(Source: WBEZ.org, November 6, 2013)
CHICAGO — Illinois Central Railroad was once one of the mightiest businesses in the Midwest.
Beginning in the 1850s, “The Main Line of Mid-America” rolled freight and passenger trains out of Chicago into the deepest South and west to Iowa for well over a century. The railroad was so powerful, a few towns along its lines were named after the company’s bosses or — in the case of Centralia, Illinois — the railroad itself.
Full story and photographs: WBEZ.org