IM Panther Creek Bridge

In 1888, the people of Pawnee, Illinois financed the Pawnee Railroad (PR), which constructed a railroad line from their town to the Illinois Central Railroad (IC) mainline south of Springfield.  This junction point would become known as "Cimic".  In 1905, the Chicago Edison Company purchased the PR for the purpose of transporting coal from the coal fields in central Illinois to Chicago.  The new railroad would be organized as the Chicago & Illinois Midland Railway (C&IM).  The following year, the C&IM reconstructed the Pawnee to Auburn portion of the line, and built a 16 mile extension to Taylorvile.  Owned by Samuel Insull, the company would be reorganized as Commonwealth Edison in 1907.   In 1294, the company acquired the Springfield-Havana-Pekin segment of the former Chicago, St. Louis & Peoria Railway.  Coal transfer facilities were constructed on the Illinois River at Havana and Pekin, further increasing the importance of this line.  
The portion of the line between Cimic and Auburn was abandoned in 1957.  After the Clean Air Act was passed in the 1960s, the high sulfur content of coal from the area made the use of this coal impractical.  Mines along the route began to close, and the C&IM was offered for sale, but received no takers.  During the 1970s, Commonwealth Edison changed plans, and began constructing power plants in central Illinois along the C&IM, sending electricity to Chicago along high voltage lines.  By the 1980s, deregulation of the railroads allowed Commonwealth Edison to use competitive bidding to obtain coal, and the C&IM would be placed for sale.  The C&IM was sold to investors in 1987, and the railroad eventually became part of the Illinois & Midland Railroad (I&M); owned by Genesee & Wyoming, Inc.  Today, the I&M continues to operate the line between Cimic and the Kincaid Generating Station; while east of there the line is out of service but largely intact to Taylorville.