The Bloomer Shippers Connecting Railroad (or Boomer Line) , headquartered in Gibson City, Illinois, is a Class III railroad serving agricultural communities in east-central Illinois.

History

In June 1985, the

Illinois Central Gulf Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A ...

(ICG) sold a portion of its circuitous route between Kankakee and Bloomington to a new spin-off railroad company which called itself "The Bloomer Line" (after the ex- Illinois Central Railroad division it had purchased). Specifically, the Bloomer Line purchased the right-of-way between Herscher and Barnes. The railroad has since taken the line between Herscher and Kempton and Barnes and Colfax out of service. At Chatsworth, the Bloomer Line makes a connection with the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway. In May 1990, the railroad purchased from the

Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

its ex- Wabash Railway line from near Risk south to Gibson City. Connections to N&W successor Norfolk Southern and ICG successor

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

are made at Gibson City.

Operations

The Bloomer Line is owned by Alliance Grain Company, which owns the eight grain elevators served by the railroad. It is primarily a grain transporter, shipping carloads of

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

soybeans The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu and ...

and wheat from these silos to the connecting railroads, but also serves several other industries, including a soybean processing plant in Gibson City and a fertilizer distribution facility in Colfax. Bloomer Line locomotives are painted bright red and labeled in a font which looks very similar to that used on the former

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illin ...

. Locomotive maintenance was conducted at Chatsworth until shops were constructed at Gibson City after that line was purchased.

Locomotive Roster

External links

Alliance Grain
Official Bloomer Line Website]
Bloomer Line
Unofficial Website]
Bloomer Line Roster
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloomer Shippers Connecting Railroad Illinois railroads Spin-offs of the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad