The Illinois Central Railroad in Bluford, IL
In 1928 the railroad constructed a cutoff line between Edgewood, IL and Fulton, KY to bypass congestion at Cairo, the waist of its system. The Bluford Switching Yard, at Bluford, IL, was the hub of the Edgewood cut-off line and activities. The Bluford Yard was active for over 40 years, closing in 1969. The other railroad in Bluford was the Southern RR and it was there long before the ICRR. They say it was originally the "Air Lines" RR, then later was the Southern. It went east/west and had a depot right in the heart of downtown Bluford.
THE ICRR IN BLUFORD
The IC was in Bluford as long as I can remember. The "Edgewood Cut-off" was constructed in 1928. The Bluford Switching Yard was the hub of the Cut-off. It was a freight-switching yard, and there was never any passenger train traffic thru Bluford, except an occassional troop train in WWII, and maybe a few times when there was an accident over on the Mainline. The line that came through Bluford was called the Edgewood Cut-off, because it started at Edgewood, IL about 15 miles south of Effingham, and went on to Fulton KY. For reference, Effingham was 199 and Edgewood was 214. Those numbers are miles from Chicago, going south. Then Edgewood was also mile 0 at the start of the cut-off and Bluford was 42, on the cut-off. Fulton was 127 miles from Bluford, which was the south end of the cut-off. There was also a branch from Bluford that went to Paducah. The ICRR Mainline went on from Edgewood to Centralia, thru Carbondale, thru Cairo, and on down to Fulton. Centralia and Cairo (Mounds) had their own switching yards and the Bluford yard took some of their business after it was constructed and activated. Although freight trains still go thru Bluford, on the Edgewood Cut-off, switching ceased in the late 60's and the excitement and glamour of the old Bluford Yards, now exists only in our aging memories.
SWITCHING YARDS
Now why was there a need for switchings yards in the first place? Well back in the '30's and on thru the '50's, most of the country's freight was carried by rail. Remember there were no Interstate Highways or 18-wheelers back then. Freight came from various sources, such as manufacturing plants' shipping docks. About every plant that produced or assembled products for sale, had "rail spurs", coming into their area from one or more railroads. Coal mines loaded coal cars or "hopper" cars with coal. Oil companies shipped tank cars of oil. Manufacturing companies shipped their products via rail. New autos from Detroit were shipped in "auto cars" or "auto rack cars". Bananas were unloaded from big boats on the Gulf Coast. They could fill numerous, maybe 50 or more, refrigerator (reefer) cars with bananas. There were also flat cars and the ubiquitous boxcars. Empty cars would be placed on the spurs by the loading docks of companies. When filled with a product, loaded cars were taken from the spurs and eventually ended up on the train, headed toward their destination. As you would expect, the cars picked up might be going to practically any place in the country. The shippers were the companies that were shipping something and the carriers were the railroads that would be "carrying" the freight, or moving it by train. Thus when cars were "picked up", they would have various destinations and routes by rail to travel, to get to those destinations. After these cars were picked up by the carriers, or railroads, they would end up on a train, on the first leg of their journey to their destination.
MAKING UP A TRAIN
Using the northbound switching lead as an example, a train would come’ in from Fulton (or Paducah) with a whole variety of cars with various contents, headed for various northern locations. At the Bluford yard, these trains, say a 100 cars or so long, would be pulled into a track In the switching yard The “lead clerk” in the yard office would “mark” the switching list. That is, they would put a number denoting its ICRR destination (not always: Ws final destination) after the car initials, number, and contents., Then the train would be “switched” with a string of cars pulled off by the switch engine Each car would then be placed in a different track, depending on its destination When there were enough cars to make up a new train, a caboose would be placed in the track first, then cars going to Chicago next to it. Cars going to Kankakee would come next, then Champaign cars, then Mattoon, then Effingharn, etc. I didn’t mention all the destinations, but you get the idea Now when the train left Bluford heading north, the first cars (closest to the engine) were destined for Effingham and when the train got there, the Brakeman would uncouple those cars from the rest of the train and the road engine crew would “set them out" on a side track at Effingham The car's final destination would not usually be Effingham, Mattoon, etc., but at those points they would be picked up by another RR So the cars which did have Effingham as a final destination, for example, had to be separated from those which were to be transferred to another RR there This continued on up the line to Champaign Of course some cars would also be picked up at Effingham and other places, so when the train got to Champaign, it had Chicago cars on the rear end, and cars going various places, that had been picked up, on the front end So more switching was needed at Champaign.
