The Illinois Midland Railway
began in 1914. It was located 50 miles southwest of Chicago, where it
connected two small towns surrounded by farmland barely two miles apart:
Newark and Millington. Originally, plans called for a 120-mile railroad
to be built across northern Illinois, connecting the cities of Rockford
and Kankakee and bypassing congested Chicagoland rail traffic. A
turbulent financial start resulted in just 1.962 miles of rickety track
that meandered through forests, pastures, and across a creek.
Townspeople there rescued the struggling railroad then ran it
successfully under the tutelage of the Newark Farmers Grain Elevator
Company, getting into record books along the way as The World's Shortest
Railroad. The end came in 1967, when vandals burned a couple of the
railroad's bridges. The Midland ceased operations, and the rails were
removed, but again townspeople in Newark and Millington came to the
rescue, each establishing museums to keep the memory of their Midland
alive today.
