New Lisbon, IN: NKP Steel Coaling Tower

(Satellite, don't know specific location)

The railroad is now owned by Connersville & New Castle Railroad (CNUR).

Forgotten Railways, Roads, and Places posted

MP 227.1: New Lisbon -- In 1939, a steel coaling tower was constructed to serve westbound passenger trains during their station stop.

Notice the ice on the water tank and snow on the ground.

Original black-and-white photo from Jim Krotzman.

I didn't realize the NKP got that far south in Indiana. So I took another look at a NKP map.

Rails and Trails

English Lake, IN: C&O Coaling Tower

(Satellite, extrapolate the long farmer's access road west to the CKIN tracks)

Pete Fileca posted

Chicago, IL: Railway Exchange Building (Santa Fe Sign)

(3D Satellite)

Glen Miller posted
The Santa Fe Building was built in 1903-04 and was built as the Railway Exchange Building. Santa Fe later purchased the building and erected the rooftop sign. The building is now owned by the University of Notre Dame. which removed Santa Fe's sign and replaced it with a Motorola sign in 2012. The iconic sign is now at the Illinois Railway Museum. Wouldn't it be cool to have an office with a porthole window!
Jeff Grunewald: Terra cotta cladding by Northwestern Terra Cotta at Wrightwood & Clybourn.
John Morgan: I read somewhere that Daniel Burnham had his office behind one of those porthole windows. Great view of the lakefront.
Alan Follett

Sanjay Joshi The Santa Fe sign was installed in 1962, by the Federal Sign and Signal Company. https://www.architecture.org/.../what-happened-to-the.../

Paul Webb shared
Original Chicago posted with a comment that is a copy of Glen's comment
Kris Martinaitis: Gorgeous lobby in this building.

The Santa Fe sign as been preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum.

Steve Bart commented on Paul's share

 

Eric J. Nordstrom posted
street level photographic image (scanned from original glass negative) of d.h. burnham & co.'s railway exchange building (1904) as it appeared around 1909, during the chicago electrical show - an exhibit of the commonwealth edison company of chicago.
 the ground floor of the building housed "the electric shop," which was designed to showcase everything electrical for the household.
 courtesy of the bldg. 51 archive.
Dan Schmidt: Now owned By The University of Notre Dame .
J.D. Sutphin: I believe I read that around this period Daniel Burnham had his office on the top floor where the big round windows are so that he could look out onto the parks and lake for inspiration. He was just an amazing human being.
John Gronkowski: very weird distortion...the camera must not have had a back that could swing...but the vignetting shows that the lens had a pretty narrow image circle so that might have been a factor.
Arnold Cohen: John Gronkowski what distortion are you referring to? I'm not seeing it.
John Gronkowski: The base of the building is pretty much level but the roofline is on an angle...it's what we call the "ship's prow" effect in architectural photography. There are times when you can use view camera movements to make the verticals look square but if you're not lined up with the exact center of the building you will get this effect. If your camera has a back that can be turned on its vertical axis (swing) you can eliminate or at least moderate the effect. You have to look at it critically to see how much adjustment makes it look normal to the observer's eye because too much might make it look unnatural. If you have access to the old five volume Ansel Adams series of books there's a great series of photos that explain all of the adjustments involved....should be pages 176-189 in the first book, Camera And Lens. It's a good, brief explanation of correcting perspective in a photograph and he does point out that too much correction can look weird. Now....with digital cameras and Photoshop that's all pretty much ancient history but it's till pretty interesting from an academic point of view.

 

Eric J. Nordstrom posted

original 8 x 10 chicago architectural photographing company photographic print of michigan avenue (looking south) taken shortly after graham, anderson, probst and white's straus building was completed in 1924. 

d.h. burnham and company's 17-story cream-colored terra cotta-clad railway exchange building in foreground (north of straus) was completed in 1904.

courtesy of bldg. 51 archive.

Sharon Avendano posted five photos with the comment: "The Railway Exchange Building on Michigan Ave."

