If you peel away from the CB&Q main and head south on S. Johnson St.
out of Macomb proper past the high school, the old right of way is to
your immediate right and parallels the road for some distance. The
modern power poles are planted smack in the middle of the right of
way. Across the road southwest from the corner of the school stadium
property, there is an unusual small house. It is perfectly round,
sitting on a prominent round foundation. I've always wondered if this
was the old turntable pit wall, but I have not been able to confirm
it. It is the right size for a pit of that era, and seems to be in
the proper location.
There is an excellent story about this road that I read in one of the
texts, I'll try to cull from memory, so please forgive the sparse
details: The MI&L owner/president had to get his livestock to market
in Chicago or he was going to go bust. He had them on his cars, but
the railroad wasn't finished yet, the railhead was still south of
Macomb. The city fathers wouldn't grant permission to continue laying
tracks north up Johnson St. to connect with the CB&Q's predecessor
road, as they thought they had him over a barrel and could extort
more money from him. The local lawman didn't work weekends, so the
MI&L president waited until the weekend and after the law left town,
had his track gang lay track in front of his train and then pull it
up from behind the train, working northward. They managed to creep
right up Johnson St., laying the tracks right in the center of the
street, and temporarily connected to the Chicago main line. The cars
were interchanged, the Chicago main was restored, the process was
reversed southward to get the locomotive back, and all traces of the
project were gone by the time the law returned to town! The sale of
the livestock brought enough income to complete construction.
Stan
On Apr 14, 2009, at 8:41 AM, drlaw45 wrote:
>
>
> The MI&L was always a marginal road. Amazingly enough, portions of
> the roadbed can still be traced, especially in Industry, Illinois.
> You can see the line curving into town from the north side of town
> on a fill, and see where the old depot was as it got to the north
> side of town.
>
> The railroad always had trouble with its line in Macomb, being run
> down a street. The line went into disrepair and that got it in
> trouble with Macomb.
>
> As far as the Macomb Switcher goes, this is the first that I have
> heard of that. Somewhere, buried in a stygian grot of stored stuff,
> I have a history of the MI&L that I will obviously have to dig out
> now.
>
> Kam Miller
> Carthage
>
> --- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, "Randall Hicks" <randallhicks@...> wrote:
> >
> > --- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, "Rupert & Maureen" <gamlenz@> wrote:
> > >
> > > What happened to the MI&L?
> > >
> >
> > Funny you should ask. My son Frank went to Western Illinois at
> Macomb, and while there he did the research for a small book he
> wrote about the MI&L, published by the WIU Press, entitled "The
> Little Road" -- that's how the Macomb papers referred to the MI&L.
> The Q of course was the big road. One of the duties of the Macomb
> switcher was to pull the shortline's passenger train the last mile
> or so to the Burlington depot.
> >
> > Unfortunately the book is now out of print. You can't have my
> copy, it's autographed by the author! Ebay, maybe?
> >
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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