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TheChicago, Peoria and St. Louis Railroad (CP&StL) was arailroad in theU.S. state ofIllinois that operated a main line betweenPekin (nearPeoria) andMadison (nearSt. Louis) viaSpringfield. Its property was sold atforeclosure to several new companies in the 1920s; the portion north of Springfield has since become theIllinois and Midland Railroad, while the remainder has been abandoned, except for a portion near St. Louis that is now owned by theNorfolk Southern Railway.
The earliest predecessor of the CP&StL was theIllinois River Railroad, chartered by theIllinois General Assembly in February 1853 to build a line fromJacksonville north-northeasterly toLa Salle through the valley of theIllinois River.[1] The line was opened fromVirginia toPekin in 1859, and in May 1864 the property was sold atforeclosure to thePeoria, Pekin and Jacksonville Railroad, which had been incorporated in June 1863 for this purpose. The company bought a line from Pekin toPeoria from thePeoria and Hannibal Railroad in May 1868, and in 1869 the road was extended southwest to theToledo, Wabash and Western Railway (Wabash) at Jacksonville. The segment beyond Pekin acquired in 1868 was sold in November 1880 to thePeoria and Pekin Union Railway, aterminal railroad serving those cities.[2][3]
A second line was chartered in March 1869 as theSpringfield and Northwestern Railroad, to build fromSpringfield north-northwesterly toRock Island.[4] It was completed in December 1874 from Springfield (also on the line of the Wabash) toHavana, where trains entered the Peoria, Pekin and Jacksonville Railroad to reach Peoria viatrackage rights. On opening, the road was leased to theIndianapolis, Bloomington and Western Railway (which had lines east from Havana and Pekin[5]), but the lease was forfeited in 1875, and the Springfield and NorthwesternRailroad was soon reorganized as the Springfield and NorthwesternRailway, incorporated in May 1878.[2][6]
Both lines, connecting Jacksonville and Springfield to Pekin, were sold to the Wabash in 1881, but, after the Wabash defaulted, the lines were sold in mid-1888 to a newChicago, Peoria and St. Louis Railway,[3][6] a subsidiary of theJacksonville Southeastern Railway (reorganized in 1890 as theJacksonville, Louisville and St. Louis Railway). The latter company, with a main line from Jacksonville southeast toCentralia viaLitchfield, soon assembled a system - the "Jacksonville Southeastern Line" - by leasing theSt. Louis and Chicago Railway (Springfield to Litchfield) in September 1890, and building, as a part of the Chicago, Peoria, and St. Louis, a line from Litchfield southwest toMadison (nearEast St. Louis). The connection to East St. Louis was completed in November 1890, and in December the company inaugurated, in cooperation with theAtchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, a throughPullman car passenger service betweenChicago andSt. Louis.[2][7][8]
The system was broken up in 1893, as the Jacksonville, Louisville and St. Louis and Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis were placed under separatereceivers. The latter's lease of the St. Louis and Chicago expired in December 1895, and that company soon became part of the newSt. Louis, Peoria and Northern Railway. This left the Chicago, Peoria and St. LouisRailway, reorganized in January 1896 as the Chicago, Peoria and St. LouisRailroad of Illinois, with its original lines from Pekin to Jacksonville and Springfield and an isolated branch between Litchfield and Madison. Unable to use the direct line from Springfield to Litchfield, the CP&StL acquiredtrackage rights over the St. Louis, Chicago and St. Paul Railroad ("Bluff Line") toWaverly and the Jacksonville Southeastern to Litchfield; the route was modified in July 1896 to use the latter line from Jacksonville to Litchfield.[9] Several years later, the CP&StL would acquire the Bluff Line as its St. Louis connection, and sell off the Litchfield-Madison line.[2]
The Bluff Line began as theSt. Louis, Jerseyville and Springfield Railroad, incorporated in November 1880 to build fromSpringfield to theMississippi River nearGrafton. The line was completed in 1882 fromBates, on the Wabash west of Springfield, throughJerseyville toDow, where it descended the Mississippi River's bluffs toElsah and followed the shoreline to Grafton. After a lease to theSt. Louis and Central Illinois Railroad, begun in December 1886, the line was reorganized in November 1888 as theSt. Louis, Alton and Springfield Railroad, which had been incorporated in June 1887. In 1889, that company built a branch from Dow to the river atLockhaven, and then along the Mississippi toAlton, as well as a connection from Elsah to Lockhaven. (The Dow-Elsah segment would later be abandoned.) Another reorganization, in September 1892, created theSt. Louis, Chicago and St. Paul Railroad which built a direct entrance to Springfield fromLoami (south of Bates), as well as an extension from Alton toGranite City in July 1894. The company was reorganized yet again in October 1897, forming the St. Louis, Chicago and St. PaulRailway of Illinois. Finally, in March 1900, the Bluff Line was merged into the Chicago, Peoria and St. LouisRailway of Illinois, a reorganization of the Chicago, Peoria and St. LouisRailroad of Illinois, and at the same time the Litchfield-Madison line was split off as a newLitchfield and Madison Railway, which the CP&StL continued to operate under lease until June 1904.[2][10][11][12]
This consolidated company, with a main line from Pekin to Granite City/Madison, and branches to Jacksonville and Grafton, continued to have financial problems, and the final company to bear the name, the Chicago, Peoria and St. LouisRailroad, was incorporated in December 1909 and took over the property of the Chicago, Peoria and St. LouisRailway of Illinois in January 1913.[13] Operations continued until November 1924, when four separate companies purchased portions of the property atforeclosure sale:
