Towns and Nature: Morris, IL: Depot and 1953 demolition of a 1921 Rock Island coaling tower

(see below for satellite)

Frank Smitty Schmidt posted
Morris IL, Nov 1953. A Rock Island coaling tower over the main line getting taken down.
Jack Franklin An example of why some coaling towers are still standing. Too much grief to bring them down.
Also another one over the former C&NW tracks at Clyman Jct WI.
Gary Sprandel Supposedly the detonation had been carefully set to blow the support legs in a manner that would drop the tower neatly to the side of the line with minimal disruption to traffic. At the last moment the RI promotions department film guys got the bright idea that it would look even better if some of the left over explosives were to be rigged at the hoist house at the top of the tower and when the charges were set off much to the horror of the the guy on the film crew the "show" charges countered enough of the actual demolition charges to drop the entire tower right on the tracks.
Harold J. Krewer Gary Sprandel is correct. This did NOT end well for the railroad or the demolition company. Double-track main blocked until the main structure could be broken up and hauled away. IIRC in the meantime they did manage to get some traffic through via a siding off to the right in the photo.
Harold J. Krewer Thirty years later, the SP/SSW learned this same lesson the hard way when they tried to blow an old RI coal dock on the Golden State Route.
Moral of the story: Rock Island coal docks were built tough!!
[Note the water tower on the right.]
Bob Frasco posted with a wrong comment

Frank commented on his posting
You can still see traces of it today.
[Satellite]

I repeat the photo because this one has better resolution.

Mick Kowalczyk posted
Coal chute being put out of service Rock Island Line Morris, Il

Gary Sprandel: Textbook example of why you never give the PR guy authority to give instructions to the demolition crew.

Supposedly the actual demolition charges were set to detonate in a way that one side would go off,the tower would start to fall in the intended direction and then the second charges would go cutting the other legs for a simple fall to the side of the ROW. And then came the PR weasel that thought it be an amazing photo if the demolition crew could put the extra dynamite they had up in the mechanical room at the top of the tower and set it off for extra oomph. Unfortunately first charges went off,tower begins it's fall, totally useless charge goes off just enough to counter gravity and momentum for the crucial couple of seconds for the second set of charges to go off and plop the tower down right across the main in and out of Chicago.

Can only imagine the immediate interaction between PR weasel and demo crew went something along the lines of ...

PR weasel: I am soooo fired.

Demolition crew: ya think?

Bruce Liebe: It also put the mainline out of service. The story goes that the CRI&P wanted to make a newsworthy event about dropping the coal tower. The demolition did not go as planned and it dropped straight down onto the tracks.

Harold J. Krewer commented on Mick's post

These photos were taken by a photographer from LIFE magazine doing a story on the tower demolition. They got a story, but it wasn't the one they came for!

Here is the aftermath:

Barriger

I found that location south of the old strip mine that is northeast of town. It must be the tower in the upper-right corner of this old aerial. I'm not sure which of the "blobs" along the track would be the water tower.

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Given the water tower on the right in the photo, I thought the coaling tower was south of the depot, which now appears to house the Grundy County Corn Festival. But Frank corrected me. That was an old grain elevator.

Frank Smitty Schmidt commented on his above posting
This is the old elevator by the depot in Morris.

Bill Molony posted
This is the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad passenger depot in Morris, as it looked in about 1907.

Raymond Storey posted
MORRIS ILL

The elevator was still standing in 1976.

William Shapotkin posted
On May 16, 1976, photographer Joe Pierson visited the Morris, IL station on the Rock Island. The structure (still-standing in 2021 to the best of my knowledge) still served four psgr trns a day at the time of this photo. Wm Shapotkin Collection (shapotkin153)
Dennis DeBruler: It is interesting that the wood grain elevator made it all the way into the 1970s.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Raymond's post

It looks like the main part of the depot has been preserved.

https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m6!1e1!3m4...

William Shapotkin posted three photos with the comment:

The last stop Joe McMillan and I made our way back to Chicago from Morton, IL was the Morris station on "The Mighty Fine Line." As it was raining terribly, only got shots of the south side of the station (and the nearby EJ&E caboose). One has to ask, had the ROCK joined Amtrak (thus dumping its last two intercity trains on May 1, 1971), would all these stations have continued standing? One can only wonder and be thankful that this fine structures are still with us today.
William Shapotkin Photos dated April 30, 2023.

CLPhotography posted

After a round of heavy thunderstorms, Iowa Interstate 702 and 519 lead business car “Hawkeye” on an eastbound ferry move by the former Rock Island depot in Morris, IL. The railroad was deadheading their owner’s car to Chicago where it’ll hitch a ride on Amtrak to Denver, CO for the annual ASLRRA convention.

Morris, IL

2025.04.01

Chris Lastovich shared

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1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP, it was a little northeast of Morris, IL
Look in the upper-right corner by the surface coal mine for the coal tower.

These photos are from a posting of 50 pictures documenting the demolition of the Rock Island coaling tower.

a
Note the temporary track being built on the left.

b
They have already removed the unloading shed and elevator. They have installed braces on the left so that it won't fall on the temporary track. The "blob" in front of the water tower is a shovel with the bucket facing us. You can see the operator leaning out of a window watching the train.

c
There are several photos of the workers removing the track from under the tower. I chose this one because of the wrecking ball in the background.

d
Notice Mr. Hands-on-Hips manager

e
Judging by the way he is walking on the ties near the right side of the photo, I don't think he gets out of the office very often. Of course, it is a big deal to shut down the mainline for this long. On the middle column on the left side we can see white spots where they have already drilled and installed explosives.

f
Getting ready for the "energetic felling."

g
It is not just the tracks that they are taking out of service. It looks like the signalling department is taking advantage of this outage to replace a crossarm.

h
Moving the equipment and men away for the big boom.

i
BOOM

(Update: a previous posting of the "BOOM" photo had some comments that explain why the tower dropped onto the mainline instead of to the side as planned.)

l
It fell awful close to the temporary track. It looks like decades of coal dust is escaping.

m
Now all of the trains that had been held up can creep past the tower starting with the passenger trains because they were still considered the highest priority in 1953.