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5 unusual facts about Illinois Central Railroad


Automated fare collection system

Illinois Central Railroad (IC) in 1965 for its busy Chicago commuter service (today’s Metra Electric.) Financed entirely from private funds, AFC was expected to reduce operating costs by

Crutchfield, Kentucky

The community was once a thriving commercial center with on the Illinois Central Railroad.

Durant, Mississippi

It was founded in 1858 as a station on the Mississippi Central Railroad, later part of the Illinois Central.

J. Sterling Morton High School West

One early logistics problem with the new school was the requirement for some students to cross the Illinois Central Railroad tracks near the school.

William Sooy Smith

Smith resigned from the Army on June 19, 1854 to accept a position with the Illinois Central Railroad.


Francis Hoffmann

After the Civil War, Hoffmann worked for the Illinois Central Railroad as a land commissioner and established the International Bank (his first bank had failed during the war).

Gateway Eastern Railway

Ownership passed to the St. Louis, Alton and Terre Haute Railroad, a predecessor of the Illinois Central Railroad, but in 1890 that company sold that segment to the Cairo, Vincennes and Chicago Railway, which became part of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway (Big Four) and eventually the New York Central Railroad and Conrail.

Gilman, Clinton and Springfield Railroad

It provided service from Springfield, the state capital, to Gilman, a junction point on the main line of the much larger Illinois Central Railroad.

Girod Street Cemetery

However, several sources state that the Louisiana Superdome was not built on the former cemetery location, but the former location of the Illinois Central Railroad engine terminal and roundhouse.

Glossary of North American railway terms

Deathstar: The logo of the Illinois Central, which has the letter "i" inside a circle — based on a resemblance to the Death Star battle station in Star Wars.

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway

The acquisition by CN of the former Illinois Central and Elgin, Joliet and Eastern railroads will enable cargo to bypass the congested railway switching system in Chicago proper and reach Memphis and New Orleans within 96 hours of a ship docking at Prince Rupert.

Lee Christmas

As a young man, he worked as a pilot on tugboats on Lake Pontchartrain and later became a brakeman living in McComb, Mississippi for the Illinois Central System in 1879.

West Pullman, Chicago

It is bounded on the north by 115th Street, on the east by the former Illinois Central Railroad, on the south by the Calumet River and Riverdale, on the west by Calumet Park, Blue Island and Ashland Avenue.


see also

Chicago Central

The Iowa Division of the Illinois Central Railroad began its service to Warren, Illinois in January 1854.

Wayne Johnston

Wayne A. Johnston, president of Illinois Central Railroad in the mid-20th century