Sparta, IL: M&O Depot and Train Orders "Iron Man"

To be consistent with my naming convention, this is a Mobile & Ohio depot because the GM&O had not yet merged with the Chicago & Alton when the 1928 RR Atlas was published.

Patrick Provart shared Randy Herndon's posting, June 1972

Randy's comment:

Many people know this as the Misselhorn Art gallery but this was actually a photo of my dad , Herb Herndon, take at the GM&O Depot where he worked for almost 40 years. The photo was taken in June of 1972. I had many adventures play all around the depot and hanging out while they made In the Heat of The Night.

I have learned that the equipment to hold the train orders is called the "Iron Man" and that crews prefer it to hoops held by the agents/operators because they are a more consistent, steady target. Also notice the design of this iron man --- he higher hoop for the engineer and the lower hoop for the conductor. They are both turned down so that it is easier for the agent to load the prongs with the triangle of cord that holds the orders. Then the agent can turn the wheel to raise the hoops to crew height. You can see an arrow in the top rail that should be aligned with the mast to place the hoop at the correct engineer's height.

You can also see the base of the train orders signal mast and the tip of the semaphore blade. It is strange to see train order equipment still installed at a depot in the 1970s. I think that means the GM&O would still be "dark." That is, no CTC controlled signals have been installed trackside.

Roger Holmes posted

For whatever reason, I did not publish this article after I wrote it. During the same week, I came across this posting. Roger's comment:

Peoria bound train at the BN Target sometime after the merger which would place this in the early 1980's. I know that the Conrail tracks were taken out in 1988.

Since I don't know where "BN Target" is, I was going to skip this posting. But then I noticed the "iron man" on the right. Notice that it doesn't have any hoops in it, just the wheels to raise and lower the hoops.

Mike Finney posted

Then I came across this picture. Now I understand that the operator can string the twine with the orders in the comfort of the tower. All he had to do outside is stick the pole in the wheel and turn the wheel. One of the comments is of interest:

Alan Culley Handled those many times. The guys at 3rd Street in Marion had to stand along the track and hold it up. N&W moved fairly slow thru there though.


Daniel S. Dawdy caught an IC engineer reaching out to grab his orders in 1989 at TY Tower (cwrr).

Andy Zukowski posted
[Bobby Jr Kerry provided five photos showing that it is still there. But Google's blogspot won't upload the photos in the correct order so you'll have to go to the post to see them. I'm getting tired of fighting Google's bugs.]