Depot: (Satellite)
Roundhouse: (Satellite, when I accessed it in 2023, only the foundation remained. See below for an image when it still existed.)
Freight House: (Satellite)
The IC depot is also extant.
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| Street View, Aug 2019 |
Update: it has had a much needed rehabilitation.
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| Street View, Oct 2024 |
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| Aaron Qualls posted Murphysboro’s GM&O depot. RJ Ihle: Built by the M&O in 1888. Except for the roof it survived the 1925 Tri-State tornado that destroyed the M&O shops just 3 blocks north. The depot is currently undergoing restoration. |
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| Andy Zukowski posted The Gulf Mobile & Ohio Depot in Murphysboro, Illinois 1975 |
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| Marianne Hindman posted Richard Fiedler shared Richard Fiedler shared |
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| RJ Ihle commented on Marianne's post This was at 17th & Elm. It burned in the early morning hours on August 29th, 1988. Photo of damage below. |
Here are some pictures that might bring back some memories!!
These are from some pictures posted by a man from Jonesboro who is a member of another Facebook group that I am a member of and I thought a lot of you in this group would enjoy seeing them!
— with Erica Jane Wheeler.
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| 1, freight house |
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| 2, depot |
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| 3, train |
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| 4, train |
Another posting of the third pictures has the comment:
The ICG abandoned the M&O so it is harder to find the route it used through town. But the combination of the diagonal treeline along the west side of the high school and the comment saying it was near 17th street allows us to find the depot. A streetview indicates that they have done restoration work on the depot. The curved wall makes it easy to spot the roundhouse. (Streetview)
RJ Ihle To the left of the photo and behind the locomotive for several blocks to the north is where the Murphysboro shops were located until nearly totally destroyed by the 1925 Tri-State tornado.Only the roundhouse survived and has been re-purposed several times over the years. It can be seen on Google maps near 17th & Logan Sts. The depot from where the photo was taken suffered only minor damage and still stands.
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| 3D Satellite, depot |
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| Satellite, roundhouse |
Because of the water tower in the background, this concrete pad may have been the floor of the freight house. But certain details do not look correct in a 1938 photo.
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| Rj Ihle shared Bob Delia Weston's photo. Former GM&O depot in Murphysboro, Il. undergoing restoration. It survived the massive 1925 Tri-state tornado that obliterated the M&O shops just a few blocks north, except for the roundhouse which still stands and has been re-purposed over the years. |
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| Murphysboro Main Street posted We love the image of the Old Depot with its two-circled piece of equipment for train crews to pick up orders, etc. alongside the tracks. Your support is greatly appreciated with the restoration as the financing continues at: https://www.facebook.com/donate/274448861055760/2142817239188801/. .  W.C. Thurman/John P. Kohlberg. GM&O depot Murphysboro, IL probably '70s. Photographer unknown. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Stephen's comment I've heard the term "iron man" because it replaces a man holding up a train order hoop. The high one is for the engineer and the low one is for the conductor. In the photo, they are lowered so that orders can be loaded. Then the agent will use the "circle" to crank them into the up position. Bill Molony is holding a hoop at the preserved Symerton Wabash Depot in Lockport, IL. |
8 years later I came across a photo of the ironman in action.
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| Stephen N. Branon posted Catching orders on the fly from the caboose of a northbound GM&O freight at Murphysboro, Illinois. Richard Fiedler shared Mark Stoeckel: Former Alton “Santa Fe” style caboose Cliff Kierstead shared |
John P. Kohlberg posted three images with the comment: "The roundhouse at Murphysboro, Ill., came up in a post a week or so ago. Here are a few images from LIFE magazine circa 1949."
Patrick Provart Is that the Life article on dieselization?
John P. Kohlberg Yes
The number of stalls may have been cut back a little, but not very much. I have seen backshops added to roundhouses before. But this is the first time I have seen a "fronthouse" added to the arc at the front of a roundhouse.
Patrick Provart Is that the Life article on dieselization?
John P. Kohlberg Yes
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| Loren Hatch commented on the above posting Loren Hatch How it looked in May 2010. Shot through a chain link fence.Edward Bridges Still looks like this to this very day... |
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| 1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
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| Murphysboro Main Street posted RJ Ihle shared GM&O depot Murphysboro, IL. Date and photographer unknown. Dennis DeBruler shared I've seen several photos of engineers getting their train orders. It is nice to see photos of conductors getting their orders. |
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| 1938 Murphysboro Quad @ 62,500 |
Walnut Street is across the south end, and Gartside Street is across the north.
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| 1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
Alexander Golman posted three photos with the comment:
The Murphysboro depot and roundhouse back in April, 2014, when I was an architecture student at SIU. The roundhouse is gone now and depot is being renovated.Better to be a slow restoration than a fast tear down.
Dennis Smith: At one time the top floor was the train dispatchers office for the GM&O rr
Ron Thomason: Yes the top floor was also the Division Superintendent’s office and the Road Foreman of Engines worked out of the Murphysboro office. A very busy place at one time!
Chris Balducci: Was Murphysboro a place where helper locomotives were added or removed from trains that went over Alto Pass?
Damion Joseph: Chris Balducci I believe it’s where cars were left. The Sparta District book mentions cars being left in Murphysboro.
Ron Thomason: Chris Balducci I was told by an old head Engineer that at one time they had what they called short runs out of Murphysboro, hence the Roundhouse, and they were there to assist trains over Alto. Now that’s per Les (chicken head) Thompson, one fine old gentleman, he told me he started as a crew caller at Murphysboro in 1913! The shops were there also until the tri state tornado came through.
Brad Craig: It was never a "secret" that IC "merged" with the GM&O to destroy and abandon the "south end" and get rid of their meandering St Louis/Gilman to Chicago route in favor of the direct heavily traveled ex-C&A line.
I wasn't aware the Luster Corporation factory, that included the old M&O roundhouse had been demolished
I ate at the old depot when it was the Molly O, I wasn't impressed by the food and they raped the interior of the old depot.
A year or so ago, the depot close to being demolished.
The building had seriously deteriorated since the restaurant closed 😒. Glad to see someone stepped in and saved.
The old IC depot is still standing a few blocks east and one block north. It's used as offices for handicapped people agency. Exterior hasn't changed much. But, of course inside, there's not a hint that the building was a railroad passenger depot.
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