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The Illinois Terminal Company (formerly the Illinois Traction System) operated a large interurban network in downstate (i.e. not-Chicago) Illinois, running between Danville, Peoria and St. Louis, Missouri. It also operated a number of small-town streetcar lines.
The Illinois Terminal was another relatively long-lived interurban (especially for a more "traditional" Midwestern system) as it was able to subsidize its passenger operations with a robust freight interchange business and U.S. Mail contracts. The railroad managed to weather the Great Depression largely intact. In 1947, the Illinois Terminal purchased their "Streamliners" from the St. Louis Car Company, the final interurban cars built in the United States. These trainsets were based on the North Shore Line's "Electroliners" but were not as successful, as they were prone to mechanical and operational problems.
In the post-WWII era, most of the ridership was lost to competition from the automobile. Starting in 1956, the last passenger services were gradually phased out, and the Illinois Terminal was acquired by the various railroads with which it exchanged freight. Diesel freight service continued until 1982, when it was merged into the Norfolk & Western Railway. One of the locomotives in the Norfolk Southern "heritage fleet' is painted in Illinois Terminal colors.
