Marion
Coal Belt Electric Railway
The Coal Belt Electric Railway (CBE) was a 20-mile interurban system that provided transportation and electric light/heat/power service in the coal fields of south central Illinois between Marion, Carterville, Spillertown, Johnston City and Herrin in Williamson County.  The initial eight mile section operated between the carbarn at the west end  of Market Street in Marion, then went in an northwest direction on the east side of the C&EI to Spillertown and out West Main Street in Marion to Lilly Curve and N&NW to the Peabody and Pig Maddy Coal Mines of the Black Diamond Coal fields.  Passenger service began on  9/1/1901 using single-truck streetcars.  As the coal development moved westward in Williamson County into the Black Diamond Field of southern Illinois, the CBE extended service to the other various deep-shaft coal mines in nearby towns where hundreds of coal miners and ordinary citizens needed transportation to get to and from work and shopping.  Service was extended from Marion to Carterville and Herrin on 6/20/1902.   The St. Louis Iron Mountain and Southern Railway (acquired by the Missouri Pacific Railroad through bankruptcy in 1917) purchased the CBE in 1907, and the original line to Spillertown and street trackage in Marion were abandoned in 1907.  Most freight service (steam operated) was discontinued in 1914 and given to the parent company, and the CBE then became almost exclusively a passenger carrier using eight interurbans (which had replaced the original single-truck streetcars) and combination motor cars.  Concrete highways, automobiles and the exhaustion of coal mines lead to the abandonment of all CBE passenger service on 11/17/1926.
Postcard of interurban 10s 11, etc apparently loading for a special movement in the 1910 era.
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