Southern Pacific Midwest Division

Division History

To contact us: spmdrr@verizon.net

 

Welcome to the Southern Pacific Midwest Division

 

 

My Southern Pacific Midwest Division is a proto-freelance model a section of the Division from Springfield to Alton Illinois.

The Southern Pacific Midwest Division was created when Southern Pacific reached Chicago in 1989 by the purchase of  the former Chicago Missouri and Western between Joliet and East St Louis by when its subsidiary Southern Pacific Chicago St Louis Corporation. SPCL trains reached into Chicago from Joliet using trackage rights on Illinois Central.

The history of this piece of railroad begins in 1837 with the charter of the Alton & Sangamon Railroad. The company built a line from Alton Illinois about 25 miles north of St Louis to the new Illinois state capital of Springfield. In 1853 the line was extended to Bloomington and then Joliet in 1854. In 1861 the company was reorganized as the Chicago & Alton. In 1864 the Company leased the Joliet & Chicago a line built in 1854. This allowed the company a much more direct route to Chicago than the New York Central and Illinois Central route it had been using since reaching Joliet.

The next year saw construction on the railroads south end as rails were laid into East St Louis. In 1870 the road started construction from a point near Godfrey Illinois west toward Kansas City. Nine years later the bridge over the Missouri River was opened completing the route.

 

The company now had the shortest Chicago-St Louis route and Chicago-Kansas City route until the completion in 1888 of  the Atchison Topeka & Sante Fe Chicago-Kansas City line.

The company prospered though the end of the century. President Blackstone a 33% stock holder, an old man by this time offered to sell his controlling interest in the Chicago & Alton. E.H. Harriman formed a syndicate to buy the C&A to connect his Union Pacific and Illinois Central Railroad.  Harriman’s syndicate improved the railroad with new ties and ballast, heavier rail and double track between Bloomington and Springfield. This along with the purchase of new locomotives and freight cars drove the C&A deep into debt. The syndicate added to the debt with a 30% dividend in 1900. However the debt soon became too much to bear and the C&A pasted into the hands of The Cloverleaf Route in 1907.

The Cloverleaf years were a financial disaster. Record losses were shown in 1912-1917 and 1919-1922.  The C&A finally fell in receivership in 1922. The receiver was able to show profits in 1923, 1925, and 1926 but these were the last until the start of World War Two. In 1929 the B&O bought the C&A from the receiver and renamed it The Alton Railroad with the idea to extend the B&O’s influence west of Chicago. During this period B&O position light signals were added along the line. While the Chicago-St Louis line added traffic under B&O control, the Kansas City-Chicago line lost substantial amounts due to competing lines and most railroads preferred to exchange traffic in St Louis. Traffic fell by nearly half from the 1920s average. These dismal results forced the B&O to return The Alton to receivership in 1942.

In 1947 the Gulf Mobile & Ohio bought The Alton from the receiver. The GM&O plan was to operate the Chicago-St Louis line and sell the Kansas City-Chicago line to CB&Q and ATSF railroads to allow both entry to St Louis by using this line and the CB&Q line that crossed at Francis, Illinois. This plan was opposed by Missouri Pacific, Cotton Belt and Frisco railroads. This opposition led the ICC to rule against the plan. The GM&O was a well managed company and continued to operate the Chicago-St Louis line profitably even against growing compotation from parallel Interstate Highway 5. The Kansas City-Chicago line continued to be a marginal operation.  In 1972 the GM&O merged with the Illinois Central to become Illinois Central Gulf. ICG choose to shift most traffic to its former Illinois Central Lines. Recession plagued the 1970’s and with ICG concentrating on the former ICG the former Alton began to suffer. By 1985 the track was in bad shape. The 1980’s were the spin-off era. Any marginal track or line was sold the regional or short line operators as fast as the railroads could petition the ICC. The ICG was no different from other railroads of the time. In 1987 the Venango River Corporation offered the ICG $81 Million for the former Alton Lines, ICG sold them both lines from Joliet south. The ICG keep Chicago-Joliet and trackage rights from Springfield to St Louis.

The new railroad was called Chicago, Missouri & Western operated the former Alton line and used trackage rights from Joliet to Chicago. The ICG never made good on it promise to route overhead traffic on the CM&W. The company without the ICG traffic and with trying to repair the poor condition the railroad was in was drowning in red ink. Even after winning in court $26.5 million in 1989, CM&W could not avoid bankruptcy court. The trustee broke the former Alton in half. Selling the Kansas City-Godfrey line to Gateway Western a subsidiary company of the Sante Fe. The Joliet-Godfrey was sold to the Southern Pacific. Joint ownership of the Godfrey- St Louis section was agreed to.

For $22 million and assumption of $7 million in debt, The Southern Pacific finally reached Chicago for the first time in history on November 9, 1989. The Southern Pacific established the Southern Pacific, Chicago, St Louis Corp (SPCL) to operate the new line. In a two and a half year project the SPCL rebuilt the line to 70 mph freight speeds and 79 mph passenger with major yards in Bloomington, Springfield and Alton. The upgrade also included replacing all signals with SP style searchlights. The SPCL is operated as the Midwest Division of the Southern Pacific.