Rockford Area Railroads

Download or read book Rockford Area Railroads written by Mike Schafer and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2010-10-25 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Railroads were key to Rockfords rise as a thriving manufacturing and commercial center. With an area population of over 200,000 residents and a reputation for manufactured goods, Rockford had a critical need for railroads into the bust years of the 1970s. Eventually four railroads rose to prominence in Rockford, all of them Class 1 carriers: the Chicago and North Western; Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy; the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Pau,l and Pacific (the Milwaukee Road); and Illinois Central. For nearly a century, these four roadsall of them esteemed Midwestern railroadscarried the bulk of freight and passengers arriving and departing Rockford, Davis Junction, and Loves Park by rail. Two other smaller railways, the Chicago, Milwaukee, and Gary and the Rockford and Interurban, also played a part in Rockfords railroad history and are spotlighted in this volume.