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Patrick McNamara commented on Sharon's post
 The Railway Exchange Building - top held Daniel Burnham's office, seen stage right. Photo from the 1950s.

I didn't realize until I saw this 1905 image that it was significantly taller than the other buildings of its day. It makes sense when you consider the wealth of the railroads during the interesting turn of the century.

Screenshot, 1905

By 1915, it was just one of a row of skyscrapers along Michigan Avenue. I put a red rectangle around its round windows that are peaking through a gap in the buildings. The land between Michigan Avenue and the Illinois Central tracks has finally been filled in. And to the right of the red rectangle, we can see the tower of Montgomery Ward's 1899 Headquarters.

Screenshot, 1915

Zachary Taylor Davis - Chicago Architect posted
This is D. H. Burnham & Company’s (1903) Railway Exchange Building at 224 S. Michigan Ave., c. 1910-1915. The building was designed by Frederick P. Dinkelberg, and when the building opened in 1904 Burnham & Co. moved it’s offices to the fourteenth floor - Burnham's descendants continued ownership in the building until 1952.
A skylit lobby with a grand staircase occupies the bottom two floors under the atrium. The shops and restaurants are all accessible through the lobby as well as the street. The building's original saloon, including its mural scenes of ancient Rome, survived as a private conference room through the occupancy of the Chicago Architecture Foundation on the first floor. (Chicago Architecture Foundation, now the Chicago Architecture Center, moved to 111 E. Wacker Drive in August of 2018.)

Todd Protzman Davis shared

Baron Redus commented on Todd's share
The other night

Zachary Taylor Davis - Chicago Architect posted again with three photos and the comment:

D. H. Burnham & Company’s 1904 Railway Exchange Building. Architect Daniel H. Burnham moved his office here upon its completion, and he worked here on his influential 1909 Plan of Chicago. The building's original saloon, including its mural scenes of ancient Rome, survives as a private conference room - used by the Chicago Architecture Foundation when they occupied the first floor (they have since moved).

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Patrick McNamara commented on a post
 Here's the Railway Exchange Bldg in a photo taken in 1911. See the extra little bit on top far right ? That's Daniel Burnham's own office space.

Patrick McNamara commented on a post
The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway's Travel Center was located on the ground floor...

Patrick McNamara commented on a post
Photo 1950s.

Rob Conway posted

The Santa Fe building on Michigan Avenue in Chicago in 1978.

The Santa Fe words are wonderfully preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum.

Hannibal, MO: Flood of 2019: BNSF is close to wading in water and Roundhouse

(Satellite, BNSF has tracks right by the river)

Dustin Newton posted
A friend of mine took this shot from Hannibal, Mo yesterday. I'd say the mighty Mississippi is up a bit.
Thomas Dyrek There used to be a big CB&Q yard right next to the water but the BN removed it because of the constant flooding.
Chris Pickerel Who's going to leave a bigger wake? The train or the barge?
Robert Teed Is this "Lovers Leap?"
Dustin Newton Robert Teed yes
Robert Teed Was the roundhouse right below the cliff?

Missouri's Historic Highways posted two photos with the comment: "April 16, 1951 - Mississippi River at flood stage, Hannibal."

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A normal river level for reference.

Rick Shilling posted
Undated Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Roundhouse, Turntable, Coaling Tower, Water Tower, Transfer Table (Right Front), Shops and Yard, Hannibal, Missouri.
Photo probably taken from Lovers Leap Cliff there.

Another roundhouse photo. Note that the coaling tower is gone.

Erik Spoonmore commented on Robert Teed's comment on Dustin's post
[The transfer table is parked all the way to the right side of its tracks.]
Dave Reinhart posted
This is a view from Lovers leap in Hannibal Mo over looking the C, B, and Q round house and shops. it looks to me like the Roundhouse suffered a fire or something and was destroyed. does anyone have any information on this particular roundhouse? I'm looking at building a FreeMo module in HO scale of Hannibal around 1943 and I am interested in knowing the history of this site.

 

Richard Shulby commented on Dave's post
The photo here from the 1960s shows the front detail for the original RH2 with brick above the doors and the later addition with wood above the doors. Photo from the Jan Kohl collection.
[Some comments indicate that the rock outcropping is Lover's Leap.]

Comments on Dave's post

water.weather.gov

The info below indicates the BNSF tracks are in trouble at 20.5'.

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This is the top of the Hannibal Floodwall.
31.8
This is the RECORD FLOOD LEVEL that was reached on July 15 1993.
28.2
The Fabius River levee (Right Bank) is overtopped between River Mile 332.4 and 323.5, flooding 14,200 acres. The Marion County levee is overtopped between River Mile 320.7 and 323.5, flooding 4000 acres.
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The elevated boat club, outside the levee, floods.
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Highway 168 NW of Hannibal near Clear Creek is closed.
27.8
The Sny Island and South Quincy levees are overtopped between River Mile 315.4 and 264.3, flooding 110,000 acres. The South River levee is overtopped between River Mile 320.5 and 312.1, flooding 10,000 acres.
27.6
Near this height, Warren Barrett Drive is closed east of Lemon Street.
27.5
The South Quincy Levee (Left Bank) is overtopped between river miles 325.4 and 317.8, flooding 5500 acres. Also, Highway 36 in Illinois begins flooding near this height.
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A few small businesses along the riverfront outside of the floodwall, along Bear Creek and along the minnow branch of Bear Creek are either cut-off or inundated. A large portion of downtown Hannibal is cut-off.
26.2
The Sny Island Drainage District Levee is overtopped.
25.1
State Highway 79 closes from south of Hannibal to Missouri Route N.
24.5
Sawyer's Family Fun Park south of Hannibal typically closes near this level as parking access to the park is cut off.
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The Admiral Coontz Recreation Center, formerly the old armory, on Collier Street floods. Numerous businesses in southwest Hannibal outside the flood wall begin to flood.
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The Admiral Coontz Recreation Center, formerly the old armory, on Collier Street floods. Numerous businesses in southwest Hannibal outside the flood wall begin to flood.
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Area south of Collier Street and along Sycamore Street outside the Hannibal flood wall floods.
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Area south of Collier Street and along Sycamore Street outside the Hannibal flood wall floods. Also near this height, the parking lot around the Admiral Coontz Recreation Center begins flooding.
22.8
Highway 79 begins flooding south of Hannibal, and it may be closed from south of Hannibal to Route N.
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BNSF tracks just south of Hannibal are flooded.
21.5
At this height, water will reach the base of the remaining three flood gates on Broadway Avenue and Main Street, so these gates should already be installed and locked down.
20.5
The Burlington Northern/Sante Fe railroad tracks running North and South and the railroad yards begin to flood. At this height, water reaches the base of the two flood gates at Hill Street and Center Steet, so these gates should already be installed and locked down. Also at this level, preparations are made to install the remaining 3 flood gates on Broadway Avenue and Main Street if the forecast reaches 21.5 feet.
20.2
Nipper Park begins flooding on the Hannibal riverfront.
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The Corps of Engineers begins flood fight procedures. At this level, preparations are made to install two flood gates at Hill Street and Center Street if the forecast exceeds 20.5 feet.
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Gate wells are shut down to prevent the sewers from backing up. Also at this level pumps are set to standby.
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John Hay Recreation Area on east side (inside the Illinois Sny Levee) begins flooding.
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Flood Stage. Damage begins to buildings in unprotected low areas. Minor flooding begins.

Tim Starr posted two images with the comment: "The Hannibal and St. Joseph shops in 1869, and the same shops when they were owned by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy in 1913."

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Mountgomery C: Hillsboro, IL: Deer Run Coal Mine (Longwall)

(Satellite)

There were so many coal mines in Illinois that I normally just add them to a reference post. But this mine was, and hopefully soon will be, active.

One of  18 photos posted by Dan Hopley
Hillsboro Mine
Daniel Watson It got to the point it was getting to be a tight fit with the 11. Under the staker or lowering well whatever you wanna call it.
Dan Hopley Million tons
Nick Stork Did they have to sink a new shaft because of fire at this mine?
Dan Hopley No just sealed that area off from what I heard.
Billy Hammond III so Hillsboro is up and running again?
Dan Hopley No these are from 2010 to 2015
Ryan Jostes Be backed to mining coal by February I’d say.
Dan Hopley That’s the rumor.

