Railroad Related Stories    

  1. Railroad Related Stories
    1. Impact of First Railroads. Explains what life was like before the railroads arrived in the Fairbury area.
    2. Fairbury's Lost Railroad. These tracks ran from Fairbury south to Strawn.
    3. Lodemia History. Lodemia is a ghost town that was created on the Chicago & Paducah Railroad from McDowell to Fairbury.
    4. The Railroads and Fairbury by Carolyn Yoder. She wrote this paper as a student at Fairbury-Cropsey High School in 1983. It includes both railroads that were in Fairbury.
    5. History of the Chicago & Paducah Railroad from LeBaron's 1878 Livingston County history book. Dale C. Maley added some comments after the excerpt.
    6. Hinckley's Railroad Empire. A 1954 biography of Mr. Hinckley, who at one time owned the Chicago & Paducah Railroad. He was a very colorful character.
    7. Dr. Miller and His Role in Founding Fairbury, Illinois. He was involved with the new Peoria & Oquawka Railroad line that founded Fairbury in 1857.
    8. Alma Lewis James recounting of how the Peoria & Oquawka Railroad and the Chicago & Paducah Railroads came to Fairbury.  These lines were later renamed to the TP&W and the Wabash Railroads.
    9. Railroad Scheming and Trickery. Story about how the Peoria & Oquawka (later TP&W) and the Chicago & Paducah (later Wabash) first came to Fairbury, Illinois.
    10. Chicago & Paducah Railroad History. Was later renamed to the Wabash Railroad.
    11. Hobos in Fairbury during the Great Depression.
    12. Life before the Railroads. Taken from a speech Dale C. Maley gave about this topic in 2025.
    13. The Colorful History of the TP&W Railroad.
    14. Link to all known Fairbury railroad depot photos for the TP&W and Chicago & Paducah (later the Wabash).
    15. Story about all the depots that were in Fairbury.
    16. Great Chatsworth Train Wreck of 1887.
      1. Transcription of the most complete newspaper story about the wreck from Piper City newspaper.
      2. Impact of the 1887 Chatsworth train wreck on Fairbury.