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Illinois Central Railroad: Map, Logo, History

Last revised: October 23, 2026

By: Adam Burns

The Illinois Central is a notable among notables. This storied company holds a special place of distinction alongside the Baltimore & Ohio, the Pennsylvania, the New York Central, the Milwaukee Road, the Southern, the Union Pacific, and the Southern Pacific.

Its slogan, “The Main Line of Mid-America,” described a railroad that ran north and south, from Chicago to the Gulf. Only one other company served the spine of the country in that way, the future Gulf, Mobile & Ohio.

The Illinois Central was also a classic granger, with its Iowa Division and a multitude of branches through Illinois, Kentucky, and the Deep South. It spent much of its corporate life as a profitable, well-managed railroad, and it avoided bankruptcy through the Great Depression. In the hard years that followed, it made a surprising merger with its rival. The Illinois Central Gulf, formed on August 10, 1972, spent more than a decade trying to get back to a profit. It found its footing in the 1980s as a much smaller railroad. Canadian National announced the purchase on February 10, 1998, and took control on July 1, 1999.

Of the railroad’s many achievements, one of the most remarkable is that it kept its original name, and stayed out of bankruptcy, across that whole span. Steam locomotives built since 1900 are a separate roster. The quantity column there is 1,861, and a Paducah rebuild is listed again. The diesel roster counts 886 frames, each once. A Gulf, Mobile & Ohio locomotive is on that railroad’s own roster.

New GP40s 3041 and 3042 pose with new boxcars in the late summer of 1967. Author’s collection.

On this page: Casey Jones · Charter · The tax case · Charter lines · Selling the grant · Iowa Division · South to the Gulf · Acquisitions · At a glance · Narrow gauge · Passenger trains · Illinois Central Gulf · Canadian National

Casey Jones

Even if you know very little about railroads, the name Illinois Central is likely familiar. Its train, the City of New Orleans, was immortalized when Steve Goodman released a song by that name in 1971. Arlo Guthrie made it famous a year later.

And then there is John Luther “Casey” Jones. Mike Schafer, in Classic American Railroads, tells how Jones sacrificed his life on April 30, 1900, to save the people aboard the New Orleans Special, also called the Cannonball. Near Vaughan, Mississippi, at the throttle of engine 382, he slowed the southbound train enough to spare the passengers and the crew before it crashed into a stopped freight. A friend and fellow employee, engine wiper Wallace Saunders, an African American, is credited with the song that made him a legend, “The Ballad of Casey Jones.” The house museum in Jackson, Tennessee, is on the Tennessee railroad museums page.

Charter

By the 1830s Illinois was eager to boast its own railroad, after watching the lines along the East Coast. The population had more than tripled since statehood on December 3, 1818, and the iron horse seemed to offer limitless potential. Tom Murray, in Illinois Central Railroad, notes that after the legislature passed the Internal Improvement Act in 1837, $10 million was set aside to build 1,300 miles across the state.

E8A 4028 tied down in Memphis, Tennessee, on November 13, 1966. American-Rails.com collection.

The project that mattered to the future Illinois Central was a line from Cairo, at the state’s southern tip on the Ohio River, to Galena, near the Mississippi and not far from Dubuque, Iowa. That route, spoken of as the Central Railroad, was estimated at $3.5 million. For years little happened. Another segment, an east–west line known as the Northern Cross Railroad, opened 55 miles in 1842 between the capital at Springfield and Meredosia. Trains, in January 2007, under the title “Illinois: Crossroads of American Railroads,” recognizes the Northern Cross as the first railroad operated in the state. It later became part of the Wabash.

With the Central Railroad still stalled, drastic action was required. President Millard Fillmore signed a land-grant bill on September 20, 1850, the measure Stephen A. Douglas had carried. It set aside 2,595,133 acres of federal land, the figure in the railroad’s own 1921 account. The idea was straightforward. The company would sell the tracts and use the proceeds to build. In return it would finish the proposed route within six years and pay the state 7 percent of the gross earnings from the charter lines, in lieu of other taxes. John F. Stover, in History of the Illinois Central Railroad, calls it the first instance of federal lands assisting a railroad’s construction. The same tactic would be used, again and again, to help the western lines finish their routes. The grant reinvigorated the project.

On February 10, 1851, Governor Augustus C. French signed the charter of the Illinois Central Railroad. The company was organized in New York on March 19, 1851. What became known as the charter lines were a pair of routes. The main line would run north from Cairo, pass through Clinton, reach Freeport, then turn west and end at Dunleith (East Dubuque) on the Mississippi, 453 miles. A so-called branch would run due north from the junction that later became Centralia, incorporated in 1859 and named for the place where the charter lines meet, and reach Chicago, 252 miles. A New England group led by Robert Rantoul of Massachusetts spearheaded the work. Roswell B. Mason was chief engineer.

A trio of Illinois Central GP9s led by 9093 takes a northbound string of hoppers over the Toledo, Peoria & Western diamonds at Gilman, Illinois, circa 1963. Roger Puta photo.

