Illinois Central Gulf Railroad Miscellany

The Illinois Central Railroad [ICRR] was a Class I railroad in the central United States, connecting Chicago with both New Orleans, Louisiana and Mobile, Alabama on its main line.



The ICRR was formed in 1851 when the original investors succeeded in obtaining a large land grant from the federal government for the purpose of building a railroad under provisions granted by the Douglas Land Grant Bill. The grant was particularly generous, and the railroad expanded rapidly. The expansion was so rapid that the Illinois Central was one of the world's largest railroads by the time of the Civil War, branching out from Chicago westward to Sioux City, Iowa and southward to Cairo, Illinois. During the latter part of the nineteenth century and first two decades of the twentieth, the ICRR continued to add mileage to its holdings. This was especially the case in the south where the company succeeded in connecting Cairo with New Orleans. By the onset of the Great Depression, the Illinois Central controlled almost 5000 miles of track and was one of America's largest railroads.



As the twentieth century progressed, the ICRR, like the railroad industry in general, came under increasing pressure from new forms of transportation, especially the automobile. As a result, it began to experience shrinking profit margins and depressed markets for its services. The ICRR responded by implementing technologically advanced operating equipment, such as the diesel engine, cutting back on certain service, such as passenger service, and eliminating what it viewed as antiquated work practices among its employees.



This last aspect of the ICRR's response to its new operating environment produced acute struggles between the railroad unions and the railroad itself, culminating in the Presidential Emergency Board mandated elimination through attrition of virtually all firemen's positions in 1963. The ICRR's final response to its depressed situation was to merge with the Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio railroad in 1972 to form the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. In 1998, the ICRR was purchased by the Canadian National Railway and integrated into its operations.