Since the beggining of modern railroading, politics have been deeply rooted in the all around operations of a given railroad. Many politicians choose to make cross country tours by rail and railroads tend to make invisible boundaries between different neighborhoods. In the town of Peoria things are no different. In Peoria a little used former Rock Island Branchline, commonly known as the Kellar Branch Snakes from the northwest side of town south to the riverfront. Its about 8 miles long and goes through several different Peoria neighborhoods.
After the Rock Island went Bankrupt in the early 80's, the City of Peoria bought the little line, and contracted the Peoria and Pekin Union RR to operate it. They did so for many years, but not long after the online brewery that accounted for much of the line's traffic closed, the line became less profitable. In the late 90's the PPU had a derailment and decided to pull out altogether. Peoria brought in a new company, Pioneer, who eagerly operated the line until 2004 when the city decided that it was no longer interested in the railroading business and evictd Pioneer.
They then brought in the Central Illinois Railway who would operate the line until it was to be pulled up. They brought a new customer online, and things were looking up for the Kellar Branch, but the locals still wanted a bike trail to connect the north side of town to Downtown. Central Illinois had a runaway with arunaway train soon afterwards, and Pioneer fought for rights to operate the line, and eventually, It was decided that they would both run the line. But the public still fought in this economy, to pull out a working rail line in favor of a bike trail.
An agreement has been signed, and 90% of the line will be pulled up. Today I came across an interesting site along the line. Central Illinois Railway crews park their 2 locomotives at the north side of the line, right next to the southern section of another bike trail. Pro-Trail locals are very seious, and have gone as far as breaking the windows and lights out on one of the locomotives. Today the locomotive in wuestion was sitting in the same spot, filthy, and covered in Pro-Trail messages."Jobless Yet? Build the recreational trail"
"Bush/Obama are the same"
"911 was an inside job"
The list goes on. Well after 20 years of fighting, they are finally going to get what they want. Central Illinois Railway is shipping its engines off to Chicago or Toledo, and Pioneer will now work the far north section of the line that is still in place.
Goodbye Kellar Branch.
