Southern Illinois Railway & Power Photo Album

We'd like to extend a huge THANK YOU to Art Peterson, who has sent in a fascinating collection of photos of the Southern Illinois Railway & Power interurban line. This company ran between Carrier Mills and Eldorado, Illinois. These were located southwest and northeast (respectively) of the big city on the line, Harrisburg, Illinois, which is also where the shops were located. The line wasn't built until 1913, quite late in the interurban era for an all-new system. It abandoned passenger service in 1931 and freight service ended in 1932, after which the line was torn up. You can read about the history of SIR&P here.

All photos are from the Krambles-Peterson Archive. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The Cars

Car 50 was the first car built for the SIR&P, emerging from the American Car Company shops in 1913. In 1917 it was renumbered 52, and it is shown in that later guise, spotted in front of the Harrisburg shops.

Here we see the interior of car 52, complete with fare register.

This combine is either 53 or 54; both were built by American Car Company in 1913 at about the same time as coaches 50 and 51. It's pulling a trailer, either 100 or 101. The location is uncertain but this may be Muddy, Illinois, which was just northeast of Harrisburg and was the location of the line's powerhouse.

In 1924, SIR&P purchased a pair of attractive heavyweight wooden interurbans from the Central Illinois Traction line that ran between Mattoon and Charleston when CIT upgraded to lightweight interurbans. Though of a markedly older design than SIR&P's native cars, cars 55 and 56 were actually a near newer, having emerged from the McGuire-Cummings factory in Paris, Illinois, in 1914. Car 56 is shown here in front of the Harrisburg shops.

Unlike the rattan seats in SIR&P's original cars, cars 55 and 56 appear to have had leather or leatherette seats. My favorite part about this car, though, is the ad cards on the ceiling.

Attractive car 56 is shown in front of the shops at Harrisburg. SIR&P was a 1200-volt line, and it's possible that the piece of equipment just inboard of the right truck is a dynamotor.

Here's car 56 in front of the Harrisburg shops on July 23, 1924, probably right after it was rebuilt and repainted.

Cars 55 and 56, shown here trained together, had some type of Westinghouse MU control. These cars were numbered 205 and 207 on CIT.

Car 110 was an interurban trailer built by McGuire-Cummings in 1919. It was 68' long and was said to accommodate seats for 120 people in a pinch. That sounds pretty minimal!

The Shops

The shop building shown here was located on the north side of Harrisburg on the west side of Jackson Street. It's still there, a couple of blocks north of the Route 13 Bypass. In this shot, trailer 101 is visible to the left while a Nickel Plate boxcar sits in the foreground. The flat car beyond it appears to have Fox trucks, which is odd. At the far left and far right can be seen 800-series hopper cars (described as "gondolas" in the roster, for some reason) which are of an early design with a fishbelly side sill.

Here we are inside the company's Harrisburg shop building. Freight trailer 110 is on the left. The company owned half a dozen flat cars numbered 1101-1106, one of which is presumably the car at right.

This shot was taken looking south down what is today Jackson Street, and then was the SIR&P line north out of Harrisburg. The arched roof of the shop building is visible in the middle distance to the right of the right-of-way.

The Railroad

The company's offices were located in this attractive building on the north side of Harrisburg, on the northeast corner of Jackson and Logan Streets. The building is still there, though it has seen better days.

This is the same corner, Jackson and Logan, but the photographer has spun 180 degrees and is now facing southwest. The house on the right is still there but the house on the left is gone.

This photo showing passengers getting on and off coach 52 was taken at Muddy, just northeast of Harrisburg. The powerhouse smokestack is visible at top right.

The location of this photo is unknown.

The location of this photo is also unknown. There were a few stretches where the line paralleled a steam railroad, as shown here.

I'm not 100% certain but I believe this is Ledford, Illinois, which is just southwest of Harrisburg. We're looking northeast and that overpass on the curve takes the interurban line over Ledford Road. The bridge abutments at this location are still there.