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Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Illinois Midland Railway

Illinois Midland Railway

Paperback

Series: Images of Rail

TrainsRegional: Midwest

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 1467107751
ISBN13: 9781467107754
Publisher: Arcadia Pub (Sc)
Published: Feb 14 2022
Pages: 128
Weight: 0.70
Height: 0.50 Width: 6.40 Depth: 9.10
Language: English

Located 50 miles southwest of Chicago, the Illinois Midland Railway connected Newark and Millington, two small towns surrounded by farmland barely two miles apart.

The Illinois Midland Railway began in 1914. Originally, plans called for a 120-mile railroad to be built across northern Illinois, connecting the cities of Rockford and Kankakee and bypassing congested Chicagoland rail traffic. A turbulent financial start resulted in just 1.962 miles of rickety track that meandered through forests, pastures, and across a creek. Townspeople there rescued the struggling railroad then ran it successfully under the tutelage of the Newark Farmers Grain Elevator Company, getting into record books along the way as The World's Shortest Railroad. The end came in 1967, when vandals burned a couple of the railroad's bridges. The Midland ceased operations, and the rails were removed, but again townspeople in Newark and Millington came to the rescue, each establishing museums to keep the memory of their Midland alive today.

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Regional: Midwest