[1][2] By 1859, the Peoria and Oquawka fell under receivership, and the company was quickly absorbed into the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q).

[1] During that time, the railway's passenger operations experienced ridership losses, since some newly-paved state highway roads paralleled their trackage.

[1] The CB&Q and the PRR both attempted to absorb the TP&W, but in 1926, the railway was purchased for $1.3 million by George P. McNear Jr., who was a former New York Central (NYC) executive and investor.

[citation needed] Under McNear's leadership, the TP&W became one of very few railroads in the United States to turn profits during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

[1][5][7] In 1945, when World War II ended, control of the TP&W was returned to George McNear, but the thirteen unions instantly reinitiated the strike, consequently shutting the railway down.

[5][7] In December 1946, federal judge J. Leroy Adair ordered for the TP&W to resume operations, and he issued an injunction to prevent interference from strikers.

[5] On the night of March 10, 1947, George McNear was shot and killed while walking back to his home from a Bradley Braves basketball game during a power outage.

[1] In January 1960, the PRR and the Santa Fe jointly purchased the TP&W from the McNear estate, with the two companies gaining an equal amount of shares.

[9] During the 1960s, the TP&W experienced additional declining traffic from losses of interchange partners; in 1960, the Minneapolis and St. Louis was absorbed into the Chicago and North Western (C&NW); in 1964, the NKP and the Wabash were absorbed into the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W), with the Wabash providing a direct route to Kansas City; and in 1968, the PRR and the NYC merged together to create Penn Central (PC).

[1] During that time, the Santa Fe opened an alternate bypass route to Streator, Illinois, where they directly interchanged with the NYC.

[1] The TP&W secured trackage rights over the Santa Fe between Lomax and Fort Madison, Iowa, to preserve their interchangeability.

Since the railway was unable to afford to build a replacement, they were forced to gain trackage rights over the Peoria and Pekin Union's nearby bridge.

The TP&W subsequently developed interchange partnerships with other railroads, including CSX Transportation in Watseka, the Illinois Central (IC) in Gilman, and the Southern Pacific (SP) in Chenoa.

[2] Under DO ownership, the TP&W began to serve as a western terminus for the NYS&W's own intermodal operations out of the New York City area.

[15] In 1997, when it was announced that Conrail would be split between CSX and Norfolk Southern (NS), DO president and CEO Walter Rich explored ways to aid his fellow stockholders' demands.

[17] In December 2012, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) acquired RailAmerica, gaining ownership of the TP&W, and they began repainting all of their locomotives in G&W's orange-and-black paint scheme.