Flora, IL: CSX/B&O & Aban/PARY/B&O 1917 Depot and Roundhouses

Depot: (Satellite)

Roundhouses: (Satellite)

Mark Hinsdale posted
Flora IL (Baltimore & Ohio)

This must have been a predecessor depot.

Andy Zukowski posted
The B&O Depot was located in Flora, Illinois in 1906.

A different exposure:

Andy Zukowski posted
B&O Depot in Flora, Illinois. 1906

Robert Gibson Jr.: Train on left heading to Springfield and train on right heading to Shawneetown, Illinois on the Ohio River after connection with train from the east.

Richard Fiedler shared

Satellite

He was looking East. This depot was in the northeast quadrant of the two B&O lines that ran through town.

The east/west route was the mainline between St. Louis, Cincinnati, and points east. But CSX has been removing bits and pieces of this line. Flora is on the east side of the segment they put out-of-service in July, 2015. The north/south route became the Prairie Trunk Railroad in the 70s and was abandoned in 1985.

Update:   History of the depot

Photo by Douglas Weitzman, 6-30-92

From the Ohio to the Mississippi, p 52

Dave Durham posted
B&O, National Limited, Flora, Illinois.
Scott Nauert People tend to forget how much damage is done to towns like this when the railroad abandons service or the railroad itself. Flora is now at the end of a dying branch of a once mighty system that sadly I don't think is ever coming back. Nor do I think major industry is coming back to Illinois to support a need to restore through or even local freight service.
Dave Durham A huge part of the problem is that so much Manufacturing has been shipped overseas.
Scott Nauert Dave Durham - Yes it has. But much of the online traffic in this case still exists. It would be a stretch to say it's enough to support a shortline, but who knows? CSX essentially pulled the plug on marketing it in the late 80s and one by one, customer spurs were removed.

David Cantrell posted
It was a beautiful day for a visit to the Flora, IL depot museum (former B&O railroad).

Gene Butler: Would this have been a stop for the B&O from St. Louis to Washington, DC? Did it also stop in Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Wheeling W. Virginia?

On one trip with my dad the train was stopped at one of these stations and a car or two was added to the consist. My dad got off the train stretching his legs and instructed me to stay onboard, that he would be back before the train departed. The train was moved to attach the extra car and I thought for sure dad had been left!! He knew what he was doing but it scared me!

Another thing I remembered was going through Wheling W. Virginia and seeing several tracks full of steam locomotives near the end of their lives. They were still being used on coal drags but the next year they were almost all gone, probably to the scraper.

Jack Roberson: Gene Butler This line would have stopped in Flora, Washington IN, Cincinnati & Parkersburg W Va.

David Cantrell posted four photos with the comment: "The restored Flora, IL B&O depot is museum on the National Register of Historic Places. The CSX railroad has abandoned the east-west portion of the railway.  Inside is a model depicting the former railroad yard. The Shawneetown-Beardstown segment was removed after the Prairie Trunk bankruptcy in the mid-1980's. The engine house burnt down in March, 1951. A second engine house was rebuilt and then razed on June 6, 2022.   https://www.floradepot.com/ "

Kennard Wing: Flora was the site of a Ford promotion called Ford Town, where everyone in town was given a new Ford to drive for a period. Dwight Jones wrote about it in the B&ORRHS Sentinel several years back.

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The second floor is an event space that has that large arched window. It can accommodate up to 120 people seated at round tables. [FloraDepot_community]

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[It has a 23' long model railroad layout. [FloraDepot_model]]

Roundhouses

1952 Xenia and 1949 Flora Quads @ 62,500

1970 Flora Quad @ 24,000

David Cantrell posted three images with the comment:

Flora, IL had at least two B&O engine houses on the St. Louis line of the railroad. The first was destroyed by fire in 1951.

1st photo from picture at Flora depot, David Cantrell

2nd is 1938 Illinois Historical Aerial Photo 

3rd is 1950 Census map

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David Cantrell posted
Flora, Illinois B&O coal chute in 1949 located on the Beardstown-Shawneetown line north of the main line. The structure was obsolete with the advent of diesel locomotives and demolished soon after the photo.
Provided by Gary Martin.

Dennis DeBruler commented on David's post
It looks like it was south of the turntable and just north along the mainline tracks.

David Cantrell commented on Dennis' comment
Yes. From 1929 Sanborn map, it appears the north/south could fill up easily as well as main line.
Dennis DeBruler: You can see it in the old aerial photo, but I never noticed it until I saw the Sanborn map: the roundhouse is not round!

David Cantrell posted three images with the comment:

The second Flora, IL B&O Engine House was built in a different configuration than the first. The aerial photo shows the change. Sadly, it was razed on June 6th, 2022.

First two photos by Gary Martin.

Third photo is 1966 aerial photo from USGS Earth Explorer.

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Bonus

I spotted this caboose east of the depot while I was looking for the roundhouse.

Street View, May 2012