Galesburg & Great Eastern Railroad....Wataga -Victoria, Illinois.

One of the little railroad's in the area I have an interest in was up in Knox County that ran from Wataga east to Victoria then east before heading north.  It served mainly coal mines but probably farmers as well.  Victoria had a depot here which still stands  The right of way and grade can probably still be seen from the ground if you know where to look.  I have yet to go up there and look but can see it in many spots from google earth.  One of these days plan on making another trip to look around some of these back roads and the country side for traces of the right of way as well as the areas where the coal mines once were.  This railroad had a sixty year history which  despite having financial problems up the rear still managed to last a little long than the Narrow Gauge (later CB&Q) line down in Fulton County out lasting that one by a decade. 

The railroad's start was as the Galesburg, Etherly and Eastern Railroad in 1894 which was built from Wataga east to a mining town just south  three miles of Victoria named Etherly.  It was a company town where miner's lived and thrived for a time.  In 1893 and for years after there was a economic and business panic not only here but all over the country.  I have seen it mentioned a few times in Fulton County history.  Alot of businesses as well as  Railroads went under as this one did. It wasn't financially stable enough to survive the crisis.  The mines at Etherly closed in 1895 and the railroad went bankrupt.  A few years later the economy rebounded and by 1898 the Galesburg & Great Eastern Railroad was formed and railroad service was built until Victoria.  By 1899 Etherly  had declined to the point structures were moved into Victoria.  The Railroad struggled over the years and at one point a second railroad which would have provided competition was discussed and planned but never panned out.

Despite never been a financial  profitable line like many other railroads in other areas it did managed to get by all the way unto 1960.  During the great depression it took a major hit as the bank in Victoria closed by 1931 taking the railroad's capital with it which had been deposited there.
The Railroad cut expenses and still managed.  To provide passenger and mail service the fitted a Lincoln with flanged wheels and used it on the line but it was involved in an incident in 1933 which proved to be a liability to the owner's of the road.  By the mid 1930's  G&GE was little more than a Right of way with neither equipment such as locomotives or freight traffic but a coal mine company from Indiana would change their luck  and after some hesitation the G&GE was sold to the Central Indiana Coal company which in 1954 was sold to the Stonefort Corporation.  The last twenty years of the line were used to haul coal mainly.  The Little John  mine near Victoria closed in 1960 and the abandonment of the line soon followed.  Mining machinery as well as the two whitcomb locomotives were moved to a coal mine to the northeast in Wyoming, Illinois.  The rails were sold and scrapped and the right of way ended back in the hands of the farmer's who owned the land around it.

My source:  http://www.guidetozscale.com/html/g_ge_history.html  


Victoria, Illinois  G&GE depot

Old ROW and some tracks of old line Wataga, Illinois: