Lee County Central Electric Railway
by Stephen M. Scalzo
Headline image: We're looking southeast toward downtown Amboy, Illinois, with car 201 sitting at the south end of the line on Main Street just short of Mason Avenue sometime between 1912 and 1915. All photos from the Illinois Railway Museum's Stephen M. Scalzo Collection except where noted.
Lee Center began as a stopping off place on the old state road between Chicago and Galena. A large number of the town's buildings date to 1830. The town became a stop on a stage coach line until the railroads came along. However the Illinois Central Railroad bypassed it for a more direct route from Mendota to Dixon through Amboy, and the town became a quite little village in a rich farming area off the beaten path.
The Northern Illinois Electric Railway Company was incorporated on June 24, 1901, and after the company was organized on July 1, plans were developed to build a 54-mile interurban between Dixon and DeKalb through Lee Center. The principal promoter of the line was George H.T. Shaw, a railroad construction engineer who lived and grew up in Lee Center; he was convinced that a railroad would revitalize Lee Center's business. After receiving a franchise from the city of Dixon, grading work began on the line from Dixon to Amboy. After several miles were completed north of Amboy and a short distance near Dixon, the effects of the 1903 recession halted all further work when no further capital could be raised.
Early in 1910, the company was successful in raising some money. Construction was then limited to building 11.5 miles of trackage from Middlebury through Lee Center and Binghampton into Amboy. A construction contract was awarded in July of 1910, and on August 4 construction resumed, with the first rail laid on August 13 near Lee Center. The first mile of trackage was laid south from the power house in Lee Center so that a streetcar could be run as soon as possible in order to raise more funds from the sale of bonds to extend the line. Ties for the tracks were obtained from nearby woods, and those were laid on the ground without ballast. The wooden framed power house consisted of two Bates boilers, two Corliss engines, and a Thompson-Ryan 130kw generator.
Both of the above photos were taken on October 1, 1910, on the first day of service, apparently at Lee Center. Krambles-Peterson Archive.
Passenger operations began on October 1, 1910, when a small single-truck streetcar purchased from the Chicago Railways Company began operating three daily trips over the one-mile line. Construction crews completed four additional miles of trackage to Amboy by December 10, and another streetcar trip was added when service was extended. In Amboy, trackage was laid on Main Street to the edge of the main business block. On December 10, the company purchased a large secondhand interurban for $5,000 from the St. Louis Railway and Equipment Company, with the idea of alternating it as a freight locomotive.
Car 10 was by far the largest of the three electric cars the LCCERy ever owned. It's shown here at an unknown location with what appears to be car 1, the ex-Chicago single-truck car, behind it.
In October of 1911, a contract was awarded to Burns and Company to construct a seven-mile extension from Lee Center north to Weishar Corners (later renamed Middlebury). Construction began on the trackage in December. The trackage was completed and passenger service began operating on that section on December 1, 1911. Middlebury, located midway between Amboy and Rochelle, was in the center of a rich, fertile prairie; prior to the building of the railway, the site consisted only of a farm house and country school, so the company purchased several acres of land and laid out a town, constructing a depot, side track, and elevator in an attempt to attract residents.
Four elevators were constructed along the tracks, and these served as the main source of freight revenue. Considerable carload freight traffic in grain was interchanged with the CB&Q at Binghampton. The company purchased two secondhand steam locomotives in 1911 to handle the freight service, but they were scrapped after only a short period. A replacement used steam locomotive was purchased in 1913 from the CB&Q.
Company officials authorized extending trackage northeast to Rochelle, hoping that would increase interest in bond rallies that were held there. In addition, the company promised to construct a car house and power plant in Rochelle, providing the citizens of Rochelle would purchase $30,000 of bonds. Those efforts proved unsuccessful, and no further trackage was ever built.
During the first year, the company only carried about 50 passengers a day into Amboy. However, insufficient power from improper operation of the power house always plagued passenger service. The interurban was much too big for the power available, and passenger traffic did not warrant its use, so it was seldom used. Thus, the little streetcar was used most of the time; however it proved unsuitable for maintaining a schedule as it constantly derailed. During the winter of 1911, the snow stopped passenger service a number of times. Passenger traffic was minor because the railway served a rural area; the only time that there weas any passenger traffic was during the four-day Lee County Fair held every September.
