List,
Does anyone have the date when the Q ended regular passenger train service on
the Buda-Elmwood Branch?
The latest "official" info I have is from a CB&Q timetable effective October
26, 1941. It shows train No. 110 departing Buda at 0715 and arriving Yates City
at 1000. The train then became No. 10, departing Yates City at 1045, arriving
Peoria at 1140. Counterpart No. 11 left Peoria at 1315, arriving Yates City
exactly an hour later. Becoming No. 111, it left Yates City at 1445 and arrived
Buda at 1645. The timetable shows only the Yates City-Peoria segment operated
as a mixed train.
Dave Lewis' July 1944 TRAINS Magazine article on Peoria references this train:
"Mikes of the 4900 class pull freight, and a little old Atlantic pulls the
mixed train on the Buda Branch, leaving Buda in the morning, entering the
Peoria branch at Elmwood, then continuing to Peoria. It is due in Peoria at 12
noon and should leave at 1 o'clock. Frequently there is just time to turn the
engine, unload and load express, and pull right out again. This train does the
switching and local work both ways and sometimes has, Peoria-bound, as many as
15 freight cars in addition to the combination mail, express and
passenger coach, Leaving, it usually has just the engine and combination car."
I figure the train lasted through the Second World War, but have no information
as to when it last ran. One possibility is when in January 1945 the Office of
Defense Transportation (ODT) ordered railroads to drop passenger trains that
operated at less than 35 percent capacity in November 1944. I'd say trains
110-10 and 11-111 were probably marginal even in 1945, and bus service was
available at most on-line towns.
Had the Q intended to drop its Buda Branch trains, the Illinois Commerce
Commission could have refused to allow it (they did this to the C&IM, which
wanted to drop both pair of Pekin-Springfield trains per ODT order), so trains
might have endured a few years longer. I understand that Q offered caboose
accommodations for passengers as late as the early 1950s.
David P. Jordan
Dunlap, Illinois
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