Fairbury's lost railroad found

Fairbury was established in 1857 when the Peoria & Oquawka Railroad (later the TP&W) laid its tracks from Peoria to the Indiana border.

In 1872, the Chicago & Paducah Railroad laid new tracks from Pontiac through to Fairbury. About two years later, the Chicago & Paducah extended its line from Fairbury southeast to Strawn. Just a few years later, the Strawn extension was removed, and a railroad from Forrest to Strawn was used instead. It has always been a mystery exactly where the Chicago & Paducah turned south from Fairbury and headed to Strawn.

The only known map showing the Chicago & Paducah Railroad from Fairbury to Strawn is the 1876 Livingston County map created by David Rumsey. This map shows the Chicago & Paducah Railroad leaving Fairbury, heading to Murphy Station, and continuing to Strawn. This map does not clearly show the exact point where the Strawn extension left Fairbury and turned south.

A short story about the Chicago & Paducah Railroad was published in the December 31, 1881, issue of the Blade newspaper. “Workmen began tearing up the old Paducah track, between the junction and the east shaft, last Saturday. It is all to be removed, and when done, will add another available street to the city.”

Based on this 1881 Blade story, the Chicago & Paducah Railroad line ran east at least to the East Shaft coal mine. The mine opened in 1867 and closed by 1909. This mine left a pile of slag on the north side of the TP&W railroad tracks between Ninth and Tenth Streets. Older residents of Fairbury commonly call this slag pile "Shaft Hill."

This old 1881 Blade story tells us the Chicago & Paducah Railroad existed by Shaft Hill. The article doesn't say exactly where the tracks turned south to Strawn. While the Chicago & Paducah Railroad was in operation, what is now called Walnut Street was called Paducah Avenue.

Livingston County is divided up into townships. Each township measures six miles by six miles. A township has 36 sections, each one mile square. Fairbury is in Indian Grove Township.

The 1876 Rumsey map shows early Fairbury and the Chicago & Paducah Railroad, along with the section lines for Indian Grove Township. The four sections that involve the Chicago & Paducah Railroad are sections two, three, ten, and eleven.

Unfortunately, Google Maps shows Fairbury but does not include the section lines. Because of this, it is not easy to overlay the 1876 map upon a modern Google Map and see where the Chicago & Paducah Railroad turned south.

You can locate section 11 on a modern Google map because the north boundary is Route 24 and the west boundary is Seventh Street. The farm fields are divided, showing the south and east boundaries of section 11.

From the 1876 Rumsey map, we know where the Strawn extension of the Chicago & Paducah Railroad entered and left section 11. One can plot these two points on a modern Google map and draw a straight line through them. Since we know the Chicago & Paducah was very close and parallel to the TP&W Railroad, we can extend this straight line until it intersects the TP&W.

A train cannot turn at a sharp angle, so it had a curve connecting the east-west section to the Strawn extension heading southeast of Fairbury.

Using the modern Google map, it was determined the Strawn extension of the Chicago & Paducah Railroad likely turned southeast as soon as it passed the coal mine where Shaft Hill is now located. Remarkably, when the line established from the two Section 11 points was extended northwest toward Fairbury, it returned to the railroad corridor near Shaft Hill. Shaft Hill's location was not used to establish the angle of the reconstructed line.

 If this reconstructed route is correct, the railroad would have crossed Indian Creek just southeast of today's Route 24 bridge.

From a historical timeline perspective, the TP&W tracks were laid in 1857. The East Shaft coal mine (at Shaft Hill) started in 1867, or ten years after Fairbury was created. The East Shaft coal mine likely sold coal that was shipped out on the TP&W. This coal mine could have also sold coal for the TP&W to use as fuel on their locomotives.

In 1872, the new Chicago & Paducah Railroad reached Fairbury. The East Shaft coal mine had been operating for about five years. The railroad owners likely decided to extend the tract east far enough for the Chicago & Paducah Railroad to serve the East Shaft coal mine as well. Once the line reached the East Shaft coal mine, it turned southeast to Strawn.

If the Blade is correct that the Chicago & Paducah Railroad removed the Strawn extension in 1881, this roadway has been gone for about 145 years. No physical traces of the Strawn extension are known to exist today.

The Chicago & Paducah Railroad was later renamed the Wabash Railroad. In the 1970s, they still ran a train between Pontiac, McDowell, and Fairbury. The tracks were in such poor condition that the train had to travel very slowly. Around 1979, these tracks were removed. Although these tracks have been gone for almost 50 years, the culverts remain where the line crossed roads, so it is still well known where this railroad was located.

 (Dale Maley's weekly history feature on Fairbury News is sponsored by Dr. Charlene Aaron)