The tax case

The 7 percent was the price of the charter, and the counties along the line tested it at once. McLean County put a tax of $428.57 on 118 acres of railroad property. The company sued, and it hired a Springfield lawyer, Abraham Lincoln. Mason Brayman, a lawyer for the railroad, paid him a retainer of $250 on October 7, 1853. Lincoln’s argument was the statute itself. The state had taken 7 percent of the gross from the charter lines in place of other taxes, and a county could not tax that property a second time. In December 1855 the Illinois Supreme Court agreed, in Illinois Central Railroad v. McLean County, 17 Ill. 291. In 1863 the same court said it again. No city or town could put a municipal tax on that property.

The story people remember came afterward. Lincoln billed $5,000. The railroad balked. He sued his own client on June 18, 1857, in McLean County. The company had a first verdict set aside. On June 23 a jury awarded him $4,800, which took account of the $250 already paid. He had carried the charter’s tax bargain through the state’s highest court, and he had to sue the Illinois Central to be paid for it.

Charter lines

To get underway the group needed capital. Construction was projected at $17 million, and the final cost came to about $26 million. The promoters turned first to European capitalists, most of them in England. That angle failed. A few investors on this side of the Atlantic were found, and overseas backers followed. Financing was a long affair, and it grew easier as the grading advanced. The groundbreaking, ironically, was held on December 23, 1851, in Chicago.

The Illinois Central logo. Author’s work.

Chicago was on the proposed branch, and the largest city on the map dictated the priority. Building south, the first segment opened on May 21, 1852, to Calumet. The pace quickened from there. The entire 705-mile railroad, a great Y across the state, was ready for service on September 27, 1856. It was an unprecedented piece of engineering. The grades were gentle. The size was the marvel. No other railroad in the world was quite like it. Only the New York & Erie, predecessor of the Erie, came close, with 447 miles between Lake Erie and the Hudson River.

A 1940 system map of the Illinois Central. Author’s work.

Selling the grant

Finishing the 705 miles did not finish the bargain. The acres had to be sold, and the sales had to pay for the grading. The railroad set up a land department and went looking for farmers. In 1861 it printed A Guide to the Illinois Central Railroad Lands and offered prairie and wood land in tracts of forty acres and upward, on long credit, along both sides of the charter lines. Paul Wallace Gates, in The Illinois Central Railroad and Its Colonization Work, describes what that office became: advertising in the East and in Europe, town sites beside the tracks, and a countryside settled so the railroad would have freight to haul. The system had little trouble earning a profit. People came, cultivated the land, and helped turn Chicago into the railroad capital of America.

The Illinois Central handled every kind of freight. Bananas from the Gulf were once a lucrative venture. Black diamonds mattered from the start. Donald J. Heimburger, in Illinois Central: Main Line of Mid-America, writes that the railroad opened the state’s first shafts in 1855 and later served the mines of Kentucky. Coal still made up some 38 percent of the freight tonnage through the years after the Second World War.

Iowa Division

After the Civil War the attention turned to expansion. The first extensions ran west of Chicago, along what became the famous Iowa Division. Dunleith had been reached on June 11, 1855. Iowa offered more agricultural traffic, and a connection into Omaha, the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific, then under construction.

The first step was a lease of the Dubuque & Pacific in October 1867. That road had been chartered on April 28, 1853. By the time the Illinois Central took it, the line was open from Dubuque to Iowa Falls, 143 miles, with a branch to Waverly. The promoters’ original goal was Sioux City, and the work continued. Sioux City was reached on July 8, 1870. A bridge over the Mississippi into Dubuque opened in December 1868, at a cost of $1.05 million, and through service ran all the way to Chicago on trackage rights over the Galena & Chicago Union, predecessor of the Chicago & North Western, east of Freeport. The Illinois Central later moved that connection to the Chicago & Iowa, a Burlington predecessor, and in time finished its own line into the city.

The last run of the Governor’s Special, Chicago to Springfield, still powered by E6As, at Springfield, Illinois, on the eve of Amtrak, April 30, 1971. The accommodations included a Palm Grove Cafe and coaches. Richard Wallin photo.

Before the western push was finished, new ownership arrived. Edward H. Harriman was elected to the board in 1883. He would become a legend for guiding the Union Pacific out of bankruptcy and extending the Southern Pacific, and he held stakes in the Chicago & Alton, the Central of Georgia, and the Erie, among others. His years were the Illinois Central’s greatest era. He bought the Dubuque & Pacific outright in 1887, then formed the Fort Dodge & Omaha in 1898 to complete the route into Omaha and Council Bluffs. The first train reached there on December 18, 1899.

There was more construction across the Hawkeye State. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was reached in 1887, and a nearby branch to Onawa a year later. In 1888 a branch from Manchester opened service to Cedar Rapids. While that work was underway the company closed the gap between Freeport and Chicago. The first east–west link between the charter lines had come in July 1877, with the 111-mile Gilman, Clinton & Springfield, from Gilman to Springfield by way of Clinton. A subsidiary, the Chicago, Madison & Northern, was incorporated in July 1886 and opened in August 1888. The 112-mile project included a 59-mile branch to Madison, the capital of Wisconsin.

