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Chicago & Alton Railroad Shops site
Now closed and demolished, Bloomington once was a center for railroad repairand construction by the Chicago and Alton Railroad. Located half-way between Chicago and St. Louis, with a secondary line from Bloomington to Kansas City, this central point on the railroad is where the railroad located its main shops. Here locomotives, passenger and freight cars were renovated. Once McLean County's largest employer, this railroad reached Bloomington from Springfield in 1853.
It began business in 1847 as the Alton & Sangamon Railroad, beginning construction in 1850 and reaching Springfield in 1853. In 1852 the railroad became the Chicago and Mississippi. In 1855 they located their main repair shops on Bloomington's west side, building locomotives, freight and passenger cars. Local merchants and lawyers donated land to the railroad to induce them to locate their construction and repair facilities here. The Shops eventually extended along the Railroad from Locust Street on the south to Seminary Street on the north. By 1857 the Shops had 185 employees. George Pullman came here in 1858 to build his first sleeping car. The line from Bloomington to Joliet was completed in 1856 and to Chicago in 1858. In 1861 the line became the Chicago & Alton. On November 1, 1867 a fire destroyed the Shops; Bloomington citizens again donated funds to rebuild them. A branch from Bloomington to Kansas City was completeed in 1879. It terminated in Bloomington because local citizens again raised $75,000 to have the line end in Bloomington, rather than curving northward toward Washington to meet up with an existing eastern branch of the company.
These repair shops necessitated skilled craft workers: boilermakers, machinists, woodworkers, pipefitters, sheet metal workers, blacksmiths and others, employing almost 1,200 at its peak in the early 20th century. The C&A's payroll in 1905 locally was $1.2 million. In 1882 the Shops burned and the community raised $55,000 to expand and rebuild them, after the company threatened to move them to Springfield. A major fire again struck the Shops in 1908. In 1910-12 the community raised $650,000 to buy land to allow for construction of a new locomotive backshop. On July 1, 1922 the workers, organized in AFL craft unions, participated in the national rail shop workers strike and the Illinois National Guard was brought in and encamped around the Shops complex. The workers returned to work in October 1922 on company terms.
In 1936, the company had 1,500 workers in Bloomington, both shop employees and operating crews, who brought in an annual payroll of almost $2 million. The C&A was absorbed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1931, released by that company in 1942, bankrupt in 1946 and then absorbed by the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad, which quickly switched from steam to diesel power, greatly cutting employment at the Bloomington Shops. Today the former C&A line is operated by the Union Pacific Railroad.
What was the Shops complex can be viewed northward from the West Locust Street bridge or southward from the West Seminary Street bridge in Bloomington. At one time, 31 buildings were part of this complex, stretching on the west side of the railroad yards between these two bridges. Only two buildings remain. On the west side of the former complex, at the east end of Perry Street, is a brick building from the 1910 era. On the east side of the complex, at West Chestnut and North Allin Street, is the 19th Chicago & Alton freight house, built of dolomite stone quarried in the Joliet area. This structure is typical of the 19th century buildings which once filled the site. It is now used by a local printing company.
