Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway

Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway

Overview
Parent company	Genesee & Wyoming
Headquarters	East Peoria, Illinois
Reporting mark	TPW
Dates of operation	1863–present
Predecessor	Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw Railway
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length	247 miles (398 km)

The Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway (reporting mark TPW) is a short line railroad that operates 247 miles (398 km) of trackage between Mapleton and Peoria in Illinois, and Logansport, Indiana.^[1] TP&W has trackage rights between Peoria and Galesburg, between Logansport and Kokomo, and between Reynolds and Lafayette. As of 2024, the railroad is owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. The railroad's traffic primarily consists agricultural products, including both raw and processed grain products, and chemical products and completed tractors.^[1]

The Toledo, Peoria and Western's earliest predecessor was the Peoria and Oquawka Railroad. The eastern extension began construction, three years after its charter, in 1855. The Toledo, Peoria and Warsaw Railway was chartered in 1863, and opened in 1868 from the state line at Indiana across Illinois to the Mississippi River at Warsaw. This line was reorganized as the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroad in 1880 and leased to the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway. The lease lasted four years and the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway took over in 1887.^[2]

The Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway was incorporated in Illinois on March 28, 1887, and consolidated the operation of the Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw Railway and the Logansport, Peoria & Burlington Railroad. The LP&B built from Galesburg to East Burlington, Illinois in 1855, and reached Gilman, Illinois in 1857 and Effner in 1859.

A TP&W passenger train was involved in the Great Chatsworth train wreck in Chatsworth, Illinois in 1887.

The Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroad was affiliated with the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1918. This meant that the western terminus for the PRR was in Keokuk, Iowa and the Santa Fe interchange at Lomax, Illinois. In 1937, the TP&W purchased six Class H-10 Northerns from the American Locomotive Company. These locomotives were given road numbers 80 through 85 and were the lightest 4-8-4 ever built for a North American railroad, weighing only 361,000 pounds. They had 69-inch drivers, 23.5 x 30 cylinders, a 250 psi (1,700 kPa) boiler pressure and a tractive effort of 51,000 pounds.

On the night of March 10, 1947, owner George McNear was shot and killed while walking back from a Bradley Braves basketball game during a power outage. The murder remains unsolved to this day.^[3]

In January 1960 the ATSF and PRR gained joint control (half interests) of TP&W.^[4] When Conrail was created in 1976 the TP&W acquired the former Pennsylvania Railroad trackage from Effner into Logansport, the Effner Branch, which otherwise would have been abandoned. The value of this trackage diminished in 1981 when Conrail closed the Logansport interchange. At the end of 1970 TP&W operated 239 miles of road on 323 miles of track; in 1970 it reported 520 million ton-miles of revenue freight.

On June 21, 1970, the TP&W's eastbound freight train No. 20 derailed mid-train in Crescent City, Illinois. One of the tank cars punctured, with the released propane igniting and engulfing the other tank cars, destroying most of the business district and several homes and injuring 64.^[5]

In 1979 the Santa Fe reached agreement to acquire the former Pennsylvania Railroad's interest in TP&W. TP&W was merged into ATSF on December 31, 1983.

The ATSF sold the Lomax-Peoria-Logansport main line on February 3, 1989, to new investors, former Boston & Maine railroad managers Cynthia O'Connor and Michael Smith, who revived the TP&W name making it an independent railroad again. This represented one of the first female owned acquisitions in the new short-line age. In 1995, when the parent companies of ATSF and Burlington Northern merged to create BNSF, TP&W was granted operating rights over BN's line between Peoria and Galesburg, Illinois.

In 1995, the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad acquired a 40% interest in the TP&W, with full control going to Delaware Otsego Corporation (DO) in 1996. During this time, this regional railroad that operates in Illinois and Indiana was dispatched from the DO offices in Cooperstown, New York. Some TP&W locomotives were painted in the NYSW's distinctive yellow-and-black paint scheme during this time. In 1998, TP&W had revenues of approximately $13.4 million and moved over 59,000 freight carloads and intermodal units. In 1999, DO sold the TP&W to RailAmerica for $24 million.^[6] In late 2012, Genesee & Wyoming acquired RailAmerica, gaining ownership of the TP&W.

The Keokuk Junction Railway now owns parts of the old TP&W line, including the Western Illinois and Keokuk section of TP&W (Fulton, McDonough and Hancock counties in Illinois). In December 1986, KJRY purchased 33.5 miles of former TP&W trackage (then owned by the Santa Fe Railroad) from Keokuk, Iowa, and Warsaw, Illinois, to La Harpe, Illinois. KJRY's feeder line application with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to acquire the assets of the west end of the new TP&W was granted on 2004-10-28. KJRY completed the acquisition on 2005-02-11, adding 76 miles from LaHarpe to Peoria, the old TP&W main line west of Peoria.

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• Ottesen, Mark (March 1997). "The new Toledo, Peoria & Western". Trains. Vol. 57, no. 3. Kalmbach Publishing. pp. 56–61. Retrieved November 8, 2024.

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• Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway (TPW)