The southbound Panama Limited, led by E7A 4015, in southern Mississippi, circa 1955. American-Rails.com collection.

South to the Gulf

South of Cairo the corporate history is more complicated. Almost all of the growth into Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Alabama came by purchase. It began after the Panic of 1873, which left the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern and the Mississippi Central in ruin. Together they offered a direct line into New Orleans, 548 miles. The Illinois Central bought both at a bargain, the New Orleans road in March 1877 and the Mississippi Central in August, and merged them into the Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans on November 8, 1877. The New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern ran from New Orleans to Canton, Mississippi. The Mississippi Central ran from Canton to East Cairo, Kentucky, by way of Jackson, Tennessee. Each had been built to 5-foot gauge. Track forces completed the change to standard gauge in a single day, July 29, 1881.

All that remained for a direct Gulf route was a bridge over the Ohio at Cairo. Work on the 4,644-foot span, with about three miles of approaches, began in 1886. It was finished on October 29, 1889, at a cost of just under $3 million.

Illinois Central Gulf GP38-2s 9569 and 9572 work the Louisiana & North West interchange at Gibsland, Louisiana, circa 1984. The gate protected the diamond. Mike Bledsoe photo. American-Rails.com collection.

With a north–south route linking the Gulf to Chicago, and an interchange with nearly every major railroad in the country, the Illinois Central had established itself as one of the preeminent carriers by the end of the century.

Acquisitions

The Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans completed the primary network. It was only the beginning of a much larger expansion across the South.

GP9 9173 rolls through the Monroe and Regent Streets crossing beside Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin, in October 1963. A 1961 Ford Galaxie waits for the train. The line is a trail today. Rick Burn photo.

The Mississippi & Tennessee, acquired in May 1886, gave a direct line to Memphis by way of Grenada. The original main line had bypassed the city, heading northeast to Jackson, Tennessee, and then on to Fulton, Kentucky.

The Louisville, New Orleans & Texas, acquired on October 24, 1892, was a large system in its own right. It turned southwest from Memphis, followed the Mississippi for a time, and ran south through Vicksburg and Baton Rouge to New Orleans again.

Central of Georgia E8A 811, in Illinois Central colors, with the Seminole, train 10, on the Illinois Central at Indian Oaks, Illinois, in August 1967. Rick Burn photo.

The Chesapeake & Ohio Southwestern joined the network in December 1893, and legal problems delayed the sale until 1896. It was a Collis P. Huntington property, running northeast from Memphis to Louisville by way of Paducah and Princeton, with a branch to Hopkinsville that the Ohio Valley Railway had built. Because of that central location, the Illinois Central opened its principal locomotive shops at Paducah in 1927.

Paducah became more than a place to turn a wrench. The last new steam locomotives from an outside builder were fifteen 0-8-0s from Lima in 1929, numbers 3555–3569. From 1934 through 1945 the company rebuilt 434 engines there and at roundhouses over the system, new boilers and new machinery on frames it already owned. That program is why main-line steam lasted until 1956, and why 219 steam locomotives were still on the books at the end of 1960. The shops had a second career after the diesel arrived. GP10 8109, finished at Paducah in 1967, was the first of the GP10 rebuilds. Those classes are on the steam roster. A rebuilt number there is listed again. The 434 engines are that program, and they are not a second fleet. The Geep rebuilds are the same frames counted once on the diesel roster.

An official 1968 system map. Author’s collection.

Another noteworthy subsidiary was the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, incorporated on February 17, 1882, as a wholly owned Illinois Central property to manage most of the lines south of Memphis, above all the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas. Murray’s book includes a map of that western Mississippi network. During the 1890s two additions opened corridors into St. Louis. The St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute, running southeast to the main line at Du Quoin, was leased on October 1, 1895. In 1899 the company picked up the St. Louis, Peoria & Northern’s line from Springfield to East St. Louis, and freight service began on December 1 of that year.

Into the new century the expansion continued at a frenzied pace, under Harriman’s vision and the leadership of President Stuyvesant Fish. Fish was ousted in 1906 after a falling-out with Harriman. The railroad reached Indianapolis by 1906. By April 1908 a combination of trackage rights, new construction, and purchase had produced a 216-mile corridor from Jackson, Tennessee, to Birmingham.

Birmingham was an interchange with the Central of Georgia. Through still more corporate maneuvering, Harriman had that southern road under Illinois Central control by June 1909. It was his last significant act as the company’s leader. He died a few months later, on September 9. Under his direction the Illinois Central had grown into a network of 4,547 miles.

The Central of Georgia gave an extraordinary reach into the heart of the South. It remained largely independent in its day-to-day operation, though the two roads worked together in passenger service, and a few Central of Georgia E8s wore the Illinois Central’s orange and brown. The Central of Georgia entered receivership on December 20, 1932. When it emerged in 1948, the Illinois Central had lost its hold on the carrier. On June 17, 1963, the Southern Railway gained control.

