Mattoon, IL: 1918 Amtrak/IC Passenger Station

(3D Satellite)

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The IC passenger station is alive and well as an Amtrak station, museum (that was closed the day of the week that I visited). gift shop, and office space. When I stopped to check out the IC freight house, a clerk recommended that I check out the passenger station as well. I'm glad I did.

After entering the station, you go down a set of stairs to...

...the waiting room. I wonder if they can move the benches to a storage room and put a DJ stand on the ticket boot for wedding receptions.

The tracks go through a rather deep cut. This view shows that downtown is at the same level as the station entrance.

On my way over to the station, I took a picture of the right side of the mural you see on the side of the building above. This must have been where the IC mainline crossed the Big Four before the IC mainline was placed in a cut. From the clothing and the street-running, I assume that this scene is from the 1800s.

The station had a parking lot on the east side of the station.

Update:
Thomas C. Gibbons posted three photos with the comment:

Here it comes. There it goes. I kind of remember taking these pictures of the City of New Orleans sometime during the 1960's as it arrived in Mattoon and then departed. The arriving picture is looking north from Broadway toward the New York Central bridge. The other is looking south from Charleston Avenue. They have been hiding in my computer for a long time. I have also included an attempt I once made to colorize one of them.

David Nisbet As a fireman in 1978 on #50 my engineer went thru those 30 MPH subways at 86 MPH, throttle buried, you didn't say a word back then.A hint for my BLE brothers.... he had emptied his thermos coming up Magnet hill.

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Bill Molony posted

Richard A. I. Carlson Very similar to the cuts at Paxton on the IC and Winnetka in the CNW/CNS&M. Same designs on the bridges and abutment walls.

Albert J Reinschmidt Was it ever really 4 track?

Bill Molony posted again

Steve Corn In Mattoon, as the photograph shows, we confusingly called this the subway, even though it's not an urban transit system.
Bill Molony posted again
David Daruszka The material excavated from the cut was used for track elevation during the IC electrification program.

Jim Arvites also posted
Postcard view from the steam era of Illinois Central Railroad passenger trains by the station platforms at the Mattoon, Illinois IC depot.
Jack Burke If you are ever near Mattoon, Illinois take a minute to see the station now. It has been beautifully restored to its IC heyday. It still functions as an Amtrak station. Rails and nearby yards are now CN. This station is the centerpiece of Mattoon's revitalized downtown. It is amazing, all the tile, all the brass, the posters, and even a history museum.
Dennis DeBruler And US-45 goes right past the former IC freight house: http://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/.../mattoon-il-ic...

Paul Jevert posted
I.C.R.R. Mattoon Illinois subway cut and Depot ! (1920)

Looking South. The Big Four overpass and depot are in the background.

Illinois Central Railroad Scrapbook posted
In 1954 IC Mikado 1269 leads a freight past the depot at Mattoon, IL. The Mikado has long been scrapped but the depot still stands. Scanned from a duplicate negative in the collection of Cliff Downey.
Sam Yacono: NYC [Big Four] station looming above [left of the smokestack] and a water tank hiding behind the maples.
Paul Jevert shared
I.C. Mikado 2-8-2 # 1269 at Mattoon (1954)

Another photo taken from the depot looking north:

Thomas C. Gibbons posted
Just joined the group. Thanks for adding me. Here is one of my favorite old Mattoon pictures, which I have posted before in other places. If you have seen it before, sorry to make you look at it again. It is from sometime in the 1960's ... after the NYC cut back to 2 passenger trains and before the Penn Central merger. That westbound NYC train was being called the Knickerbocker at that time, I think. The other one is the southbound City of New Orleans.
Steve Corn shared
Larry Miller III also posted
Victor Jugo Tao shared

Steven Aroesty

Wonder if this was a coincidence or a planned meet—would have to pull the schedules to see?

Raymond Storey posted
Jerry Jewels When was the NYC line abandoned?
Bill Edrington Conrail abandoned the line between Pana and Paris in 1982. The track was pulled up the following year.
Thomas C. Gibbons The picture is looking north but it is the southbound City of New Orleans and the westbound train they were calling the Knickerbocker then. The line was double track then, and the 2nd track from the station was the southbound track. That is a picture I took in the mid 1960's.
Thomas C. Gibbons I think the grade separation was created in the 19 teens.

