Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Historical Society Museum

The Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Historical Society is a non-profit devoted to keeping alive the story of the C&EI, a Class I railroad that linked Chicago to southern Illinois, St. Louis, and Evansville. The railroad was organized in 1877 as a consolidation of three predecessors — the Chicago, Danville and Vincennes; the Evansville, Terre Haute and Chicago; and the Evansville and Terre Haute, whose lineage reached back to 1854. Danville, Illinois sat at the midpoint of the Chicago-Evansville mainline and hosted the road's first repair shops from 1877, later replaced by larger shops in the city's Oaklawn neighborhood that came to employ about 1,200 people; by then the C&EI ranked as a large regional railroad with 737 miles of mainline, 159 locomotives, 125 passenger cars, and 11,000 freight cars. The Frisco bought a controlling interest in 1902 but collapsed financially in 1913, leaving the C&EI independent again by 1920; the road entered bankruptcy in 1933, re-emerged in 1940, and gained access to St. Louis in 1954. Its streamliners included the Meadowlark, the Whippoorwill, and Chicago-to-Florida 'Dixie Route' trains such as the Dixie Flyer and Dixie Flagler. The Missouri Pacific assumed control in May 1967, the Evansville line was sold to the Louisville and Nashville in 1969, and MoPac merged the C&EI corporate entity in 1976 — its routes survive today under Union Pacific and CSX.