Fulton County Narrow Gauge Railway
In a previous post I mentioned this and stated it needed it's own thread which it does because it did have quite a good amount of history for a railway that lasted as it's own for twenty five years before another railroad purchased and turned it into standard gauge for the remaining twenty five years before abandonment. Today little remains of the actual Narrow gauge itself other than a museum and a few items there. The rails from the line has long been removed and much of the right of way is grown over or plowed up. If you know where to look the right of way can still be found in places. I know on the Spoon River drive every october the museum is a good source to find information as well as see old pictures of this once promising railroad as well as a book you can purchase about this railroad. I came to know more about it by purchasing this book here at one of the drives years ago. The book is "History of the Fulton County Narrow Gauge Railway, Spoon River "Peavine" by E.W Mureen.
The history of the line starts from a battle between two towns in Fulton County over the county seat and a newspaper editor got the whole thing going to encourage the railroad's construction. Canton and their citizens at the time in the 1870's wanted the county seat already established in Lewistown to be moved to their location since Canton was bigger. Canton also had two railroads and was a booming manufacturing town at that time. Jokes on them if they could just look into the future by a century or so. The newspapers in each town's battled it out and meetings in each town were held. It kind of got nasty between the two towns for a while. Thankfully Lewistown won and this railroad was built over a few years. The construction had it's up and downs. The land scape made it a challenge since some of our county has alot of hills as well as creeks and then you have the good old Spoon River with it's notorious flooding. When nature wasn't making a complete pest of itself during it's construction then area farmers were. Many farmers welcomed this and seen it as an opportunity while others didn't want no part of it so they refused to sell land or demanded too much money wanting the railroad to fill their pockets deep with the green. Fairview locals were guilty of this so they built just to the west. They could have had the railroad run right through town but nope some people decided to be greedy. Their loss I reckon. The line would get built over a few years and was up and going in 1880 from Galesburg all the way down to West Havana which was a train stop on the other side of the Illinois River from the actual city of Havana. They hauled passengers by wagon acrossed a wagon bridge to Havana and I suppose the freight went as well. There was a heavy expense building a bridge to Havana so they set up terminal at West Havana. They had an agreement to share a bridge that would be built by the Chicago,Havana & Western Railroad in 1879 so narrow gauge rails were laid on it .They used the bridge from 1882-1886 but it wasn't profitable enough for them to keep making the yearly fees so they just went as far as West Havana after 1886. According to the book by EW Mureen a depot, aroundhouse and a turn table was constructed but they didnt make enough profit to keep using the bridge apparently. The railroad had talks of building north up to Mount Carroll and so forth but nothing became of that.
Over the years the railroad served area farmers,local residents by providing passenger service as well as serve the coal mines that would pop up throughout the area. They had no more than 5 locomotives at one time while under control of the Narrow Gauge. They dealt with many issues over the years such as flooding and derailments as well as some pranks from idiots of the time. In it's history only one person was killed that i remember reading about which is pretty good considering how many derailments they had. The wrecks would become more spectacular once the line was graded to standard and they ran bigger equipment during the CB&Q years. At the end the Narrow Gauge didn't prove to be a success financially. They did well enough but couldn't rival other railroads so CB&Q ended up buying them out around 1905 and they started upgrading it to standard gauge. They would limit the number of trains so activity dwindled some after a while. They wanted the line to keep other railroads from tapping into the area coal mines the Narrow Gauge was serving. The coming of the automobile, better roads, and it was never that profitable enough of a line doomed it. They lasted until the mid 1930's before starting to abandon in sections. A flood south of Lewistown washed out a bridge they opted to abandon instead of replace so West Havana to Lewistown was abandoned and tracks were removed not long after. Galesburg down to Fairview seen abandonment as well and it too seen track removal. All of this occurring between the years 1934-1935 and by 1936 the line was all done for an exception of a section CB&Q kept from Lewistown up to Fairview to serve local mines. This section would last another 40 years until it was abandoned by Burlington Northern in 1977. The previous year it is to be noted track speed was restricted to 10 mph in 1976 and I have heard it was in terrible condition. The coal mines started shutting down in the late 1960's going on until the mid 1980's in the county so the line probably didnt get much use around the time of abandonment. The line disappeared off maps by 1980 so track removal of the remainder was from 1977- 1980 in that time frame. The right of way for that section can still be seen as well as an old cross buck on some back road near Fiatt.