Since someone is trying to get it operational again, I thought it was worth some research.

It is a longwall mine that had a fire in March, 2015. After unsuccessfully spending almost a year to put out the fire, Foresight Energy announced an indefinite shutdown. [sj-r] There are some people in the Hillsboro area that would be glad to see the mine shutdown. [CitizensAgainstLongwallMining] Of course the 160 coal minters are not happy. But longwall mining's "planned subsidence" seems to be equivalent to "destroying farmland" because the 6' drop of the land surface destroys the drainage they have installed in this flat land. Since the land will be below the local creeks, the coal company is supposed to build deep drainage ditches. I wonder how the number of farm jobs (don't forget the grain elevators and tractor dealers as well as the farm families) compares to 160 and how the property taxes on the farmland compares to the $7.5m the county got when they sold the coal rights for 120,000 acres in 2004.

ChannelMap from Deer Run Mine

The red line on the above map is IL-185. I used that to help determine the boundaries of the longwall panels on a satellite image. Note that they carefully avoid their own land, the railroad that was built to connect to Norfolk Southern's NKP (Cloverleaf) remnant to the Coffeen power plant, and the prison. (NS has trackage rights on BNSF between Sorento and Centralia where they access their own former Southern tracks.)

Satellite plus Paint

The channel map specifies that they would do the light-blue LW Panel 1-2 in 2011 and then a panel each year until they do 2-2 in 2016. If you look at the homesteads that have been torn down and turned into storage lots (an example) and a homestead that still exists, it looks like they have not finished LW Panel 1-2. I can't find when they actually started mining. I think I saw 2012. After all, they have to build a lot of infrastructure to clean and ship the coal including an impoundment pond for the toxic coal slurry. The IDNR allowed a 80' high High Hazard dam to be built around one square mile of land without any public hearings. And that "pond" is good for just five years of production. The mine is supposed to have enough reserves to support 20 years of production. [SourceWatch]

The reason the mining stopped was that high carbon monoxide readings were detected at 7:30pm July 14, 2014 indicating the existence of a fire. "All underground employees were safely evacuated and none sustained injuries. Hillsboro officials identified the affected area and have been working with federal and state officials implementing an approved plan to contain and extinguish. Two holes have been drilled into the coal mine and water is being pumped into the affected area." [MarketWatch]

I wonder who pays for the road repairs and vehicle damage when there is a mini-earthquake. Note the ridge in the distance. The land over the access tunnel and conveyor belts between the panels does not fall.

Feb 5, 2016 AP Photo by Alan Scher Zagier from WashingtonTimes

ktrs

They were able to put out the July 2014 fire in a couple of weeks [e-mj], but there was another fire in March, 2015. In 2016 the fire was still smoldering, so Freeport Energy's "solution" was to ask IDNR for a permit to expand into another 7,731-acre area that is not affected by the fire. "The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has said the underground fire - a not uncommon occurrence in mines - poses no immediate threat, and a spokesman for the state agency indicated the fire likely won’t have a bearing on the permit expansion review." [WashingtonTimes]

A mining engineer with expertise in mine fires, who asked his name not be used for professional reasons, said area residents could be at risk, and he thinks the company and federal regulators are shirking their responsibility. He said the fire could continue to burn underground, eventually collapsing the earth above already destabilized by longwall mining. That could allow deadly carbon monoxide to waft up into the atmosphere through fissures opened by the mining, he said. He said he has investigated cases around the country where carbon monoxide in such situations travels along the beds of pipes or ditches and can enter homes. [EnergyNews]

