Dixon, IL: UP/C&NW/G&C Depot and 1850 Freight House

Depot: (Satellite, the depot was removed so that the road could be extended and cross the tracks here.)

Freight House: (Satellite)

Note that this depot has a turret over the bay window of the agent's office. I remember that the DeKalb depot also had a turret, but it was much higher and was functional as a lookout.

Jim Arvites posted
View of a westbound Chicago & North Western Railway passenger train arriving at the Dixon, Illinois depot circa 1900.

Sandy McCann commented on Nancy Grove Mollenkamp's posting 

At the bottom of the posting on the freight house is a Sanborn Map image that shows the depot was east of the still existing freight house. When the depot existed, Depot Ave did not cross the tracks and the depot existed where the road and scrap yard now exist.

C&NWHS posted
Here we have the station at Dixon, Illinois located on the east/west main line to Clinton, Iowa in 1908. The photo is from a damaged "real photo" post card in the post card collection held at the archives of the C&NW Historical Society. A young man who later became President of the United States often used this station.

An 1891 Sanborn Map does show that Depot Avenue terminated at a passenger station that was east of the freight house and the road did not cross the tracks. Furthermore, there were tracks on both sides of the freight house.

Sheet 10 of Sanborn Map

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Freight House

When driving a "field trip" to take pictures of the industrial railroad buildings, sometimes getting lost is serendipity. I went through Dixon on a trip from Dekalb's coaling tower, Rochelle's railroad park, and Nelson's coaling tower. While trying to follow some detour signs through Dixon, IL, I drove past an old, long, low building with multiple big doors in the side. Since the name was Freight House Kitchen & Bath, I pulled into the first parking lot I found. As with the IC Freight House in Mattoon, IL, the person working inside was well aware of the historical significance of the building. He said it was built in 1850 as Galena & Chicago Union's freight house and that it had 18-inch walls.

20150913,16 4761, looking West along the north side

He brought out an old photo and pointed out that there used to be tracks close to the building on the south side as well.

Below are a couple of views of the south side. As you can see, just the mainline tracks remain and they are some distance from the freight house.

Jim Arvites posted
View of the old Chicago & North Western Railway's Freight House at Dixon, Illinois circa 1874. The building is still standing today.
(Vintage Dixon, IL)

Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted
An interesting shot of the local switcher assigned to Dixon, Illinois about 1870.  It was built by the Lowell Company in 1853 and is said to have been scrapped in 1874.  The freight house in the background still stands having been built by the Galena and Chicago Union railroad in 1857.  It is the only remaining C&CU/C&NW thing still surviving in town except for the two track heavy rail concrete tied main line which goes through town on the same 1854 right of way.

John Ott: The Lowell locomotive was the Galena & Chicago Union #14, later the first C&NW #14. It was a 4-4-0. This one is C&NW's second #14, built in the company shops in 1874.

Jimmy Fiedler shared

Aerial photo from ILHAP

A 1939 aerial photo also has a road, rather than tracks, south of the freight house. (I included quite a bit of the industrial buildings and the IC tracks because they are interesting. The freight house is the building in the center near the bottom.) The IC tracks on the right where part of the original charter line, and they are now abandoned. 

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