That line originally was part of the rock island railroad that went bankrupt in 1980, that other foundation next to the relay cabinet was most likely a signal light, if you go up a couple blocks you can see there was 2 lines there at one time, that line at one time was heavily traveled going all the way out to pioneer Parkway also connected to the rock island trail which is now a hiking and biking trail, that line was abandoned in the 1950s. Rock island had a big rail yard not too far from that crossing on Adam's

BTW, I can see that many other sections of track got removed sometime after 2007. I think just a small section of the track lived on until 2017 (at least legally), the rest was ripped out long before then. I will see if I can find abandonment papers.

Most of the Kellar Branch was legally abandoned and removed in 2010. Last train to run the length of the line was about July 2009. The south end has been dormant ever since, though the City of Peoria, its owner, transferred ownership of the last 550 feet to O'Brien Steel Service Co. for planned reactivation of rail service via the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad. The rest of the south end, which ran to Park Avenue, was legally abandoned in 2023.

@kyleb06

Ай бұрын

I've since seen your detailed videos, I wasn't too knowledgeable about this area back then. It's sad that this segment will never see a train again.

awesome catch thanks :-)

@kyleb06

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

What year were the rails ripped out? The Federal Railroad Administration's Database shows the crossing being officially closed on 6/2/2017. Now, that does not tell us when these rails were last active. The rails were not officially abandoned until 2017. Maybe "abandoned" is the wrong word? The FRA shows the crossing as "closed". There is a "abandoned" in the practical sense, meaning "no longer in use", then there is the railroad legal definition of abandonment. Google street views shows the rails being there as of October of 2019. Your video here in 2021 shows the rails being gone. So sometime between late 2019 and early 2021. The first filing goes back to 1979, but that does not mean that's when the crossing was built.

Somebody finnaly made a video on this

@kyleb06

3 жыл бұрын

Yep. I wanted to get it since I've heard talks the line will be ripped up this year.

@RailfanLogan

3 жыл бұрын

@@kyleb06 Wow the last time I was there their was 3 keokuk engines sitting there