...it had been abandoned for years since the IL Central went out of service.
the Dixon, Il park district bought up what they could and turned it into a bike/walking path. It's never been surfaced, just rails/ties removed and smooth graded gravel. The Dixon park district mows and maintains it.
one nice thing are all the trees; in the Summer it's nice and cool, in the cold months they serve as a nice windbreak, especially where the rail line was cut out and has the higher earthen sides. There are a lot of areas where there are steep sides dropping down; I'll get more pics.