Abandoned Railroads: Havana, Illinois depots and rail history

Possible location of the Illinois Central Railroad depot circled in yellow.

Circled in red was area where Railroad tracks once ran and according to a 1930s aerial a Railroad wye was in the area in the big red circle.

IC, C.P&STL later C&IM Territories.

The location of Hardees in Havana used to be the C.P &STL ( later C&IM) depot. C&IM replaced that depot for the current one off Route 136.

Tracks also crossed right in front of the Havana Hwy 136 bridge to serve the Elevators there. Im guessing IC but unsure.

I read the Havana branch made up of mostly Coal trains coming up from Pana area. The power plant didnt use coal by rail til 1996. The plant had Coal brought by barges. Either Trains came up to fill the coal at the coal docks to the barges for power plant or picked up Coal from them for other locations. Just guessing until can confirm. What is know Havana Power Plant did not see coal from rail til 1996 when C&IM started delivering. Part of the track to the power plant on that spur was former CP&STL row.

Here is the IC depot in Havana and map of tracks and depot. Source:

https://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/2015/12/havana-il-illinois-central-depot.html?m=1

Also from link above is a picture of the depot in 1940's and 1939 aerial of Havana:

Where Hardees in Havana now sits once sat the CP&STL Railroad depot late becoming C&IM. The depot in the location would be replaced by the current brick one off Route 136.

Google Earth Pics of Hardees and old depot & Row area:

CP&STL depot postcard from 1912 as well as old pictures found online.

I screenshot from a FB group of the railroad but ive seen these photos around pop up from time to time so no idea who original source is. Ill credit the CP&STL Facebook group for them. I just want to demonstrate what it once looked like, to current Google Earth to pictures I will take and add of what it looks like now. I will not lie my mind was blown finding out Hardees was once a Railroad depot. Ive always know Havana from the 1990s to current so it came as a surprise.

Above picture found on Image search of Havana. It shows the CP&STL later C&IM.

Another Post card of IC Havana depot found on image search.

The old C&IM depot off Route 136 as it is today. IMRR uses it. These below pictures I took myself with one an IMRR Coal empty train was about to pass the depot in 2021.

One map shows Ic, CP&STL, C&IM tracks. ICRR ran through the huge elevator areas too which they may have once served prior to 1981 when the line was abandoned. It connected and interchanged with the CP&StL/C&IM in town at some point until C&IM built a mainline on the east side of town

1891 map of Havana:

Apparently by this map there was a roundhouse and turntable at Havana: Illinois Central RR.

Information on each Railroad a history run through.

CP&StL built and opened the Illinois River Road between Pekin and Virginia, Illinois in 1859. This railroad would go into bankruptcy by the 1920's and was sold to Commonwealth Eddison in 1926.

After it operated as a subsidary called the Springfield,Havana & Pekin Railroad from 1926 - 1936.

It merged with Chicago & Illinois Midland Railroad in 1936.

C&IM upgraded track as well as increased traffic. ComEd built Powerton in 1928 and the Havana Coal dock in 1933.

C&IM had street running in Havana and a depot where Hardees now is. This lasted until the current mainline east of town opened in 1949. The current depot was most likely built after that or in the 1950's. C&IM would see changes in the 1990's mainly having G&W buy them and change the name to the current one Illinois & Midland Railroad. IMRR runs from Pekin Powerton yard to the Springfield area serving a power plant at Kincaid. IMRR has their yard in Springfield no doubts not as impressive as it's glory days.

IMRR currently in 2021:

All taken by me outside of Havana or in Havana.

Quiver yard at Havana and the old Coal docks:

An old C&IM boxcar remains at Quiver yard as of 2021:

The Illinois Central Havana District line:

This line was constructed and completed by the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railway (IB&W) to Havana in June 1873 and to Decatur in October 1873. There had been plans to extend westward to Keokuk, Iowa but the panic of 1873 and the first financial collapse of the IB&W. However a bridge did get completed crossing the Illinois River at Havana.

The bridge was used by the Fulton County Narrow Gauge Railway for several years until 1886. Due to finances FCNG gave up operating over the bridge.

As for the future IC line it changed companies twice the second being owned by IC. The trackage was officially sold to ICRR in 1902. After that the Champaign to Havana line became the ICRR Havana District.

The west end from Clinton to Havana, Illinois up until the Clean Air Act of 1962, was mainly used to ship coal from the mines in Pana area to Havana. The trains went to the barge loading via interchange with the C&IM as well to the Illinois Power Company Power Station at Havana sometimes.

Overtime the coal traffic ceased and all that remained was some industrial and agricultural traffic but it wasn't enough to sustain the line. The segment from Havana to New Holland (west of Lincoln) was abandoned in 1981.

It is an interesting note I read from this site and others told me that in 1979 IC transported a special move of the nuclear reactor vessle from a barge on the Illinois River enroute to the Clinton Nuclear Plant. That must have been quite the sight!

Sources:

https://chwrhs.wordpress.com/history/

Also historian David Jordan and a few others in the Peoria Railroad group on Facebook.

Illinois Central Havana depot foundation remains.: