Thursday, February 16, 2017

La Salle, IL: PVTX/ICG/IC Railyard

See PVTX Railroad for the location of the yard and more pictures of the yard including ones I took that show that most of the tracks have been removed.

The depot and freight house include a 1939 aerial photo.

Raymond Tutaj Jr. posted
IC yard at La Salle, looking south (1920s?) I think this was a circus train being unloaded, or a steam thresher which is visible on the flatbed at left. What I do know, is the wooden coal shute is from the La Salle County Carbon Coal Co. The mine was about a block away, just above the Rock Island tracks. The office building is still there and a sign on the top part of the structure say "LaSalle County Carbon Coal Co. The track at the far right, with the gondolas, is the same one still in service today. The IAIS uses it a few times a week to bring up cement-car loads for Buzzi Unicem. In this image, the bridge would be in the upper left hand corner but that part of the image is washed out. Nevertheless, I find it interesting. Maybe others may know more about this image.
Update:
IRM Strahorn Library posted
Illinois Central 2-8-0 Consolidation is in LaSalle, Illinois posed in front of a wood water tower with the arm of an Armstrong turntable showing to its left.  One man stands on the tender, probably having just filled the cistern, while two others examine something under the tender.  Steam escaping from the valve chest tells us that the locomotive is live and probably preparing for a trip.
778 was built in July 1904 and was renumbered to 748 in 1943.  She had 57 ½ inch drivers and 20x28 inch cylinders.  With 200 pounds of steam pressure, she produced 33,113 pounds of tractive effort.  The locomotive was scrapped in May 1946.
The photograph comes from the Dillon collection at the Illinois Railroad Museum’s Strahorn Library.  The Strahorn Library is at 118 E. Washington Street in Marengo, Illinois.  It is normally open from 10AM to 2:30PM on Wednesdays and visitors are welcome.  For those unable to visit, we can provide access to our collections via telephone (815-568-1060), e-mail (strahorn@irm.org), or online catalog (librarycat.org/lib/IRMStrahornLibrary).
[Source: Dillon 492, Strahorn Library, Illinois Railway Museum.  Posted by Jan Young]
 
Andy Zukowski posted
Illinois Central Railroad in LaSalle, Illinois. 1940
Everett Lueck: The engines are apparently the local switchers, and look to be well maintained and clean. The buildings look like the depression is still going on.

Andy Zukowski posted
Illinois Central Railyard, LaSalle Illinois 1979….A Marvin Helmig photo
Chet French: Slight mishap on track 4. You can see the broken rail just north of the crossing. Working the LaSalle road switcher with Marv Helmig was one of my favorite jobs. Once in a while we would spot a very young Harold Krewer with his camera on company time.
Jason Leverton: Not as many tracks these days but sometimes there's more cars than this! Really a unique operation that remains, certainly better than nothing.
Chet French: Jason Leverton when all three cement plants were going strong, there were times you couldn’t squeeze another car in the yard.

William Wozniak posted
ICG switching in the LaSalle Yard...Late Summer -Early Fall 1981. (Dave Woz photo.)
William Wozniak posted
A shot of the LaSalle yard looking south...1980....Dave Woz photo.
Jim French posted
Illinois Central coal chute at LaSalle, IL.
The LaSalle coal chute was located at the north end of the Illinois River bridge on the west side of the mainline. The depot can be seen in the background.
This shot is from the US Library of Congress Digital Collection.
Harold J. Krewer So that facility was between the bridge and the First St. crossing? VERY interesting choice of location considering the engine house was a block north and also adjacent to the main.

William Wozniak posted
LaSalle

Barry Lennon 1964 Flickr photo looking north with the depot and engine house on the left. Jim French posted this link. It had the comment:
Chet French I remember the drill well. When we stopped at the north end of the bridge to enter the yard, the swing brakeman, who had dropped off the train on the bridge would make a cut behind the LaSalle set-out and we would pull into a track and cut off the LaSalle cars. Then we would pull up the lead at the north end of the yard and back into the track where our pick-up was. The swing man had rode the rear car of our set-out into the yard and was now standing on 1st St. He would watch the crossing, then get on the cut of cars we were shoving back to our train and make the joint (coupling) on the rest of the train. If neded we would shove the train back so that the engines were out on the main line. After the swing man had walked up to the engines, we headed north.

Andy Zukowski posted
Illinois Central Gulf at Lasalle, Illinois. 1981…. A Dave Wozniak Photo

Andy Zukowski posted
Illinois Central Gulf Diesel switching in the LaSalle Yard in 1981. A Dave Wozniak Photo
Joey Katz: GP10.


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