The Illinois Central itself saw little additional mileage in the first two decades of the twentieth century, delayed in part by the First World War and by management under the United States Railroad Administration. During the booming 1920s a series of improvements totaling $300 million brought new locomotives, Markham Yard near Chicago, and a 169-mile cutoff between Edgewood, Illinois, and Fulton, Kentucky, opened in May 1928 to ease the crush of traffic through southern Illinois.

Two final additions came in those years. The Gulf & Ship Island, acquired in 1925, ran 90 miles from Jackson to Gulfport, Mississippi. The Vicksburg Route was picked up in 1926 by lease of the Alabama & Vicksburg and the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific, a corridor from Meridian due west to Shreveport. The lease put the Illinois Central in touch with the Cotton Belt, the Texas & Pacific, and the Kansas City Southern.

E7A 4012 and a few mates between assignments in Memphis, Tennessee, on July 16, 1967. Dennis Conniff photo. Warren Calloway collection.

By 1929 the Illinois Central had reached its zenith, a network of 6,721 miles. Its only other addition came after the Tennessee Central shut down on September 1, 1968. Neighboring railroads bought pieces of the old line. The Illinois Central took the main line from Hopkinsville to Nashville.

The improvements of the 1920s helped the railroad avoid bankruptcy in the Great Depression. Then it struggled to keep up with the blitzkrieg of business in the Second World War. It was quick to experiment with the diesel, buying its first boxcabs from General Electric and Ingersoll-Rand in 1929, and with the streamliner, unveiling the Green Diamond in 1936. It was equally slow to retire the iron horse. Coal, a conservative temper, and a healthy freight business all argued for keeping steam. Main-line steam was gone by 1956. At the end of 1960 the roster still listed 219 steam locomotives. The company once considered a steam turbine and decided against the idea. Further work in the 1950s included centralized traffic control, rail as heavy as 131 pounds, more yard improvements, and piggyback service, begun in 1955.

GP9s led by 9242 on the Iowa Division near Apple River, Illinois, in March 1967. Rick Burn photo.

At a glance

Narrow gauge

For most large railroads of the classic era, some part of the system had once been narrow gauge. Often it survived as an insignificant branch that decreased in importance over the years. The Illinois Central was no different. George W. Hilton, in American Narrow Gauge Railroads, names two properties worth knowing: the Havana, Rantoul & Eastern, in Illinois, and the Mobile & North-Western.

Benjamin Gifford incorporated the Havana road in 1873 to build from Havana to Williamsport, Indiana, by way of Rantoul, his hometown. By 1879, counting the subsidiaries, his 3-foot line had reached West Lebanon, Indiana, and a connection with the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific, predecessor of the Wabash, and Le Roy, Illinois, where it interchanged with the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western, later part of the New York Central’s Peoria & Eastern. The purpose was to bypass the Illinois Central. Gifford believed the big road was giving his town unfair freight rates. In 1881 Jay Gould’s Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific gained control. After that Wabash went into receivership in 1884, the Illinois Central stepped in and bought the property in 1886. A year later it was converted to standard gauge and became another agricultural branch. It was abandoned in stages from 1937 through 1982.

The Mobile & North-Western was chartered on July 20, 1870, as a grand scheme to run 320 miles from Mobile, Alabama, to Helena, Arkansas. Funding ran out long before anything of the sort was built. By 1880 the northernmost 31 miles were finished, from Helena to Clarksdale, Mississippi. A bridge across the Mississippi was never built. Ferries handled the crossing until that service ended in 1973. In October 1889 the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas bought the little road, removed the section from Eagle Nest to Clarksdale, and converted the rest to standard gauge. In 1892 the Louisville road came under the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley. In 1912 the section from Eagle Nest to Jonestown was abandoned as well. After the ferry quit, Illinois Central Gulf took up the remaining Lula–Jonestown spur in 1983.

Suburban multiple units on the South Chicago Branch at 71st Street in Chicago, March 1964. Rick Burn photo.

Even into the diesel era the freight locomotives remained orthodox in appearance, a standard black livery with white trim and the famous green diamond. Only the passenger equipment, in orange and brown, supplied a dash of color.

By the 1960s the business of railroading had grown harder: competition from other modes, rising costs, and strict federal regulation. To survive, management did what several other railroads were doing and formed a holding company. The idea was to place the railroad inside a paper corporation, then use the railroad’s assets to buy companies that earned a higher return. Illinois Central Industries was launched in 1963. As Stover notes, it branched into everything from the American Brake Shoe Company to Pepsi-Cola General Bottlers of Chicago.

GP9s led by 9219 with train 14, the Land O’ Corn, near Poplar Avenue in Elmhurst, Illinois, in March 1967. Rick Burn photo.

The railroad’s modest look changed at the same time, under William B. Johnson. In 1966 he replaced the classic black and white with a bold orange and white, and he dropped the revered green diamond for a split-rail emblem. It showed the cross-section of a T-rail inside a black circle. The rail was split down the middle, roughly an I, with a dot above it, and a C. Historians have viewed Johnson’s leadership with mixed feelings. He carried many fresh ideas, and he also believed in the holding-company philosophy. The trouble with that philosophy was simple. Whatever success the parent might enjoy, the railroad’s problems remained: high costs and low returns. The next questionable move was the merger with the smaller Gulf, Mobile & Ohio.