Steve Corn shared
Mattoon 1920s? Big 4 passenger train above, tail end of a southbound IC passenger train below.
Steve Corn Looking at this more closely, I wonder if the IC coach is part of a train? It's on a side track. The SB main is in the center of the photo.
Charlie DeWeese The coach appears to have a marker lamp on it, implying train.
Steve Corn One possibility is the coach is part of a train on the PD&E. I don't know that these trains used any 
other station after the main depot was built. Trains from Peoria or Evansville, if they used the depot in the main line, would have backed north into the station, but not on the main line?
Bill Edrington It's Mattoon, all right...although I never knew there was a covered stairway connecting the Big Four platform directly with the IC platform. Anybody know when that was removed?
Dennis DeBruler When did Big Four building their depot? Did they share the IC station before that? https://www.facebook.com/groups/161019811058897/permalink/290760874751456/

Before the IC lowered the tracks in town to improve their grades, the IC and NYC crossed at grade level.

Bill Molony posted
The Illinois Central's tracks ran north and south through Mattoon, and they were crossed in Mattoon by the tracks of the Big Four running east and west, as shown in this vintage post card picture.
Matt McClure Looks like IC has the right of way.

Bill Molony posted

This is a Post Card picture of the Union Station and Essex House at Mattoon, Illinois. Undated, but circa 1910.

Mattoon was located at the intersection of the Illinois Central and the CCC&StL or "Big Four".

From the Blackhawk collection.

Matt McClure commented on the first posting [This is why I now include the link of the post. I now have no idea what was the "first posting."]

Ray Hamilton posted
Steve Corn shared
Construction of the "subway" in Mattoon, 1914. The bridge in the background is the Big 4 (NYC) Indianapolis-St. Louis line. The man at the right is standing at the site of the soon to be built IC Depot.

Doug Shook posted
1914, looking NW across the Big Four bridge. I think this fellow is standing about where the ICRR station would soon be built. I fiddled with this pic in editing and now you can see the guy's eyes. It's a great pic!
Paul Jevert shared
I.C. digging the Mattoon, Ill. cut under the Big 4 R.R.   (1914)
Quite an Engineering feat and project like the Paxton Cut about the same date.

Mattoon Illinois Central Depot posted
from Ray Hamilton
Paul Jevert shared
Big 4 passenger train crossing I.C. at Mattoon, Ill. while I.C. grade separation and cut is under construction. (1914)

 

Mattoon Illinois Central Depot posted
Paul Jevert shared
Mattoon existing High level track to move I.C. Traffic during Subway Cut project (1914)

David Cantrell posted two photos with the comment: "Mattoon, IL subway construction - first train through.   --Illinois Central Magazine."

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[I wonder were that grain elevator that is left of center in the backround used to be.]
Paul Jevert shared

I need to remember this viewpoint if I visit this town again.

Jim Pearson Photography posted

Amtrak 393 pulls into the old Illinois Central Depot in downtown Mattoon, Illinois

Amtrak 393 (The Illini) pulls into the old Illinois Central (IC) Depot in downtown Mattoon, Illinois with 4623 leading the Wednesday evening southbound train from Chicago to Carbondale, Illinois bathed in Infrared light on the CN Champaign Subdivision.

According to Wikipedia, The Mattoon station is housed in the former Illinois Central Railroad Depot. The depot was completed in 1918 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. At its height, the building housed a power plant, mail room, luggage room, and restaurant, in addition to the main hall where passengers waited to board trains. As many as ten trains a day departed the depot in the 1950s.

During 2010, a $3 million restoration project, paid for from a mix of private, state, and federal funding, was undertaken, replacing paint, flooring, and other interior fixtures.

The station currently serves as a stop for the Illini, Saluki, and City of New Orleans passenger trains. The tracks themselves, formerly part of the Illinois Central Railroad, are now owned by the Canadian National Railway (CN). Freight trains run by CN pass through frequently.

Jim Pearson Photography

https://fineartamerica.com/.../1-amtrak-393-pulls-into...

Thomas French: As member of the project committee, I wish I could tell you that it took us only a year to restore the depot. In fact, it took us a decade, from 2001-2011 to do that. Part of that was due to having just missed the 2000 transportation bill and having to wait until 2005 for the next one. The remainder of the time was having to source the matching funds and the city holding onto the funds earmarked for the depot until it was almost too late to use them.

 

Mattoon Illinois Central Depot posted
Paul Jevert shared
I.C. contractors steam shovel moving soil & rocks out of cut at Mattoon during $1 Million subway project under Big 4 R.R. crossing in 1914.

Mattoon Illinois Central Depot posted
Engineering News (from Rick Ralston)
Paul Jevert shared

This article is titled "Mattoon's extensive rail history," but all seven photos at the top are of this station. (source)