This double-truck car, pictured on Main Street in Amboy, was purchased secondhand from Columbus, Ohio, in the spring of 1912. It is thought to have been homebuilt by the Columbus city system.
In April 1912, a secondhand double-truck streetcar was purchased from the Columbus Railway Power & Light Company. That streetcar was the most serviceable for the passenger traffic, and the original streetcar was disposed of in 1913. In 1912 only 12,121 passengers rode the line. Passenger service was usually operated only from Amboy to Lee Center, with runs beyond operating only if there were passengers. Even though the company was run austerely, the lack of revenue soon created problems. The company's operations resulted in consistent losses, and on December 5, 1913, the company declared bankruptcy and a receiver was appointed.
The company was sold under court order at foreclosure on July 8, 1914, to the Lee County Central Electric Railway Company, which was incorporated on July 9 with $250,000 of capital. The new company took possession of the railway on July 20 after receiving from the Illinois Public Utilities Commission a certificate of convenience and necessity permitting the building of an extension from Middlebury to Rochelle. In August, plans were announced to build trackage north to Ashton, Rochelle, or DeKalb, and southwest to Princeton; however nothing was ever built.
In September of 1915, the company announced plans to abandon its tracks in Main Street in Amboy, and construct new trackage from Binghampton to Blackston Street parallel to the Burlington Quincy & Pacific Railroad tracks. The city of Amboy wanted to pave Main Street, and the company did not want to pay for its part of the paving cost because of its trackage. On October 4, 1915, passenger service was reduced to two round trips using a gas motor car purchased from the Charles City Western Railway.
Continued passenger service did not help the company's financial problems. The increased use of the private automobile was quickly eroding passenger traffic. In 1916, only 10,414 passengers were carried on a single round trip to Middleburg and two midday trips (later reduced to one) between Lee Center and Amboy. The company's earnings were only $5,002 (negative $2,291 net), and the bank loan and accounts payable problems began to haunt the company. The power plant was closed in the spring of 1916 after passenger service was discontinued. During the fall, the trolley wire was removed and sold for $5,181, and the trackage between Amboy and the CB&Q crossing in Binghampton was dismantled. The power plant equipment was sold the following year. The line was one of the poorest, if not the biggest financial flops of all interurbans, and became the first interurban in Illinois (if not in the nation) to discontinue passenger service; ironically, what remained became a small freight operation that outlived most of the industry.
In 1919, the company purchased another secondhand steam locomotive, which was also in poor operating condition, this time from the Pennsylvania Railroad. The railway barely managed to keep operating but grain and livestock were moved despite rotten ties which caused numerous derailments, high weeds, and bad curves. The company struggled along on borrowed money until the creditors were ready to force another receivership. Conditions got so bad that Abe Jeanblanc, the principal customer, purchased the company in 1924.
Several improvements were then made to the railway. First, a large number of used ties were purchased and installed on the trackage. Next, a new saddle tank steam locomotive was purchased for $11,500, but that locomotive soon proved to be too hard on the lightweight trackage. Operations improved when the CB&Q allowed a joint rate of $20 per car of traffic originating on the railroad. After 1925, the railway was run in close connection with the Lee Center elevator. In 1929, the last troublesome steam locomotive was sold and a small Whitcomb gasoline locomotive capable of pulling three freight cars was purchased.
By 1935, nearly 20 years after the wires had come down, cars 10 and 201 were still sitting derelict at the power house in Lee Center along with derelict 4-4-0 number 1. Ex-Columbus streetcar 201, the same car pictured at the top of this page, is shown here.
The trackage north of Lee Center became increasingly costly to maintain as the number of grain cars shipped over it declined. Gradually the elevators on that section began to truck grain to Ashton, and the trackage began to decay. The Depression hit the elevator operators hard. When concrete highway US 30 was built through the area in the late 1930s, the company simply abandoned the trackage north of Lee Center in order to avoid building a state-required crossing and relocate trackage. The remaining two unused passenger cars and steam locomotives remained stored outside at the old power plant in Lee Center, and they were finally scrapped in 1935. Also about that time, a small frame engine house was constructed in Lee Center.
