Bellefontaine, OH: First Concrete Street in America

(Satellite)

A man I  met on the sidewalk indicated that the courthouse has been restored rather recently. The first concrete street is south of the courthouse.

20180826 4311

This plaque is in front of the base of the statue that you see in the middle of the road.

Another plaque is on the corner of the courthouse square:

Around the base of the statue is a series of plaques:

The street itself. (Yes, it is unfortunate that my shadow is in the photo. But I could not see how I could avoid it.)

I thought I took a close up of some of the squares. About half the surface has needed repair. Below is a closeup from this photo of the courthouse.

Digitally Zoomed

Medona, IN: B&O Depot and "House Track"

(Satellite, my  guess)

Note the control tower on the other side of the mainline from the depot and the train order semaphores above the depot. This photo doesn't look like much more than some team tracks. But the Facebook comments talk about car repair and a roundhouse. I can't find a roundhouse on a 1956 aerial photo, and the 1947 photo doesn't work right.

Dale Smith posted

West Dana, IN: Junction Tower: Aban/Milw vs. CSX/B&O/CI&W

(Satellite)   CI&W = Cincinnati, Indianapolis & Western

Brad Spear posted
Where the Milwaukee (north south) crossed the B&O at West Dana, IN in 1972.

Saginaw, TX: Gavillon's Wheat House

(Gavilon Grain 3D Satellite, 8 photos; Flour Mill 3D Satellite, photos)  It will be interesting to see when the steel bins show up on the satellite image.

William Brown posted
NS 3668, a GE ET44AC and a BNSF GE, sit on the lead track to the Ardent Mills Flour Mill in Saginaw, Texas. In the background are the three new steel corn tanks at Gavillon's Wheat House. The Gavillon Facility is the largest Wheat House with a single Head House.
Dennis DeBruler I wonder what the bushel capacity was before the bins where added and what it is now. I noticed a photo that indicates they can handle six lanes of trucks. Two lanes is large in corn+soybean country.

Gavilon Grain hired an aerial photo that shows the new bins: Ryan Aerial Photographers, Aug 2018

Gavilon

I presume this is the same grain elevator.

Ethan Whetstone posted
BNSF 7106 Leads a Manifest Freight Out of Saginaw TX On 2/20/22

It is easy to see that this is the same elevator.

Tanner Makings posted
The old Union Equity elevator in Saginaw, Texas.

Kyle Greenwood commented on Tanner's post
The far north end is a 2 bay flour mill built a few years ago.
[Two ready-mix trucks are keeping the concrete pump truck busy.]
Dennis DeBruler: Kyle Greenwood It has horizontal lines, but not at regular intervals. So is this slip-form instead of jump-form construction?
Kyle Greenwood: Dennis DeBruler yes, this is a Slipped Flour Mill.

Comments on Tanner's post

Comments on Tanner's post

Of course, I noticed the grain elevator instead of the locomotives.

John Karges posted
Newly painted and recently delivered RESCAR (ex-Santa Fe) CF7 engines at Saginaw,TX on 20 February 1988. My photo.
Kirby Pople: They lived their lives and died right there. 😞 cut to bits right in the shadow of that elevator.

New Lenox, IL: Rock Island Depot

(3D Satellite)

BRHS posted
The New Lenox station as built - circa 1905.
The Blackhawk Railway Historical Society As built, this station had the agent's office in the center, behind the bay window, the passenger waiting room in the west end, and the express room in the east end. Sometime after the express business was discontinued, the station was reconfigured, with the agent's office in the west end, and the remainder of the station used as the passenger waiting room.
Pogi Americano I remember it from the early 70's ...If I remember correctly, that is Hickory Creek on the right, and the bridge is for Cedar Avenue.

Raymond Story posted

Bill Molony posted

The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad constructed this brick depot in New Lenox to replace the original frame depot built in the 1850's.

It was apparently designed by the company's engineering staff.

The broad eaves, hipped roofs, battered base, tall narrow windows, and particularly the semi-circular attic window are reminiscent of many Richardson-designed depots of the 1880's.

This was a typical small-town combination (freight & passenger) depot designed to be staffed by just one man.

The east end of this depot contained the freight room, used to store less-than-carload freight and Railway Express Packages.

In the center was the agent's office, with the customary bay window that allowed the agent to look up and down the tracks for an approaching train without having to go outside.

