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Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad EMD GP7 Pack 3

The Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad was a small, Midwestern road situated almost entirely within Illinois; running southward out of the Windy City its main line split at Woodland to reach Evansville and St. Louis.

The railroad once maintained a network of over 1,000 miles and proved a vital connection for the Louisville & Nashville, Floridian passenger services, the movement of coal, and a connection to the Gateway City.

For these reasons, and others, it became a prime target of the much larger trunk lines from the 1870's until disappearing a century later. Poor management under two such owners left it in bankruptcy at various points until a final reorganization during World War II.

When not under another's control the railroad did just fine. By the postwar period a well-maintained and well-managed C&EI showed strong profits, boasting a diversity of traffic that included intermodal by the 1960's.

The company's final chapter was written that decade when the L&N acquired its main line north of Evansville and Missouri Pacific took over the remainder.

The earliest component of the modern Chicago & Eastern Illinois was the Evansville & Illinois Railroad chartered on January 2, 1849.

According to Willard Anderson's article, "The Century-Old C&EI...," from the August, 1949 issue of Trains Magazine the E&I was formed to connect Evansville, Indiana (located along the north bank of the mighty Ohio River) with Vincennes.

The 53-mile route was completed and ready for service by 1853. The corporate history after this point can become a bit messy or unclear.

According to a small booklet the railroad released in 1957 detailing its corporate heritage, as the E&I was under construction the Wabash Railroad (carrying no connections to the well-known Wabash) was chartered on February 6, 1851 to link Vincennes with Terre Haute.

On November 18, 1852 the Wabash and E&I merged, carrying the latter's name as the Evansville & Illinois. This was short-lived when on March 4, 1853 the railroad was renamed as the Evansville & Crawfordsville.

Then, later that same year service opened to Terre Haute on November 24th. There were hopes of reaching Chicago at this time but the needed funded was never obtained.

Expansion

The southern component saw no additional construction (there was an Evansville belt line, the Evansville & Terre Haute Company incorporated on May 9, 1881, which joined the C&EI in July of 1911).

The northern segment was originally the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes Railroad organized on February 18, 1865 to complete a route from Chicago into the southern Indiana coal fields.

It began operations between Chicago (running via trackage rights over a Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis subsidiary [PRR] from Lake Street and Western Avenue to Dolton) and Danville in 1871.

In 1875 the road opened its primary engine terminal and maintenance facilities in Danville (Known as the Oaklawn Shops they were closed in 1970 under MP.

During the facility's peak years it featured rip tracks, cars shops, a paint shop, locomotive back shop, and 50-stall roundhouse).

Unfortunately, financial hardships forced the CD&V into bankruptcy and in 1877 it became the Chicago & Nashville Railroad. During August of that year another name change occurred as the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad.

Two years later, in 1879, the C&EI established a direct connection with the Evansville & Crawfordsville (E&C) at Terre Haute when it leased the Evansville, Terre Haute & Chicago (Danville - Otter Creek/Terre Haute), later purchasing the property on December 27, 1899.

In short order the E&C was also added, thus establishing a through route under common ownership from Chicago to Evansville. The western leg to St. Louis and southern leg through Illinois were also built or acquired in stages. They comprised four primary components.

The first was the Danville & Grape Creek Railroad which opened a short segment from Danville to Westville in 1880. During March of 1881 the C&EI took possession of the property and quickly opened an extension to Sidell. Here, it met the Chicago, Danville & St. Louis building towards Tuscola.

Here we have the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad EMD GP7 Locomotives.

• Central of Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad GP7 233 - 232 available at 1951 and retires in 1976.
  
• There is also a MU version of each unit.

You will need the EMD GP9 Dependencies to make this work.

• Group listed
  
• Custom sounds by Mr. Cheesecake
  
• Info from Adam Burn of American Rails.