Today if you know where to look the right of way can be found the most noticeable being the final section that was abandoned in 1977. You can still find traces of the original in a few places and if you look hard enough as well as know the local back roads. The Fulton County Narrow Gauge museum is the only structure that I know of that still remains and it can be visited during the Spoon River Drive for certain. If you're down here during the first two weekends of October then give it a visit. :)
The history of the line starts from a battle between two towns in Fulton County over the county seat and a newspaper editor got the whole thing going to encourage the railroad's construction. Canton and their citizens at the time in the 1870's wanted the county seat already established in Lewistown to be moved to their location since Canton was bigger. Canton also had two railroads and was a booming manufacturing town at that time. Jokes on them if they could just look into the future by a century or so. The newspapers in each town's battled it out and meetings in each town were held. It kind of got nasty between the two towns for a while. Thankfully Lewistown won and this railroad was built over a few years. The construction had it's up and downs. The land scape made it a challenge since some of our county has alot of hills as well as creeks and then you have the good old Spoon River with it's notorious flooding. When nature wasn't making a complete pest of itself during it's construction then area farmers were. Many farmers welcomed this and seen it as an opportunity while others didn't want no part of it so they refused to sell land or demanded too much money wanting the railroad to fill their pockets deep with the green. Fairview locals were guilty of this so they built just to the west. They could have had the railroad run right through town but nope some people decided to be greedy. Their loss I reckon. The line would get built over a few years and was up and going in 1880 from Galesburg all the way down to West Havana which was a train stop on the other side of the Illinois River from the actual city of Havana. They hauled passengers by wagon acrossed a wagon bridge to Havana and I suppose the freight went as well. There was a heavy expense building a bridge to Havana so they set up terminal at West Havana. They had an agreement to share a bridge that would be built by the Chicago,Havana & Western Railroad in 1879 so narrow gauge rails were laid on it .They used the bridge from 1882-1886 but it wasn't profitable enough for them to keep making the yearly fees so they just went as far as West Havana after 1886. According to the book by EW Mureen a depot, aroundhouse and a turn table was constructed but they didnt make enough profit to keep using the bridge apparently. The railroad had talks of building north up to Mount Carroll and so forth but nothing became of that.
Over the years the railroad served area farmers,local residents by providing passenger service as well as serve the coal mines that would pop up throughout the area. They had no more than 5 locomotives at one time while under control of the Narrow Gauge. They dealt with many issues over the years such as flooding and derailments as well as some pranks from idiots of the time. In it's history only one person was killed that i remember reading about which is pretty good considering how many derailments they had. The wrecks would become more spectacular once the line was graded to standard and they ran bigger equipment during the CB&Q years. At the end the Narrow Gauge didn't prove to be a success financially. They did well enough but couldn't rival other railroads so CB&Q ended up buying them out around 1905 and they started upgrading it to standard gauge. They would limit the number of trains so activity dwindled some after a while. They wanted the line to keep other railroads from tapping into the area coal mines the Narrow Gauge was serving. The coming of the automobile, better roads, and it was never that profitable enough of a line doomed it. They lasted until the mid 1930's before starting to abandon in sections. A flood south of Lewistown washed out a bridge they opted to abandon instead of replace so West Havana to Lewistown was abandoned and tracks were removed not long after. Galesburg down to Fairview seen abandonment as well and it too seen track removal. All of this occurring between the years 1934-1935 and by 1936 the line was all done for an exception of a section CB&Q kept from Lewistown up to Fairview to serve local mines. This section would last another 40 years until it was abandoned by Burlington Northern in 1977. The previous year it is to be noted track speed was restricted to 10 mph in 1976 and I have heard it was in terrible condition. The coal mines started shutting down in the late 1960's going on until the mid 1980's in the county so the line probably didnt get much use around the time of abandonment. The line disappeared off maps by 1980 so track removal of the remainder was from 1977- 1980 in that time frame. The right of way for that section can still be seen as well as an old cross buck on some back road near Fiatt.
Today if you know where to look the right of way can be found the most noticeable being the final section that was abandoned in 1977. You can still find traces of the original in a few places and if you look hard enough as well as know the local back roads. The Fulton County Narrow Gauge museum is the only structure that I know of that still remains and it can be visited during the Spoon River Drive for certain. If you're down here during the first two weekends of October then give it a visit. :)
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