The passenger waiting room was at the west end of the depot, where passengers could purchase their train tickets, check their baggage and wait for their train to arrive.

The comments contain photos from 64, 78, 80, 83, 84 and 89
Brian Weber: The original depot is attached to the grain elevator and can be seen just to the right of the depot.

Bill commented on his post
This 1873 map shows the location of the original depot in New Lenox.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Bill's post
So the "wing" on the right was built in the 1850s.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Bill's post
Another view of the old depot.

BRHS posted
The New Lenox station - 1989.

BRHS also posted photos from 1983 and 1984.

I made a point to take photos of the New Lenox depot because it is supposed to be moved since the mayor wants yet another CVS drug store on the corner.

20180326 101

View from the parking lot entrance (South) side.

 View from the parking lot (East) side.

 On the platform looking eastbound (inbound).

 On the platform looking westbound.

On the platform across the tracks looking at the track (North) side from the east side.

On the far platform looking westbound. Hopefully, I'll find time to do the photos I took of the old grain elevator.

Looking at the track side from the east west side of the far platform.

 An interior shot taken from the southeast corner. The green door on the left is a bathroom. I have learned that one should not assume that a Metra station has a bathroom. That is one of the features of old depots, they do.

In the agent's desk bay looking east. This is a view that is going to disappear forever.

 In the agent's desk bay looking west.

As I go west to get photos of that grain elevator, I turn around and get the west side of the depot.

The west side from the Cedar Road crossing.

Here comes an inbound train. Note that it is left-hand running.

 It is pretty long.

 I can't remember if this is where it stopped or if it is still pulling into the station.

Judging by the exhaust plume, it is leaving the station. That is a rather dirty exhaust for a new looking paint scheme. I'm too lazy to research which tier of emission pollution the rebuilds are designed to meet.

There has been a long enough delay that the exhaust plume is not turbo lag.

 The locomotive is now under the Metra SWS/Wabash bridge.

It appears that newspapers haven't been totally replaced by smart phones yet.

The old freight door and the big eaves with their big brackets to help hold them up.

The big deal with commuter stations is the number of nearby parking spots. For example, Downers Grove built a parking garage as well as provide buses that serve the Main Street Station.

Remember that I observed the inbound train was running left-handed. I finally found a sign that indicated that after 3:00pm, that is during the evening rush hour, the far platform becomes the inbound platform and the near platform is for outbound trains. That is incredibly smart because access to the far platform had just two narrow pedestrian crossings in addition to the Cedar Road crossing. Note how there are stair steps to the parking lot located at every car length. So when an evening train disembarks their passengers, they can walk directly to the parking lot and then to their car.

Joseph Kelly Thompson posted

NKP 765 blasts through New Lenox, Illinois on the way to Chicago, Illinois during last year’s Joliet Rocket.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/130730314@N03/
Michael Riha Looks like you got the New Lenox depot in there... which can't be done any more.
[Michael's comment reminded me that the steam excursions ran just inbound. So this photo was taken from the east side of the Southwest Service/Wabash route. It was taken with a telephoto lens. But was it taken from the Marley Road overpass or did Joseph hike through some weeds to get this vantage point.]

Update:

William Shopotkin posed eight photos with the comment:

We  are at the new New Lenox, IL station on Metra's Rock Island District.  Opened just a few years ago (replacing a former (and now relocated) Rock  Island structure), Baroness Ann Davenport and I visited here to take  pictures of the new facility. All photos dated May 29, 2023.

Photo 1 -- View looks west. William Shapotkin photo.

Photo 2 -- View looks N/W. William Shapotkin photo.

Photo 3 -- View looks N/E. William Shapotkin photo.

Photo 4 -- View looks S/E. William Shapotkin photo.

Photo 5 -- Interior view. Baroness Ann Davenport photo.

Photo 6 -- Entrance to station. View looks north. William Shapotkin Photo.

Photo 7 -- Dedication Plaque. William Shapotkin Photo.

Photo 8 -- Conductor Welcoming passengers aboard. William Shapotkin Photo.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Dennis DeBruler commented on William's post
Google Maps doesn't show it yet, but Google Earth does. July 2022

The Google Maps image accessed June 2023 still shows the old station. I had to go back through a lot of images to find this Apr 2013 image. Google Maps is normally not ten years old.

Satellite