Last Updated: January 12, 2007

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PG. 1 -  The History of the Kaskaskia Valley Railway

PG. 2 > 5 - Operations on the KVRwy - November 4-5, 2006

"THE TOUR" and Locations -

PG. 6 - FIDDLE

PG. 7 - FIDDLE SIDING AND FIDDLE MAIN

PG. 8 - RED BUD

PG. 9 - RED BUD LOOP

PG 10 - ACORN OIL COMPANY

PG. 11 - WHISKEY BARREL BRANCHLINE (April, 2004)

PG. 12 - WHISKEY BARREL BRANCHLINE (November, 2006)

PG. 13 - PORTABLE LIVE STEAM TRACK

PG. 14 - KV CABINS

PG. 15 - PIN OAK

PG. 16 - SEA WEED JUNCTION

PG. 17 - KVRWY Scenic LOOP

PG. 18 - THE KV SCENIC RAILWAY SWEEPER

PG. 19 - SWEETWATER

PG. 20 - BEAGLE JUNCTION

PG. 21 - WHERE ARE YOU???

PG. 22 - SOUTHERN  JUNCTION

PG. 23 - CONSOLIDATED

PG. 24 - KV WATER INDUSTRIAL PARK

The History of the Kaskaskia Valley Railway - In 1996, if you would have flown an airplane over southern Illinois, in this area just south of US Highway 50 and along the Kaskaskia River, you could have seen a series of old abandoned railroad right of ways. Most of this trackage is along the CSX tracks in the area of Carlyle, Illinois, the county seat of Clinton County. These splines of track went to coal mines and some date back to the mid-1800’s. These connections with the CSX trackage are formerly the B&O mainline from St. Louis to Cincinnati and was originally the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, a wide gauge line established as part of the Land Grant System of railroads in 1851. Over the last 9 years, there has been a revitalization of interest in the railroad history of the area and new steel has been laid on those old roadbeds. Connecting trackage has gone all the way to Owl’s Bend on the Kaskaskia River, 9 miles south on the old Southern Lines, now part of the Norfolk Southern System. And what was once useless ground has been reestablished to haul tourist, railroad enthusiasts and even a little coal and timber. The railroaders from the Illinois Central shops of Centralia, Illinois and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad have combined with coal miners, timber men and retired Southern Railroad employees and even guys from the old B&O to bring life and steam back to the Kaskaskia River Valley. At one time this area was the transportation hub of Illinois. This is at a time when Chicago was a swamp and there was not even any thought of Ft. Dearborn. The Kaskaskia River, as the oldest highway in the area with river travel, connected this part of the world with the Mississippi River. Eventually the Kaskaskia River was crossed by the O&M tracks at Carlyle and these tracks interchanged with the C, B & Q at Shattuc and the IC tracks at Sandoval. All commerce through this area traversed these lines as the farmland south was called “Little Egypt”. It provided produce and raw material to the markets of St. Louis to the west, Cincinnati and points east and then eventually that windy area to north, which became Chicago. So in a selfish way of really just wanting to play with trains, the Kaskaskia Valley Railway was formed on the closed and abandoned property of the “Always Faithful” mine at Owl’s Bend. Old tracks and right of way have been resurrected and for a source of coal, even the mine seams have been opened. All of this is a working railroad, in many scales with people doing what they enjoy and know. The miners are running the coal. Lumberjacks are cutting timber up at the old site and everything is done with steam and a couple of internal combustion engines. People can ride the trains, camp at the old lumber site and even tour the coal mine, as long as they are safe and nobody decides that they need to get lawyers involved. So the work of the KVRwy is that we haul people in the Summer and on special occasions and then coal in the Winter. If the price of coal goes up, who knows what might happen. It’s a great life living here in “The Valley”.