Illinois Terminal 301, the Illinois Terminal Railroad's Fort Crevecoeur. Photo by Herbert Georg Studio. Click to enlarge.
(Audio-Visual Designs, Earlton, NY, Photo by Herbert Georg., via W. Lenheim Collection)
FORT CREVECOUER
The Fort Crevecouer was a streamlined passenger train operating between St. Louis, Missouri and Peoria, Illinois by the Illinois Terminal Railroad. The train began in March of 1950 and was discontinued in 1956.
The Streamliners
See also: The Streamliners
The Streamliners were a fleet of three streamlined electric multiple units built by the St. Louis Car Company for the Illinois Terminal Railroad in 1948–1949. They operated primarily between St. Louis, Missouri and Peoria, Illinois in the late 1940s and early to mid-1950s. They were the last interurban cars manufactured in the United States.
Design
The St. Louis Car Company constructed all three sets. Each equipment set comprised three cars. The cars were constructed of fluted aluminum and were painted in a royal blue paint scheme.
An interior view of one of the reserved seat coach cars on the Illinois Terminal's Streamliners. Click to enlarge.
(Illinois Terminal Railroad/publisher-Mike Roberts, Berkeley, CA. Photo by Herbert Georg, Springfield, IL., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Service
The streamliners represented a last attempt by the Illinois Terminal to regain lost passenger traffic and were the first new passenger cars the railroad had ordered since 1918. The Illinois Terminal began teasing the new streamliners in 1947, but did not announce the order until May 1948. Its original plan was to place all three in service between St. Louis and Peoria. The first new train in service was the City of Decatur, which began operating between St. Louis, Missouri and Decatur, Illinois (not Peoria) on November 7, 1948. It was the first through service offered by the Illinois Terminal between those two cities.
By March 1950 all three sets were in operation. The other two, the Fort Crevecoeur and Mound City, were on the St. Louis–Peoria route as originally planned. All three trains offered parlor and "À la carte" dining service. The two streamliners made the trip in 4 hours 40 minutes, forty minutes faster than conventional interurbans on the route. Poor patronage led the Illinois Terminal to withdraw the City of Decatur in August 1950; the equipment was reassigned to the Peoria run. The new service was named Sangamon, which was the railroad's original choice in 1947.
All three sets were withdrawn by 1956 when passenger service on the Illinois Terminal ended.