In 1946, Mr. Jeanblanc sold his elevator, lumber business, and the railway to the Lee County Grain Association. The trackage was rebuilt with creosoted ties, and cinder and rock ballast installed to allow for the continued movement of grain cars. In 1961, a small gas engine locomotive was purchased from the Central Soya Company in Gibson City, and the Whitcomb locomotive, minus its engine and cab, had a large snow plow installed at one end.
[Ed. note: when this account was written, it concluded by stating that the Lee County Central Electric Railway was still in business. In fact, the line was abandoned in the 1970s, likely 1972.]
This article was edited and laid out by Frank Hicks. Thanks go to Richard Schauer and Ray and Julie Piesciuk for making available the materials in this article that are from the Stephen Scalzo Collection. Thanks to Art Peterson for supplying additional photos from the Krambles-Peterson Archive.
Equipment Roster
1 - single-trucker bought from Chicago Railways in 1910, scrapped 1913 (photo here) - NOTE 1
10 - interurban car bought secondhand in 1910 - NOTE 2
201 - double-truck car bought from Columbus in 1912, scrapped sometime after 1935
? - single-truck gas motor car bought from Charles City Western in 1915, built by McGuire-Cummings in 1910
? - secondhand Baldwin 2-4-2T steam engine bought 1911, scrapped c1911
131 - secondhand 4-4-0 steam engine bought c1911, scrapped c1913 - NOTE 3
1326 - secondhand 0-6-0 steam engine bought 1913 from CB&Q - NOTE 4
1 - secondhand 4-4-0 steam engine bought 1919 from PRR - NOTE 5
2 - 0-4-0T saddle tank steam engine bought new 1924 from Vulcan - NOTE 6
? - 15-ton Whitcomb builder #12146, ex-Louisville Gas & Electric 2, bought 1929
? - 18-ton Plymouth JLB bldr #4374, ex-Central Soya Co, bought 1961 - NOTE 7
? - 20-ton Plymouth JHG bldr #5502, ex-Case Brothers Co, built 1949, bought 1970 (photo here) - NOTE 8
NOTE 1: Built 1898 by Pullman as cable trailer, rebuilt 1906 into motor car (3976-3997 series)
NOTE 2: Built 1904 by AC&F in Jeffersonville for the Kentucky & Indiana Bridge & Railroad, later sold by K&IB&R to a reseller in St. Louis; car was 56' long, 9'2" wide, 13' high, 68 seats, 58500 lbs., 4 x GE 1200 motors, K-6 control; scrapped sometime after 1935
NOTE 3: Lettered US Railway Equipment Company (Chicago, IL) 131 when purchased, was former number 707 (railroad unknown)
NOTE 4: Built 1887 by CB&Q at Aurora, originally numbered 468, renumbered 1468 in 1898, assigned to class G-1, renumbered again in 1904 to 1326.
NOTE 5: Two different histories for this engine have been suggested. Scalzo's notes suggest it was built 1890 by Pittsburgh as Terre Haute & Indianapolis 31, in 1905 became Vandalia Railroad 5 (class VD-5), later renumbered 405, then 505, then in 1917 became Pennsylvania Railroad 8978, class D-25, scrapped sometime after 1935. Art Peterson's research suggests it was built 1887 by Rogers as TH&I 512, later Vandalia RR 505 (class VD-4), retired 1916 and sold c1918-1919.
NOTE 6: Built 1924 by Vulcan, sold in 1929 to Illinois Midland Railway 4 in Newark, IL, where it was in use until 1959.
NOTE 7: Built in 1942 for the US government and ran at the Pusey & Jones shipyard in Wilmington, DE; bought 1961 from Central Soya Company, Gibson City, IL
NOTE 8: The linked photo looks suspiciously recent... anyone know whether this engine is still in existence? If so, it's the only surviving piece of equipment from the LCCER.
Route Map
The old equipment that sat out on the back 40 of plenty of small railroads were the subject of early railfan photos, and probably their imagination. I bet many thought, how can I save that? which was probably immediately thought with, what terrible condition it was in and how could I possibly restore it? So, I bet there were inklings of the start of the railroad preservation movement in those observations. Locally, we had the Lee County Central, Elgin and Belvidere, and North Shore Country Club with cars that sat for years out in the weather. I recall a few CNS&M interurbans also shown in long storage, only to be scrapped.
ReplyDeleteO. Anderson