Amboy
Northern Illinois Electric
Railway
#201 at Amboy, Illinois
in 1911. The line began operating on October 1, 1910 using car 201 (which
apparently came from the Chicago Uniion Traction) over the 11.5 miles of
trackage between Amboy and Lee Center in northern Illinois.
A larger interurban 104 was acquired from a group built by AC&F at
Jeffersonville for the Louisville-New Albany bridge line when the interurbans
there were replaced by wide gauge interurbans that could run into Louisville.
On July 8, 1914, the line was sold at foreclosure to the Lee County Central
Railroad. Patronage never amounted to anything as the population
in the area was very minimual. The powerhouse was very undependable
and service was haulted numberous times. Electric operations continued
until the early 1920s, after which all passeneger service was terminated
(and the two cars sat around for years in derilic conditions thereafter)
and replaced with a gas locomotive (and other powers that was obtained
thereafter) which operated over the remaining trackage to connect grain
elevators with the CB&Q at Amboy until the 1960s when everything was
scrapped after the CB&Q trackage was abandoned.
Stephen M. Scalzo collection
Back to
Illinois Page
State-by-state
listings
Back
to Main Page