Andrew,
Per page 1066-1072 of the Corporate History of the CB&Q the Joliet,Rockford and Northern was granted a Illinois charter on 6/20/1881. It was to be between Joliet and Rockford via Sheridan. On May 1,1882 the line was leased to the CBQ(the officers of the JR &N were also officers of the CBQ). On Nov.27,1882 the line from Sheridan Jct to Paw Paw via Baker and Earlville was completed. It totaled 19 and 54/100 miles. We should remind ourselves that in those times charters were requested in the most broad terms possible just in case ........
I too have heard of the proposed line from Naperville to Joliet. There was a track, known as the “city track” running due south from the mainline in Naperville to the Quarry. We could speculate that possibly it’s intended destination may have been Joliet.
Personally I have always been doubtful about a bypass from Sheridan to Joliet to Naperville. It’s route is way out of the way and adds many miles to the bulk of traffic handled. It is my personal opinion based years of researching the Q in NE Illinois, reading extensively about natural resource mining in the same area that the JR&N was the Q’s attempt to reach the coal fields SW of Joliet in the neighborhood of Coal City,etc. In this time period it was coal that drove line building. Streator had extensive coal deposits that the Q was hauling. The IV &N between Streator and Walnut Jct was built in large part to move Streator and La Salle coal North toward St Paul,etc. I suspect the segment of the JR & N that was actually built was a short cut for Streator coal toward Sterling/Rockfalls and also to St Paul via the then existing Paw Paw to Shabbona line.
I know there are others who may disagree with my hypothesis and believe the Q did intend a by pass. As an old RR operating guy it just doesn’t compute to me. It was hard enough to get a crew over the road under the 16 hour rules of service(hog law) without adding many more miles of single track running on branch lines. My research has turned up a consistent number of crews running from Galesburg to Cicero that ran out of time and were tied up Eola while in route.
I did work on trains over tracks that had been the JR &N in the 1970s. The line from Earlville to Baker ran across relatively flat farm country. The line from Earlville to Paw Paw traversed a more rolling landscape and the builders simply cut through the knobs and hills. In winter these cuts would fill up with drifted snow. This branch was a headache and costly to keep open during a snowy, windy winter.
Leo Phillipp
On Oct 21, 2020, at 7:52 PM, Forgotten Railways Roads & Places <railtrace91@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello, I have heard in the forums of this website of two rail lines in Illinois, one unbuilt, that I am asking for any information which your society might have. The first is the Joliet Rockford & Northern Railroad, which later became the Paw Paw Subdivision of the CB&Q. That line was proposed to run from Joliet to Sheridan as well. In addition, another line between Joliet and Naperville was proposed, either as part of that project, or its own standalone rail line. The source I have suggests this was to create a loop around the Aurora subdivision between Sheridan and Naperville via Joliet. If you have any maps, documents, letters, proposals, or any kind of information on these, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you! Andrew Grigg
Forgotten Railways, Roads & Places
--
Andrew J Grigg @AbanonedROWMap on Twitter abandonedrowmap on Instagram
-- Andrew J Grigg @AbanonedROWMap on Twitter abandonedrowmap on Instagram
_._,_._,_
Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#60598) | Reply To Group | Reply To Sender | Mute This Topic | New Topic
Your Subscription | Contact Group Owner | Unsubscribe [archives@nauer.org]
_._,_._,_
|