Evidently the second fire is in the remnant coal in the collapsed part of the mine. They can't put it out because they can't find it. "Locals say they have not been given any information about the status of the fire, but it just increases their doubts about the ability of Foresight to act responsibly and of regulators to keep tabs on the company....'The current mine atmosphere problems will have no influence on the review process for the proposed expansion of mining,' said Chris Young, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR)....A spokesman for the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement said that the federal agency has no jurisdiction over subsidence from current mining operations, or any carbon monoxide leakage that could result from fires. He said the IDNR and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency are responsible for regulating these issues....Foresight was pumping nitrogen into the mine in an attempt to cut off oxygen fueling the combustion, but those efforts have reportedly stopped." [EnergyNews]

Foresight Energy controls over 1.7 billion tons of coal reserves in the Illinois Basin, but it is not willing to do room-and-pillar mining because that wastes 40% of the coal in the pillars that keep the land from collapsing. Room-and-pillar mining also would retain access to the coal faces so that they could find and extinguish fires. But longwall mining not only gets more of the coal in a seam, the cost per ton of production is lower.

Young said state regulations require mining companies to repair or compensate landowners for any damage caused by subsidence or drainage problems. “To date, the company is meeting its obligations in this regard,” he said. [EnergyNews]

From what I can gather by reading various articles is that the company meets their obligations by buying the land and kicking the people out of the area.

Seven coal miners died in Illinois between 2013 and 2015 and Freeport Energy's Sugar Camp Mine was responsible for three of them.

It seems coal mining companies compete well with cigarette companies (lung cancer) and oil companies (climate warning) when it comes to "influencing" regulators and lying to the public.
"Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office is considering legal action against the state’s natural resources agency for what prosecutors call a failure to follow the terms of a court-brokered plan to toughen oversight of coal mines. The tougher regulations were part of broader reforms touted with much fanfare two years by the administration of former Gov. Pat Quinn. They followed criticisms by environmentalists who alleged the state Department of Natural Resources was too cozy with mining companies and other businesses it regulates." [TheTelegraph, 2016]

May, 2018 "FORESIGHT WILL CLOSE DEER RUN MINE" [CoalAge]

Dec, 2018: "Foresight Energy is moving to reopen its long-idled Deer Run longwall mine in Montgomery County, Illinois, which the company "permanently" closed last February after a "combustion event" occurred in 2015." After months of efforts to fight the "combustion event" in a longwall area, they sealed the area off. "Now 'there's no fire' in the mine." Also, the coal market is up. "The company posted record export sales of 2.4 million st in Q3." [spglobal] When they sealed off the longwall with the fire, they "also lost equipment that cannot be recovered." [stltoday]

Unfortunately, Foresight continues to have a poor safety and pollution track record. "More than 125 state and federal violations by Sugar Camp in the past three years: 'black water' and coal slurry being released into waterways; coal waste overflowing its impoundments; aluminum, manganese and other compounds above allowable levels in effluent; “orange staining” of waterways; waste containment structures not adequately maintained; coal dust and mud accumulating on a road; failure to follow record-keeping procedures." [EnergyNews2018]

See Planned Coal Mine Subsidence in Illinois: A Public Information Booklet, published by the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois State Geological Survey for detailed information about coal mine subsidense. [SierraClub]

Deer Run, other Illinois Basin mines could change coal market dynamics

Deer Run "has largely been idle since a combustion event in March 2015, but resumed production earlier this year [2019]. In 2014, its last full year of production, the mine produced 5.6 million st, the sixth highest in the basin. That year, total basin production totaled 137 million st, and exports out of New Orleans totaled 7.1 million st, or 5.2% of annual production. In 2018, IB production totaled 106 million st, and New Orleans exports totaled 17.5 million st, or 16.5% of annual production. In other words, the domestic IB market in 2014 totaled roughly 130 million st, but shrunk to 88.5 million st in 2018, a drop of nearly one-third."

(source)

David Jordan Deer Run was one of two mines that supplied coal to ADM's Cedar Rapids co-generation plant from January 2011. Shay seems to have all of that business now so it will be interesting to see if Deer Run resumes its role from several years ago. Both mines are served by NS and UP.

David Jordan Shay supplies ADM's Decatur co-generation plant as well.

I've been reading about mines closing in southern Illinois and Indiana, so it is nice to see the production of this mine has evidently increased.

Adam Reyling posted the comment: "Has anyone else noticed alot more traffic on the evwrr last few days? I'm from Dahlgren, thismorning a empty coal train going west, early afternoon another coal train going east. And now the local train is heading west to work, and be back late tonight."

Will Rasmussen There are currently two coal sets being shuttled between Deer Run Mine in Hillsboro, IL (on the NS) and either the Vectran Spur or Mount Vernon, IN. Both sets have been running for a bit over a week with one set starting a couple weeks ago.

Escanaba, MI: C&NW Coal, Sand Towers & Turntable and Depot

Towers: (Satellite)

Turntable: (Satellite, some of the roundhouse foundations is visible.)

Depot: (Satellite)

Ken Draper posted two photos with the comment:

I was in Escanaba MI yesterday and went by the old site of the C&NW yard. It has been swallowed up by the ship repair company. The concrete coaling tower still stands as does another tower of come kind. Any ideas what it was? I am wondering if it is a sand tower.

Ronald McGregor Looks like sand tower my guess.
Ken Craig Was the former LS&I Alco still there?
Dennis DeBruler This photo has the rounded cab roof of an Alco on the left side. Is this the LS&I Alco?

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Lake States Railway Historical Association posted
Julio Cesar Diaz: C&NW FM diesel locomotive 1511 on turntable at Escanaba, MI in 1961. Harry Evans photo.
If you enjoy the photos and what Lake States is accomplishing, consider joining Lake States or making a donation, or both, https://www.lsrha.org/?page_id=135.
[Note the coaling tower in the background.]
Andrew Roth shared

C&NW FM diesel locomotive 1511 on turntable at Escanaba, MI in 1961. Harry Evans photo.

John McQuigg posted three photos with the comment: "Three views at the old C&NW Escanaba MI roundhouse in the 80’s. At that time, Escanaba was one of the go-to locations to find Alco locomotives working out their final days."
John McQuigg shared

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The depot is near the lower-left corner, and the roundhouse is near the lower-right corner.

1958 Gladstone and Escanaba Quadrangles @ 1:62,500

Bryan Monaco posted
The Chicago & North Western coaling tower in Escanaba, Michigan. You can see the top of the sanding tower behind the shipping container. If you look really hard you'll see LS&I #1804, an ALCO RSD-12, to the left of the tower. The C&NW yard is now Basic Marine; located at 3rd Ave N and N 10th St.
Colin Wisner: I've been there and I’ve been on the property, there’s about a couple dozen former C&NW boxcars, the gutter Alco, the turntable that belonged to the roundhouse, and the coaling tower.
[I added the turntable to these notes because of  this comment.]
Tim Shanahan shared

While trying to see what they had on a couple of the stalls of the former roundhouse, I discovered that they have an assortment of cranes.

Street View, Oct 2019

Mark Andersen posted
C&NW Alco sandwich in Escanaba on 2-3-79. Dan Poitras photo. Locomotives are C&NW 6727, LS&I 2302, and C&NW 6718.

Depot

Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted
Lots of passenger train action "here" in Escanaba, Michigan. An awful lot of pulp wood.  The date on the photo is 1915.  Thanks to Ray Buhrmaster for the donation of this an many other photos to our C&NW Historical Society archives at Union, Illinois.

Tom Edwards commented on the above post
A 1921 Sanborn fire insurance map says that all that wood belonged to the "Escanaba Manufacturing Company, Mfg's of Wooden Ware (Tooth Picks, Clothes Pins, Pie Plates, Wooden Dishes, Etc.) I wonder how many toothpicks they turned out each day. 

John Pickard posted

Here is a picture of the C&NW Depot in Escanaba, Michigan! I hope you all enjoy! So sad it was torn down to build a Police and Fire hall.

EarthExplorer: Nov 10, 1953 @ 17,000; AR1VBL000080086

Sam Carlson posted
38 years ago today [Jun 27] CNW train ESGBA has departed Escanaba and is heading toward Green Bay.
Peter Munro shared