Kankakee, IL: 1853,1898 IC Depot

The depot in 1894   The new one was built by 1905. A 1912 photo

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I believe the City of Kankakee uses most of the depot for their offices. Amtrak has a spartan room on the south side. But it did have a restroom off to my left that was available and clean. The sheets in the case at the end was the schedule information. The Illini, which is an all-stops train to Carbondale, was due at 5:12pm.

On the north side was a little railroad museum with a 1947 "City of Kankakee" heavyweight passenger car and a 1964 UP caboose. I wasn't going to bother to take a picture of the caboose because trees were in the way and because I don't think UP ever went through Kankakee. (Kankakee had IC, NYC (Kankakee Belt), and NYC/ Big Four/ Kankakee and Seneca.) However, if UP is selling cabooses and IC isn't, you get a UP caboose. It is good they didn't slap an IC paint job on a UP caboose. Their web site indicates they offer tours of the caboose, so I expect the insides are authentic. However, I did take a picture when I noticed the triangle light signals. Unfortunately, they are backlit and are hard to see. Now that I'm looking at the picture, I wonder what the "merry-go-round rabbit" to the right of the caboose is all about. It looks like it had closed just 20 minutes before I had arrived. The museum houses a model railroad club.

I went north to use the IL-17 overpass to get pictures from the sunny side.

A local freight rolled by as I was walking south to get the above shot.

When I was crossing the tracks on Station Street, I looked down and noticed that they use granite for ballast. I looked closer for loose rivets and found just a few.

Stuart Pearson posted
Former Illinois Central Offices and Depot in Kankakee, IL.
Skip Luke The bay window area on second floor once was occupied by train dispatcher who handled the Bloomer line. A century ago.

Mike Bartels shared
Russ Becker Very nice photo. Thanks for sharing ,Mike. Thanks Stuart Pearson.
Stuart Pearson THANK YOU RUSS! While I am using a digital camera today this was a FILM IMAGE.

Stuart commented on his post
Here's a little different perspective.

Bill Molony posted
[Note the trolley and the horse&buggy.]

Bill Molony posted

Andy Zukowski posted
Amtrak Train Stationed at the previous Illinois Central Depot in Kankakee, Illinois May 1973.
Randall James: With only one E unit & hand full of cars, I believe this is the Shawnee/Illini, Chicago to Carbondale Illinois, formerly called the Seminole, oh yeah , ex Florida East Coast E unit too.
[Some comments discuss where the Big Four trains stopped.]

Nick Hart posted

A pair of Grand Trunk GP9R's, both still wearing Trunk colors, lead the northbound run of the R960 local by the 1853-built Illinois Central depot in town. It's also passing the railroad museum outside of the depot. Up ahead, the train would enter Kankakee Yard with cars from Otto, which is located a little south of here. Five of these units remain in GTW paint, making this quite the catch in 2019.

03-02-19
[That is a rather big and fancy depot for 1853.]

Jim Arvites posted
View of a troop train with American soldiers returning from World War I at the Illinois Central depot in Kankakee, Illinois in 1918. The IC station is in the far right center of the picture.
(Kankakee County Museum)Dennis P. Bush The two-story building behind the locomotive was the freighthouse on the NW corner of Station St and West Ave.
Rich Westerman I believe that the dispatcher's office was on the 2nd floor while the freight depot took up the 1st floor and continued north. All gone, now.

safe_image for New roof for Kankakee's historic depot
"The roof has been leaking for the past couple years and is getting to the point where some interior damage has taken place as a result....The depot was originally constructed in 1853, but the current brick structure was constructed in 1898."

 

safe_image for High speed rail … in 1936!
Illinois Central 1936 Streamlined Green Diamond northbound at Kankakee
"About 80 years ago, on a stretch of track between Kankakee and Manteno, an Illinois Central passenger train was clocked at a blazing 103 mph."

1888 photo, a water column is still standing. Another photo

A couple of 1990 photos of a southbound train passing the depot from David Wilson's Photoset: 1 and 2.