E7A 4007 ahead of train 8, the Creole, at Central Station in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 16, 1963. Rick Burn photo.

Passenger trains

The Illinois Central’s primary Chicago terminal was Central Station, regarded as one of the city’s six great facilities, with Grand Central Station, Union Station, Dearborn Station, LaSalle Street Station, and Northwestern Terminal. It replaced a stub-end depot at Randolph Street that could no longer handle the crowds. Central Station stood on the lakefront, at the southwestern corner of Roosevelt Road and Michigan Avenue, two blocks east of Dearborn Station. Construction began in 1892, and the station opened in 1893. The last Illinois Central train out of it was the Panama Limited, on April 30, 1971. Amtrak used the building until March 6, 1972.

The tracks beside that station were the product of a bargain struck while the charter lines were still being built. The charter forbade the company to lay its track inside a city without the common council’s consent. Chicago gave that consent on June 14, 1852. The ordinance let the railroad come up the margin of the lake to a depot ground between Randolph Street and the Chicago River, and it gave the company, in perpetuity, a strip 300 feet wide from Twelfth Street, today’s Roosevelt Road, to Randolph Street. The inner line of that strip was to stand at least 400 feet east of the west line of Michigan Avenue. In return the railroad built a breakwater. The road went out into the lake, with the breakwater on the lake side of the tracks, and the open ground west of the right of way was to stay clear of railroad buildings. The company filled in behind the breakwater. That made ground is the lakefront the trains have occupied ever since. The United States Supreme Court recited the ordinance in Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Illinois, 146 U.S. 387 (1892).

An overlooked part of the railroad was its electrified suburban service. The Lake Front Ordinance of 1919 was the later bill for the 1852 occupancy. The company agreed to take the grade crossings out of the city and to energize the suburban lines. The 1,500-volt direct-current system was inaugurated on August 7, 1926. Until diesels took the freight, the same electrification was worked by four Baldwin steeple-cab motors, each of 97 tons. They went to the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend in 1941, as that railroad’s 901–904. The electrification remains in service under Metra.

• City of Miami
• City of New Orleans
• Green Diamond
• Panama Limited
• Chickasaw (Memphis – St. Louis/Chicago)
• Daylight (Chicago – St. Louis)
• Delta Express (Memphis – Vicksburg)
• Hawkeye (Chicago – Sioux City)
• Iowan (Chicago – Sioux City)
• Irvin S. Cobb (Louisville – New Orleans)
• Kentucky Cardinal (Louisville – Memphis)
• Land O’ Corn (Chicago – Waterloo, Iowa)
• Louisiane (Chicago/St. Louis – New Orleans)
• Magnolia Star (Chicago – New Orleans)
• Mid-American (Chicago – Memphis)
• Night Diamond (Chicago – St. Louis)
• Planter (Louisville – Memphis)
• Seminole (Chicago – Jacksonville, Florida)
• Southwestern Limited / Northeastern Limited (Meridian – Shreveport)

Piggyback trailers advertising the Main Line of Mid-America, at Fort Wayne, Indiana, in July 1958. Rick Burn photo.

Illinois Central Gulf

The Rebel Route served many of the same markets, over a network of just 2,700 miles. Despite the hazards, officials believed the union was necessary in the merger movement of the time. The two roads joined on August 10, 1972, creating the 9,500-mile Illinois Central Gulf.

Gross revenues rose. Expenses outpaced earnings. By the early 1980s the Illinois Central Gulf was in danger of receivership. Passage of the Staggers Act in 1980 was, perhaps, its greatest blessing. Freed to abandon or sell large pieces of railroad, leadership under Harry J. Bruce did exactly that. Six large sales followed:

• In 1984 the company sold 100 miles of the Iowa Division to the new Cedar Valley Railroad.
• A year later, 737 miles of mostly former Gulf, Mobile & Ohio trackage in Mississippi and Alabama went to create the Gulf & Mississippi.
• Also in 1985, the rest of the Iowa Division became the Chicago, Central & Pacific, a regional owned by John Haley, who also controlled the Cedar Valley.
• Three sales in 1986 created the MidSouth Railroad, on 418 miles of the Meridian–Shreveport line and the extension to Gulfport; the Indiana Rail Road, on the line of about 100 miles to Indianapolis; and the Paducah & Louisville, on the 287 miles between its namesake cities.
• In May 1987 the Chicago, Missouri & Western picked up most of the old Chicago & Alton, the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio line between Kansas City, St. Louis, and Chicago, 631 miles. That Chicago–Kansas City route later became the Gateway Western.

After nearly three decades of service, E6A 4003 in New Orleans on June 28, 1967. Dennis Conniff photo. Warren Calloway collection.

The steam locomotives are the post-1900 roster. The diesels, with builder serials and order numbers, are the all-time diesel roster.

E6A 4004 has just left Central Station and is south of Randolph Street Station in October 1967. Soldier Field is in the background. American-Rails.com collection.

