the railway regained their lost traffic and profitability, under Coulter's leadership.[2] One task Coulter did for the TP&W was to dieselize their locomotive roster, and the process was completed in October 1950. The railway boosted the marketing of their operations as a bypass route and an originator for Peoria traffic, and they boosted their interchange traffic with the PRR, the Santa Fe, the CB&Q, the Minneapolis and St. Louis (M&StL), the Nickel Plate Road (NKP), and the New York Central.[2]

PRR and Santa Fe stewardship

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TP&W No. 400, an ALCO RS-11, on display at the Illinois Railway Museum, in Union, Illinois

In January 1960, the PRR and the Santa Fe jointly purchased the TP&W from the McNear estate, with the two companies gaining an equal amount of shares.[9] During the 1960s, the TP&W experienced additional declining traffic from losses of interchange partners; in 1960, the Minneapolis and St. Louis was absorbed into the Chicago and North Western (C&NW); in 1964, the NKP and the Wabash were absorbed into the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W); and in 1968, the PRR and the NYC merged together to create Penn Central (PC).[2]

During that time, the Santa Fe opened an alternate bypass route to Streator, Illinois, where they directly interchanged with the NYC. In February 1970, the TP&W's Illinois River bridge in Peoria was collapsed by a barge tow, and since the railway was unable to afford to build a replacement, they were forced to gain trackage rights over the Peoria and Pekin Union's nearby bridge.[2]

When Conrail was formed in 1976, the former PRR line between Effner and Logansport, Indiana, was put up for abandonment, and the TP&W quickly purchased the line to preserve their eastern railroad connections.[7] In 1979, the Santa Fe acquired the former PRR's interest in the TP&W from Conrail, making the TP&W the Santa Fe's wholly owned subsidiary. In 1981, in accordance with the Staggers Rail Act, Conrail closed their TP&W interchange in Logansport, in favor of their former NYC Streator connection, and the TP&W's traffic consequently further declined.[7]

On December 31, 1983, the TP&W was absorbed into the Santa Fe and became part of their Illinois Division.[2] Absorbing the TP&W permitted the Santa Fe to abandon most of their Pekin Branch.[10]

Post-Santa Fe activity

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On February 3, 1989, the Santa Fe sold the former TP&W Lomax-Peoria-Logansport main line to a pair of investors, former Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) managers Cynthia O'Connor and Michael Smith. The two investors revived the TP&W railway name and operated it as an independent company. In 1995, when the Santa Fe merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) to create BNSF, the TP&W was granted trackage rights over BN's line between Peoria and Galesburg.

In 1995, the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYS&W) acquired a 40% interest in the TP&W, and the following year, the Delaware Otsego Corporation (DO), the NYS&W's parent company, assumed full control of the TP&W. The railway began to be dispatched from the DO headquarters in Cooperstown, New York. Some TP&W locomotives were painted in the NYS&W's yellow-and-black paint scheme. By 1998, the TP&W reported a revenue profit of $13.4 million and hauled over 59,000 freight carloads and intermodal units. In 1999, DO sold the TP&W to RailAmerica for $24 million.[11] In late 2012, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. acquired RailAmerica, gaining ownership of the TP&W.

Keokuk Junction Railway purchases

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Further information: Keokuk Junction Railway

The Keokuk Junction Railway (KJRY) now owns portions of the old TP&W line, including the Western Illinois and Keokuk section of TP&W (Fulton, McDonough and Hancock counties in Illinois). In December 1986, the KJRY purchased 33.5 miles (53.9 km) of former TP&W trackage (then owned by the Santa Fe) between Keokuk, Warsaw, and La Harpe. On October 28, 2004, the KJRY's feeder line application with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to acquire the assets of the west end of the new TP&W was granted. On February 11, 2005, the KJRY completed the acquisition, adding 76 miles (122 km) from LaHarpe to Peoria, the old TP&W main line west of Peoria.

Accidents and incidents

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Main article: 1887 Great Chatsworth train wreck
  • On August 10, 1887, a TP&W excursion passenger train was involved in the Great Chatsworth train wreck near Chatsworth, Illinois. The train was bound for Niagara Falls, before it derailed at a weakened bridge, and 80 people were killed.[7]
  • On June 21, 1970, an eastbound TP&W freight train No. 20 derailed mid-train in Crescent City, Illinois. One of the tank cars punctured, with the released propane igniting and engulfing the other tank cars. The majority of the business district and several homes were destroyed, while 64 people were injured.[12]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Frailey, Fred W. (June 2010). "RailAmerica's Empire". Trains. Vol. 70, no. 6. Kalmbach Publishing. pp. 23–29. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Ingles, J. David (September 1, 2022). "Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway remembered". Classic Trains. Kalmbach Media. Archived from the original on January 31, 2023. Retrieved November 27, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e Ottesen (1997), p. 56.
  4. ^ Ottesen (1997), pp. 56, 58.
  5. ^ Drury, George H., The Train Watcher's Guide to North American Railroads, Kalmbach, 1990, p.190
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Shotgun Blast fells 55-year-old executive in street near home". The Buffalo News. March 11, 1947. p. 1. Retrieved November 27, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Ottesen (1997), p. 58.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Schmidt, Brian (September 11, 2022). "Toledo, Peoria and Western strike ends". Classic Trains. Kalmbach Media. Archived from the original on April 15, 2024. Retrieved November 27, 2024.
  9. ^ Lennon, J. Establishing Trails on Rights-of-Way. Washington, D.C.: United States Department of the Interior. p. 48.
  10. ^ Ottesen (1997), p. 59.
  11. ^ "Scanner - Regionals - Toledo, Peoria & Western". Trains. Vol. 59, no. 9. Kalmbach Publishing. September 1999. p. 19. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
  12. ^ Lon H. Ferguson; Dr. Christopher A. Janicak (27 April 2015). Fundamentals of Fire Protection for the Safety Professional. Bernan Press. pp. 97–98. ISBN 978-1-59888-712-9.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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