THE BLU FORD LOCATION
Now that was a pretty simplified version of why a switching yard was needed any place. p. So why locate one at Bluford? Apparently, the ICRR Co. muckety-mucks in Chicago p. determined that more switching capability was needed in Centralia, Mounds, or someplace, and then chose a different location, a new one to be located on a “cut-off” someplace. That would clear a lot of the freight traffic off the Mainline and be more p. efficient, since this yard would be strictly freight, with no passenger service. In those p. days, 100 miles was considered a day’s work, or 8 hours. That would only average 12 1/2 miles per hour. However when you consider that the crews would be called at least an hour before the train actually left, and then would need to sit on side tracks along the way to wait for a train coming from the opposite direction, and then spend some time p. setting out and picking up cars at various location, and spend some time after arrival at the final destination, it may have come out about right. That is one reason, though, why passenger runs were very popular with the train crews, and usually had the oldest crew members (in seniority) on those runs. A hot-shot passenger train could make 100 miles in 3-4 hours, and the crews still got paid for a full day’s work. Bluford happened to be almost exactly midway between Champaign and Fulton, so ended up being the choice for the location. I would suppose the availability of land, which was likely ridiculously cheap in those days, may have had a bearing on the location, too.
Some may recall that there was a viaduct that went across the IC right by DeWitt’s store, before they expanded the Bluford yards. Then they built a new one, still in use now, on the road that comes out at Doc Goodrich’s place. The road goes north at DeWitt’s corner to the corner where the Bluford Fire Dept. building is located then east, up and over the IC. (The original building, where the Fire Dept. building is located now, was built by Lester “Granny” Huff as an auto repair garage, with apartments on the 2nd floor.) I still, barely, remember the old viaduct. The present one, I have ridden over many times, including on bicycle, when in High School, when I had the Bluford paper routes.
Adapted : BLUFORD: KIDS, RAILROADS, PEOPLE & ACTIVITIES STORIES OF A SMALL RAILROAD TOWN IN THE 1930'S, 40'S & 50'S by George. John R. Warren & http://jefferson.ilgenweb.net/bluford/icrr.html
In 1928 the railroad constructed a cutoff line between Edgewood, IL and Fulton, KY to bypass congestion at Cairo, the waist of its system. The Bluford Switching Yard, at Bluford, IL, was the hub of the Edgewood cut-off line and activities. The Bluford Yard was active for over 40 years, closing in 1969. The other railroad in Bluford was the Southern RR and it was there long before the ICRR. They say it was originally the "Air Lines" RR, then later was the Southern. It went east/west and had a depot right in the heart of downtown Bluford.
THE ICRR IN BLUFORD
The IC was in Bluford as long as I can remember. The "Edgewood Cut-off" was constructed in 1928. The Bluford Switching Yard was the hub of the Cut-off. It was a freight-switching yard, and there was never any passenger train traffic thru Bluford, except an occassional troop train in WWII, and maybe a few times when there was an accident over on the Mainline. The line that came through Bluford was called the Edgewood Cut-off, because it started at Edgewood, IL about 15 miles south of Effingham, and went on to Fulton KY. For reference, Effingham was 199 and Edgewood was 214. Those numbers are miles from Chicago, going south. Then Edgewood was also mile 0 at the start of the cut-off and Bluford was 42, on the cut-off. Fulton was 127 miles from Bluford, which was the south end of the cut-off. There was also a branch from Bluford that went to Paducah. The ICRR Mainline went on from Edgewood to Centralia, thru Carbondale, thru Cairo, and on down to Fulton. Centralia and Cairo (Mounds) had their own switching yards and the Bluford yard took some of their business after it was constructed and activated. Although freight trains still go thru Bluford, on the Edgewood Cut-off, switching ceased in the late 60's and the excitement and glamour of the old Bluford Yards, now exists only in our aging memories.