Canadian National

It was an extraordinary series of sales. The network came down to 2,887 miles, and the effort worked. In a final blow to the holding-company idea, the railroad was spun off as an independent company again on January 1, 1989. The Gulf name had already come off, on February 29, 1988, and the company was once more the Illinois Central.

With about a third of the mileage the Illinois Central Gulf had started with, the slimmer railroad spent the 1990s cutting its operating ratio and earning greater profits. It also did something almost unheard of for a Class I. It bought back former track. In January 1996 it acquired the Chicago, Central & Pacific and regained the road to Omaha. A few years earlier it had tried the same thing with the MidSouth, and failed.

The reduced system was still strategic, and a much larger railroad wanted it. Canadian National saw a way to the Gulf and to new markets. The announcement came on February 10, 1998. Control passed on July 1, 1999. The primary routes remain an integral part of Canadian National. The Chicago suburban trains are still Metra’s. Amtrak still runs the City of New Orleans between Chicago and New Orleans. In another twist, the through corridors sold off in the 1980s are still in service.

Related reading

• Illinois Central steam roster, locomotives built since 1900
• Illinois Central diesel roster
• Panama Limited, City of New Orleans, Green Diamond, and City of Miami
• Central Station
• Gulf, Mobile & Ohio and the Chicago & Alton
• Central of Georgia and the Tennessee Central
• Metra and the Tennessee railroad museums

Sources

• John F. Stover, History of the Illinois Central Railroad. The land grant as the first federal aid of its kind, Illinois Central Industries, and the corporate narrative followed above.
• Tom Murray, Illinois Central Railroad. The Internal Improvement Act, and the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley.
• Donald J. Heimburger, Illinois Central: Main Line of Mid-America. Coal, from the 1855 shafts through the years after the Second World War.
• Mike Schafer, Classic American Railroads. Casey Jones at Vaughan on April 30, 1900.
• George W. Hilton, American Narrow Gauge Railroads. The Havana, Rantoul & Eastern and the Mobile & North-Western.
• Trains, January 2007, “Illinois: Crossroads of American Railroads.” The Northern Cross as the first railroad operated in the state.
• Illinois Central, 1921 account of the charter lines. Assigned acreage 2,595,133. Charter tax of 7 percent of gross earnings from those lines, in lieu of other taxes.
• John A. Lupton, Illinois Supreme Court Historic Preservation Commission, July 30, 2024. Illinois Central Railroad v. McLean County, 17 Ill. 291 (1855), decided in December 1855, and the 1863 holding that no city or town could put a municipal tax on that property.
• The Papers of Abraham Lincoln. Mason Brayman’s $250 retainer, October 7, 1853. McLean County’s assessment of $428.57 on 118 acres. The Lincoln Log, June 18, 1857, the fee suit, and June 23, 1857, the jury’s award of $4,800.
• Paul Wallace Gates, The Illinois Central Railroad and Its Colonization Work (1934). The land department, the advertising, and the town sites.
• Illinois Central Railroad Office, A Guide to the Illinois Central Railroad Lands (Chicago, 1861). Prairie and wood land in tracts of forty acres and upward, on long credit, along the charter lines.
• Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Illinois, 146 U.S. 387 (1892). The Chicago ordinance of June 14, 1852: the lakefront entry, the 300-foot strip, and the breakwater.
• George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, Illinois Central chapter by John S. Ingles, pp. 188–191. The class grid is on the steam roster. Main-line steam was gone by 1956. At the end of 1960 the roster still listed 219 steam locomotives.
• The New York Times, August 11, 1972. The Illinois Central Gulf merger of the day before.
• Electro-Motive builder order lists, for the diesel frames counted on the diesel roster. Gulf, Mobile & Ohio diesels are a separate fleet.

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8. Trinity Books 2,190 Railcar Orders in the Third Quarter

   Nov 01, 26 10:17 PM

   
   Trinity Industries on October 29, 2026 reported 2,190 new railcar orders and 2,030 deliveries in the third quarter. The company expects industry deliveries below 25,000 railcars in 2026.

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9. New York Central's Jade Green E Units

   Nov 01, 26 09:25 PM

   
   In 1961 the New York Central tried Century Green, called Jade Green, on E8As 4053 and 4083 and E7B 4107. Dark gray became the passenger scheme. The green stayed on freight cars.

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10. FRA Awards $1.24 Billion for Grade-Crossing Work in 37 States

    Nov 01, 26 12:48 PM

    
    The Federal Railroad Administration on October 30, 2026, awarded $1.24 billion for 91 grade-crossing projects in 37 states under the Railroad Crossing Elimination program.

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11. PATH Director Clarelle DeGraffe Will Retire at the End of 2026

    Nov 01, 26 12:43 PM

    Clarelle DeGraffe will retire at the end of 2026 after 37 years with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. James Sincaglia will succeed her as PATH director.

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12. Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway Suspends Trains After a Rockslide

    Nov 01, 26 12:30 PM

    
    The Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway has suspended all trains indefinitely after a rockslide near Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, on October 31, 2026. Tickets through November 15 will be refunded.

