It operated in Indiana and eastern Illinois until its sale on April 28, 1879, to the Lake Erie and Western Railroad.

Workers lived in eight company supplied board shanties, with the cost of food and lodging deducted from their wages.

In November 1871 work was done as far as Saybrook in McLean County where a celebration was head as a locomotive named "General Gridley" pulled a train into the little town.

[2] On 18 June 1872 a construction train on the new railroad ran off the rails east of Paxton, in Ford County, Illinois; seven workers were killed and twenty-five injured.

These concerned "unjust rates", delays in shipping freight, and lack of cars during harvest season.