Decatur, IL: Wabash Depot

(3D Satellite)

(Update: the predecessor Union Station was shared with IC.)

Larry Senalick -> RAILROAD HISTORY BUFFS OF ILLINOIS
Wabash Depot, Decatur Illinois - 1907 ‪#‎sangamonvalleycollection‬

The depot fell into significant disrepair including boarded up windows until it was restored. It now houses an antique store.

The 1907 picture is another reminder that cars had yet to displace horses, street cars, and passenger trains.

Sammy Smith shared

David Bowman posted
What better a winter day to show off this Historical Wabash scene in Decatur, Illinois. Can you hear that horn - “all aboard” - the release of brake - off to Chicago! (H-R Archive photo).
[Some comments indicate this was the first run of the Bluebird train. And the building in the northwest quadrant was a YMCA that was used by crews to sleep over. The building to the east (left) of the Wabash depot was the IC depot.]
Bruce Smith shared

William A. Shaffer posted
Wabash Depot - Decatur, IL (June, 2012)
(Photo by William A. Shaffer)

William A. Shaffer posted
Wabash "City of Wabash" Parlor Car on the Wabash "Banner Blue" at Decatur, IL (October 1, 1959) (Photo by Jim Ozment - Collection ofWilliam A. Shaffer)Sammy Smith Nice! For lack of a better word, you can see the canapy over the loading area through the steam. I do not remember it, but seen a picture or two....one I swear my Dad was in it.

David Huelsing posted

Mike Isenberg posted
This early 20th century view in Decatur, IL. shows both the Wabash (with the tower) and the ICC (on the right) Stations.
[View would be looking a little west of North from near the IC tracks.]

Mike Isenberg posted
I am a lifetime Photographer/Graphic Arts guy. In the 1990s I acquired a crate of Glass Plate Negatives that had been shot by an advanced amateur in Decatur, Illinois 1901-1903. This is the Wabash Station in Decatur, IL shot in 1901. It still stands today, but that fine tower is long gone.

Mike Isenberg commented on the above posting
Here it is today.

Bill Molony posted

William A. Shaffer posted
Streamliner "Blue Bird" at Wabash Depot in Decatur, IL . (2.26.50)
(Photo by Decatur Herald & Review)
The "Blue Bird" is shown at Decatur, IL on its first day of service!Dennis DeBruler That is also a nice view of the IC Depot along the left side of the photo.

Robert Daly posted
Postcard of the Wabash [left] and IC [right] stations at Decatur.
Jack Franklin shared

Decatur Historic District posted two photos with the comment: "A VERY RARE AND OLD VIEW of the #IllinoisCentral train line and #WabashDepot."
Kirk Reynolds The postcard is postmarked Feb. 3, 1900 and I'm glad to share it here. Thanks for the then and now views!

1

2

Jim Pearson Photography posted

NS 148 arrives at Decatur, Illinois as it passes the old Wabash Station

Running elephant style, NS 9524, 3630, 1078 and 9598 lead train 148 (Avondale Yard - Kansas City, MO to East Yard - Decatur IL) as it passes the old Wabash Station on July 21st, 2021 on the NS Brooklyn District, as it arrives at Decatur, Illinois and approaches the Wabash/IC Crossover, before entering the yard, finishing its daily run.

According to Wikipedia: The Decatur station, also known as the Wabash Railroad Station and Railway Express Agency, is a historic railway station located at 780 East Cerro Gordo Street in Decatur, Illinois. Built in 1901, the station served trains on the Wabash Railroad, the most economically significant railroad through Decatur. Architect Theodore Link designed the Classical Revival building. Amtrak discontinued service to the station in the 1983, and it has since been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Restored in 2002, it is now houses the Wabash Depot Antique Mall and sits close to the WABIC (Wabash - Illinois Central) railroad crossover. During its peak in 1907 there were 72 daily passenger trains, today, there are none that stop here.

Jim Pearson Photography

https://fineartamerica.com/.../ns-148-arrives-at-decatur...

History of the Heartland posted
Last vestige of the Wabash in concrete
Kevin Reynolds shared
Decatur, Il in front of the station.

Street View, Jul 2019

This is a new angle on the depot.

Andy Zukowski posted
Wabash Railroad Depot in Decatur, Illinois (1955)

Mid-Century Decatur posted

The conductor of the "Wabash Cannon Ball" checks in at the door of the Express baggage car #128 at Decatur circa 1969.  The car, in service for forty years, was built by Bethlehem Steel to a Pennsylvania Railroad design for the N&W in 1929.  

The car was retired two years later after the formation of Amtrak.  In 1973 it was donated to the Cass Scenic Railroad. 

Photo: William A. Shaffer

Kevin Reynolds shared

Rick Smith commented on the above post

This baggage-Express car was built by Bethlehem Steel and were the newest (1929) of such car-type delivered to the N&W.

They were assigned "Class BEk", and were built of a Pennsylvania RR (PRR) design, very similar to the PRR "Class B60", many of the latter of which can still be found at museums and in private ownership in many parts of the U.S. These had balloon roofs, just like their PRR counterparts, although the PRR cars had single porthole (round) windows in the side doors, as opposed to rectangular.

The trucks (type T-52) also were of a PRR design type and closely resembled the PRR type 2D-P5 truck with S.K.F. roller bearings. The Pennsylvania roller-bearing trucks, however, were built as such early on with oil-filled bearing assemblies, while the N&W trucks were converted (as shown) to grease-type with rotating end-caps.

These striking PRR-N&W similarities reflected Pennsy's partial financial control of the N&W during the first half of the 20th century.

[photo - ©David Sheppard]

David Andrew Wieting: PRR owned 40% of N&W and 40% of Wabash and was forced to give up both to do the PC merger. This unleashed all kinds of unforeseen consequences we are all suffering from to this day, from the loss of the Pennsy to its signature signaling systems, and those of the NW as well.

Mid-Century Decatur posted

** Here is a "re-do" of last week's post with the partial photo.  Occasionally we experience these glitches.  Many thanks to Andy Puch for resharing this image. **

Snow falls as the combined "Blue Bird" and "Wabash Cannon Ball" is split into two trains at Decatur in 1966.  The Marathon fuel truck tops off the locomotives during their brief stop before they depart for Chicago and Detroit, respectively.

The image, elevated from the perspective of WABIC Tower, reveals the old Wabash freight station in the far right background, the steel water tower used to service steam engines in previous decades, and the Walrus Manufacturing Company, which built the wet fixturing for Budd Company dining cars, including the Blue Bird's.

Photo: Andy Puch Collection

Dennis DeBruler shared