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13. Georgia Marks the Opening of the Gainesville Inland Port

    Nov 01, 26 12:06 PM

    
    Norfolk Southern and Georgia Ports marked the Gainesville Inland Port on October 29, 2026. The terminal opened May 4 and can handle 200,000 containers a year at full build-out.

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14. BLET Members Ratify Five-Year Deal on the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern

    Nov 01, 26 11:48 AM

    
    Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen members have ratified a five-year agreement with CPKC covering Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern lines. Engineers' hourly pay rises 41.42 percent over the…

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15. Canada Lists Roberts Bank Terminal 2 as a Project of National Interest

    Nov 01, 26 11:03 AM

    On October 30, 2026, Canada listed the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 container project at the Port of Vancouver as a project of national interest. The listing includes a widened causeway for rail.

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16. Amtrak Finishes the First Street Tunnel Work South of Union Station

    Nov 01, 26 09:59 AM

    
    Amtrak on October 26, 2026 finished nine days of work at A Interlocking in the First Street Tunnel south of Washington Union Station. Trains south of the station are back.

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17. CPKC Asks the STB to End the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern Review

    Nov 01, 26 12:23 AM

    
    CPKC on October 30, 2026 asked the Surface Transportation Board to end its review of the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger, citing remarks by the Union Pacific chief executive.

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18. U.S. Rail Traffic Rose 7.8 Percent in the Week Ending October 24

    Nov 01, 26 12:13 AM

    
    U.S. railroads moved 538,503 carloads and intermodal units in the week ending October 24, 2026, up 7.8 percent from a year earlier, the Association of American Railroads said.

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19. Schneider Will Shift Its Eastern Intermodal Freight to NS

    Nov 01, 26 12:06 AM

    
    Schneider said October 29, 2026 that Norfolk Southern will be its primary eastern railroad. The move from CSX begins next month, with official implementation on January 1.

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20. Union Pacific Dispatchers Will Vote on ATDA Representation

    Nov 01, 26 12:00 AM

    
    The National Mediation Board has authorized a representation election for Union Pacific train dispatchers. The American Train Dispatchers Association announced the decision on October 29, 2026.

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21. Wabash Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 31, 26 12:35 AM

    
    Wabash diesel locomotives, each frame once, through the lease at 12:01 a.m. on October 16, 1964.

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22. Wabash Steam Roster (Built Since 1900)

    Oct 31, 26 12:30 AM

    
    Wabash steam locomotives built since 1900. Moguls, Mikados, Mountains, and the O-1 Northerns.

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23. Wabash Railroad: Map, Rosters, History, Logo

    Oct 31, 26 12:28 AM

    
    History of the Wabash Railroad, from the Northern Cross of 1838 to the Norfolk & Western lease at 12:01 a.m. on October 16, 1964. Follow the Flag. Steam and diesel rosters are separate pages.

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24. Court Clears $257.7 Million in Notes for Brightline Florida

    Oct 31, 26 12:18 AM

    
    A New Jersey bankruptcy court on October 29, 2026 authorized $257.7 million in notes for Brightline Trains Florida. The operating company is not one of the 17 debtor holding companies.

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25. Brightline West Still Waiting on a $6 Billion Federal Loan

    Oct 31, 26 12:11 AM

    
    Brightline West said October 27, 2026 that it is still working through a $6 billion federal loan and still talks about opening in 2029. The Florida restructuring is a separate company.

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26. BNSF Reopens the Gallup Subdivision After New Mexico Flooding

    Oct 31, 26 12:06 AM

    
    BNSF said October 28, 2026 that both Gallup Subdivision main tracks are back after flooding near Laguna, New Mexico. The El Paso Subdivision was still out of service.

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27. CSX Says Interchange Is Moving Again After a Technology Outage

    Oct 31, 26 12:01 AM

    
    CSX said October 29, 2026 that interchange with other Class I railroads is moving again after a technology outage that began October 27. Dispatching and positive train control stayed up.

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28. Baldwin "Baby Face" Locomotives: Specs, Photos, Roster

    Oct 30, 26 11:01 PM

    
    Baldwin's Babyface cab on the early road diesels: 50 short-cab units, 1946-1948, plus the related Centipede. Construction numbers, specs, and the sharknose that followed.

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29. California High-Speed Rail Chief Resigns

    Oct 30, 26 08:36 PM

    
    Ian Choudri resigned October 28, 2026 as chief executive of the California High-Speed Rail Authority. The board named Joe Stephenshaw interim chief executive.

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30. The 1910 Portal Bridge Is Handed Over for Demolition

    Oct 30, 26 04:03 PM

    
    Amtrak handed the 1910 Portal Bridge over for demolition on October 29, 2026, during the final cutover to Portal North. Regular NJ Transit and Amtrak schedules are expected November 15.

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31. Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern Merger Review Runs to 2027

    Oct 30, 26 03:59 PM

    
    Union Pacific says the Surface Transportation Board's review of the Norfolk Southern merger gathers information through May 28, 2027. A closing still depends on board approval.

