The Glen Carbon Central Railroad, hereafter known as the GCC, was started in July of 1866, by two entrepreneurs, Rogerson Hammerstein and Chase N. Sanborn who were intrigued by the prospect of being the only coal haulers from the mines in the Glen Carbon area connecting to any railroad. While several railroads near the area had shown modest interest in running a spur to the mines, but none had committed to do so, and hauling by the wagon load was clearly neither productive to end users nor to any expansion in mining operations or locations.

The first rail line was built from Mine #1 to a connection with the Litchfield and Madison Railroad near Judy Creek and extended for about two miles over some very rugged terrain. The initial hauling power came from two 4-4-0 American-type locomotives which had been acquired on loan from the Reading Railroad, however these two units had to run in tandem in order to pull reasonably sized coal trains over the bluffs, and it soon became apparent that larger power would need to be acquired.

The first new locomotives acquired by the GCC were two 2-8-0 Consolidation-type units built by Baldwin and fired by coal. These two units went into service in 1872 and remained in service until just after the turn of the century; in the meantime additional 2-8-0's were acquired through the early 1920's totalling 14 such locomotives. All 2-8-0's were retired by 1952, however most only remained in active service into the middle 1940's.

The GCC also adopted the 2-6-6-2 Mallet wheel arrangement used by the Chicago and Alton Railroad in it's Litchfield to Atlanta (Illinois) coal runs, and two such locomotives were thus built by Baldwin around 1900 and remained in service until 1940, when they were replaced by first-generation diesels(F-3's and F-7's). Other steam road power included 2-8-2 Mikados, 4-6-2 Pacifics, 4-6-4 Hudsons, 4-8-0 Mastodons, 4-8-4 Northerns, and 4-8-2 Mountains, totalling 39 locomotives at its largest steam inventory in 1930.

The railroad began to 'dieselize' in the late 1930's when EMD introduced its mass-produced F-units. However, given that coal hauling was such an important industry, that coal was a relatively inexpensive commodity for a railroad that hauled it, and that the GCC's steam locomotives were in good condition and well-maintained, coal-fired steam locomotives hauled most coal runs until the mines closed.

In 1898, the railroad acquired the right-of-way and other assets of the bankrupt St. Louis and Northern Railway Company, and thus secured access to St. Louis, East St. Louis, Madison, Alton, and Granite City. Along with this acquisition came industries which had been dependent on the then defunct St. L. & N., which readily signed haulage agreements with the GCC rather than having to operate a railroad themselves. Among these industries were breweries, grain milling and processing plants, stockyards, steel mills, farm implement manufacturers, a rail car factory, a malting plant, and several other industries which would later develop on or near the rail lines, such as refineries and chemical plants. However, coal was the founding force for the railroad and it continued to haul coal as it's "bread and butter" industry until the bituminous coal was largely mined out in the late 1960's, and when demand for western low sulphur coal made further mining along the GCC's route uneconomical.

The railroad continues to serve Glen Carbon from a connection with the Union Pacific near Granite City, and a connection with the Norfolk Southern south of Hamel. It serves essentially the same manufacturing and agricultural base as it did in the early 1920's, except that it now picks up all-rail taconite shipments from the BNSF in Florissant, Missouri and hauls them to the Hardas Granite Steel Company in Venice and Everustee Steel in East St. Louis. The railroad also serves Anheuser-Busch, Nooter Boiler, Mallinkrodt, Monsanto, and Ralston-Purina via the Manufacturer's Railway in St. Louis.