SWITCHING YARDS
Now why was there a need for switchings yards in the first place? Well back in the '30's and on thru the '50's, most of the country's freight was carried by rail. Remember there were no Interstate Highways or 18-wheelers back then. Freight came from various sources, such as manufacturing plants' shipping docks. About every plant that produced or assembled products for sale, had "rail spurs", coming into their area from one or more railroads. Coal mines loaded coal cars or "hopper" cars with coal. Oil companies shipped tank cars of oil. Manufacturing companies shipped their products via rail. New autos from Detroit were shipped in "auto cars" or "auto rack cars". Bananas were unloaded from big boats on the Gulf Coast. They could fill numerous, maybe 50 or more, refrigerator (reefer) cars with bananas. There were also flat cars and the ubiquitous boxcars. Empty cars would be placed on the spurs by the loading docks of companies. When filled with a product, loaded cars were taken from the spurs and eventually ended up on the train, headed toward their destination. As you would expect, the cars picked up might be going to practically any place in the country. The shippers were the companies that were shipping something and the carriers were the railroads that would be "carrying" the freight, or moving it by train. Thus when cars were "picked up", they would have various destinations and routes by rail to travel, to get to those destinations. After these cars were picked up by the carriers, or railroads, they would end up on a train, on the first leg of their journey to their destination.
MAKING UP A TRAIN
Using the northbound switching lead as an example, a train would come’ in from Fulton (or Paducah) with a whole variety of cars with various contents, headed for various northern locations. At the Bluford yard, these trains, say a 100 cars or so long, would be pulled into a track In the switching yard The “lead clerk” in the yard office would “mark” the switching list. That is, they would put a number denoting its ICRR destination (not always: Ws final destination) after the car initials, number, and contents., Then the train would be “switched” with a string of cars pulled off by the switch engine Each car would then be placed in a different track, depending on its destination When there were enough cars to make up a new train, a caboose would be placed in the track first, then cars going to Chicago next to it. Cars going to Kankakee would come next, then Champaign cars, then Mattoon, then Effingharn, etc. I didn’t mention all the destinations, but you get the idea Now when the train left Bluford heading north, the first cars (closest to the engine) were destined for Effingham and when the train got there, the Brakeman would uncouple those cars from the rest of the train and the road engine crew would “set them out" on a side track at Effingham The car's final destination would not usually be Effingham, Mattoon, etc., but at those points they would be picked up by another RR So the cars which did have Effingham as a final destination, for example, had to be separated from those which were to be transferred to another RR there This continued on up the line to Champaign Of course some cars would also be picked up at Effingham and other places, so when the train got to Champaign, it had Chicago cars on the rear end, and cars going various places, that had been picked up, on the front end So more switching was needed at Champaign.
THE BLU FORD LOCATION
Now that was a pretty simplified version of why a switching yard was needed any place. p. So why locate one at Bluford? Apparently, the ICRR Co. muckety-mucks in Chicago p. determined that more switching capability was needed in Centralia, Mounds, or someplace, and then chose a different location, a new one to be located on a “cut-off” someplace. That would clear a lot of the freight traffic off the Mainline and be more p. efficient, since this yard would be strictly freight, with no passenger service. In those p. days, 100 miles was considered a day’s work, or 8 hours. That would only average 12 1/2 miles per hour. However when you consider that the crews would be called at least an hour before the train actually left, and then would need to sit on side tracks along the way to wait for a train coming from the opposite direction, and then spend some time p. setting out and picking up cars at various location, and spend some time after arrival at the final destination, it may have come out about right. That is one reason, though, why passenger runs were very popular with the train crews, and usually had the oldest crew members (in seniority) on those runs. A hot-shot passenger train could make 100 miles in 3-4 hours, and the crews still got paid for a full day’s work. Bluford happened to be almost exactly midway between Champaign and Fulton, so ended up being the choice for the location. I would suppose the availability of land, which was likely ridiculously cheap in those days, may have had a bearing on the location, too.
Some may recall that there was a viaduct that went across the IC right by DeWitt’s store, before they expanded the Bluford yards. Then they built a new one, still in use now, on the road that comes out at Doc Goodrich’s place. The road goes north at DeWitt’s corner to the corner where the Bluford Fire Dept. building is located then east, up and over the IC. (The original building, where the Fire Dept. building is located now, was built by Lester “Granny” Huff as an auto repair garage, with apartments on the 2nd floor.) I still, barely, remember the old viaduct. The present one, I have ridden over many times, including on bicycle, when in High School, when I had the Bluford paper routes.
Adapted : BLUFORD: KIDS, RAILROADS, PEOPLE & ACTIVITIES STORIES OF A SMALL RAILROAD TOWN IN THE 1930'S, 40'S & 50'S by George. John R. Warren & http://jefferson.ilgenweb.net/bluford/icrr.html