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32. Amtrak Board Will Hear Restructuring Comments on November 10

    Oct 30, 26 03:41 PM

    
    Amtrak's board will hear public comments on its restructuring on November 10, 2026, from 2 to 3 p.m. Eastern. Written comments were due October 30. A proposal goes to the board in December.

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33. Canadian Pacific Selkirk 5931 Restored in Calgary

    Oct 30, 26 01:36 PM

    
    Heritage Park in Calgary unveiled a cosmetic restoration of Canadian Pacific 2-10-4 No. 5931 on October 27, 2026. One of two surviving Selkirks. It stays on display.

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34. Gettysburg Railway to Host Steam for Lincoln

    Oct 30, 26 01:18 PM

    
    Northern Central Railway of York No. 17 will recreate Lincoln's arrival at Gettysburg on November 18, 2026, with public steam trips November 19-21.

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35. NC&StL No. 576 to Steam for the Public in Nashville

    Oct 30, 26 01:00 PM

    
    Nashville Steam will fire NC&StL 4-8-4 No. 576 for the public on November 7, 2026, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at 220 Willow Street. Admission is free.

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36. Pennsylvania Railroad E8s Join the T1 Trust

    Oct 30, 26 12:38 PM

    
    The T1 Trust has acquired former Pennsylvania Railroad E8A diesels 5702A and 5761A from the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society. They are bound for Cumberland.

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37. Ligonier Valley Railroad: History, Roster, Timetable

    Oct 30, 26 12:03 PM

    
    The Ligonier Valley Railroad ran 10.5 miles from Latrobe to Ligonier, Pennsylvania. Opened December 1, 1877. Last day August 31, 1952.

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38. Toledo, Peoria & Western Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 30, 26 10:25 AM

    
    Toledo, Peoria & Western diesel locomotives, each frame once. Thirteen Alcos, three Lima-Hamilton switchers, and 26 Electro-Motive units.

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39. Toledo, Peoria & Western Steam Roster

    Oct 30, 26 09:14 AM

    
    Toledo, Peoria & Western steam locomotives from the Rogers Consolidations of 1895 through the 4-8-4s of 1937

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40. Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway: Map, Roster, History

    Oct 29, 26 11:12 PM

    
    History of the Toledo, Peoria & Western. The Peoria & Oquawka, George P. McNear, the Santa Fe and Pennsylvania years, and the railroad that came back in 1989.

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41. Cotton Belt Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 29, 26 07:58 PM

    
    St. Louis Southwestern diesel locomotives, each frame once. Baldwin switchers, F units, and new Cotton Belt-lettered power through the GP60s of May 1990.

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42. Cotton Belt Steam Roster (Built Since 1900)

    Oct 29, 26 06:52 PM

    
    St. Louis Southwestern steam locomotives built since 1900. Consolidations, Ten-Wheelers, and twenty class L-1 4-8-4s. The quantity column is 297.

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43. Cotton Belt Railroad: Map, Logo, History, Rosters

    Oct 29, 26 10:56 AM

    
    History of the St. Louis Southwestern, the Cotton Belt Route. The Tyler Tap, Paramore's silver spike, the Thebes Bridge, the Blue Streak, and Southern Pacific control. Steam and diesel rosters are sep…

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44. Pere Marquette Steam Roster (Built Since 1900)

    Oct 28, 26 11:54 PM

    
    Pere Marquette steam locomotives built since 1900. Consolidations, Mikados, Pacifics, and 39 Berkshires. The quantity column is 503.

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45. Pere Marquette Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 28, 26 11:48 PM

    
    Pere Marquette diesel locomotives, each frame once. Two SW1s, 14 NW2s, three GE 70-tonners, eight E7As, and six BL2s delivered lettered Chesapeake and Ohio. The quantity column is 33.

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46. Pere Marquette Railway: Map, Logo, Rosters, History

    Oct 28, 26 11:44 PM

    
    History of the Pere Marquette Railway. Timber roads, the Prince years, the Van Sweringens, the Ludington car ferries, and the Chesapeake and Ohio merger of June 6, 1947.

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47. Nickel Plate Road (Railroad): Map, History, Rosters

    Oct 28, 26 10:51 PM

    
    History of the Nickel Plate Road, the New York, Chicago and St. Louis. The Seney syndicate, the Van Sweringens, the Berkshires, and the Norfolk and Western absorption at 12:01 a.m. on October 16, 1964…

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48. Nickel Plate Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 28, 26 10:48 PM

    
    Nickel Plate diesel locomotives, each frame once. Alco switchers and PAs, GP7s and GP9s, and the GP30s. The quantity column is 440. The 1950 fleet was 117.

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49. Nickel Plate Steam Roster (Built Since 1900)

    Oct 28, 26 10:43 PM

    
    Nickel Plate steam locomotives built since 1900, including the Lake Erie and Western, the Clover Leaf, and the Wheeling engines that took Nickel Plate numbers. The quantity column is 786.

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50. EMD "E9" Locomotives: Specs, Roster, History

    Oct 28, 26 10:37 PM

    
    EMD E9 cab units and boosters, 2,400 horsepower, built April 1954 through January 1964. Gear ratios, specifications, and the production roster by owner, serial, and order.

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