Sunday, August 31, 2025

Cameron, MO: Museum/CB&Q Depot & Cabooses, RI Depot and Grain Elevators

CB&Q: (Satellite)
RI: (Satellite)

Both the CB&Q and Rock Island routes are abandoned.

CB&Q Depot


Note the Ford tractor on the right. It went away while the street driver was moving so I could not get a better view of it.
Street View, Sep 2023

Michael Emerson Avitt posted
May 8, 2005 - CB&Q depot at Cameron, Missouri.
Robert Chitwood: Cameron also is the home of a surviving Rock Island depot.

Juli Copple, Mar 2019

Janet Leitterman, Dec 2019

Rock Island Depot


Dennis DeBruler commented on Robert's comment
 It was on the curve from which RI went West and North, https://maps.app.goo.gl/Vbn5wdTLMkZSvfRFA. (https://maps.app.goo.gl/eZVDPz5XoL3diVBi8)

Grain Elevators


Looking West along 2nd Street.
Street View, Sep 2023

Satellite

Context

1924 Winston, 1925 Plattsburg and 1924 Polo Quads @ 62,500

CB&Q forked at Cameron to go down to Kansas City and up along the Missouri River.
1902

Brownstown, IL: Lost/Pennsy/Vandalia Depot

(Satellite, based on the aerial photo below.)

The town no longer having a depot does not surprise me. The town not having a grain elevator does surprise me. It does have a lumber store.

Jacob Hortenstine posted
PRR depot Brownstown Illinois

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Ephrata, PA: Visitors Center/Reading Depot and Pennsy Caboose

Depot: (Satellite)
Caboose: (Satellite)

The parking lot replaced the tracks. 
Street View, Mar 2025

Street View, Apr 2025

Gregory D. Pawelski posted two photos with the comment: "Reading Company R&C Branch Ephrata Station in Ephrata, Pa. - Then and Now."
Gregory D. Pawelski: The line between Stevens and Lititz was abandoned in 1985 .Before the (extant) station was built in 1889, the railroad had a station in the barroom on the south side of Mount Vernon House Hotel (also known as the Martin Gross Hotel). Eventually the railroad took over the barroom for its sole use as a passenger station after concerns about passenger comfort amidst the drunken crowds at the bar in the evenings (there was also a smaller room used for the ticket and telegraph office). The hotel was built in 1854 and torn down in 1955 (Intelligencer Journal, 2-14-1955). It was on the east corner of Main and State Streets on the NW side of the tracks at GPS: 40.178845, -76.177057.
Ed Johnson shared
Jim Kelling shared with the comment: "Ephrata Pennsylvania (Reading Company station now a visitor center)."
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Todd Phillips, Jun 2025

Saturday, August 30, 2025

Cleveland, OH: 1911,1923,1940s,1962 520mw Lake Shore Power Plant, Second to use Pulverized Coal in US

(Satellite, other than a new switchyard on the old coal pile, it was still brownland when I accessed it in Jan 2024.)

In 2015, the last running unit, 1962 #18 256mw, was retired. The underserved neighborhood of Glenville was close to this plant. [gem]
"The plant, built in 1911, was closed in 2015 rather than be upgraded to meet new air quality standards to reduce mercury and other toxic metal emissions." The major implosion happened in 2017. [neo-trans] The first plant was built in 1911. But what still existed in the 21st Century dates back to the 1940s. And I think it is mercury in the wastewater, not air, that has caused so many coal-fired plants to converted to gas or retired.

Note the coal pile peaking over a hill on the right side of this view.
Street View, Sep 2011

Don Nichols posted two images with the comment: "I bought this from eBay in 2012. the front page and inside of a booklet about the Lake shore power plant."
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Back when it was still receiving coal by the trainload.
Google Earth, Dec 2010

Don Nichols posted five photos with the comment: "The Lake Shore Power Plant in Cleveland. June of 2005."
1
Gerald Frisina: SORRY don but this is not what that plant looked like in 2005. Thios is what it looked like in the very late 70's to early 90's. It became a transfer station for the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company. Short version... is the City of Cleveland who owned it decided to up grade it. Instead of using Ohio based Boilers and Controls (Babcock and Wilcox/Bailey Controls who arte both local they awarded it to an European Company so the Mayor and President of City console plus board members could spend time going to Europe and spending Tax Payers money being wined and dined, by the Contractors. After all was said and done they refurbished the Plant with a boiler and controls from overseas. It never turned the Westing house turbine and provided one kilowatt of power. It was sold to Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company and used as a transfer station. Later the painted blue sky and whales and made it into an art piece. It would have been better to paint White Elephants on it.
[Street views show that the plant disappeared between 2015 and 2018.]

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The building on the right with the big smokestack was probably the 256mw Unit #18, 1962-2015. The building on the left was probably the one built in the 1940s and retired in 2012.
First of 21 photos via cleveland, (Marvin Fong / The Plain Dealer)
First Energy allowed the plant to deteriorate after the 2012 shutdown due to frozen roof drain pipes, etc. so that by 2016 it had to be torn down.
"The utility would remove the top 2 feet of soil from the site and grade the property so it drains toward its former water treatment ponds, without creating puddles or swampy areas. The utility would cap the land with fresh topsoil, plant it with grass, and await offers from buyers."

That looks like a rotary coal hopper dumper.
Sixth of 21 photos via cleveland, (Marvin Fong / The Plain Dealer)

The 19th photo more clearly shows that these are units 14-17.
Eighth of 21 photos via cleveland, (Marvin Fong / The Plain Dealer)

The tall smokestack was 300'. [IndependenceDemolition]
It is a shame that they didn't preserve it as other redevelopments have as a homage to the industrial history of the area.

There has been no shortage of owners and plans, but nothing has happened except for the growth of trees.
neo-trans
"Prior to demolishing the Lake Shore Power Station, FirstEnergy submitted conceptual plans to the city for redeveloping the site with different uses and even relocating Interstate 90 away from the edge of Lake Erie and its pounding waves (FirstEnergy)."

ClevelandMetroparks, p10

I found the source for the neo-trans diagrams. Actually, neo-trans used page 47. This is a 61 page reuse report by First Energy. I didn't read it, but I did look at the pictures.
ClevelandMetroparks, p43

The 1940s building was deconstructed, the 1962 building and smokestack was blown up.
indexc

At least they used a lot of water for dust control. I wonder if it did the job. When they imploded the Crawford Power Plant in Chicago, (toxic?) dust rained down on the Little Village.
FirstEnergy
"Lake Shore began operation in 1911 and was built at cost of $14 million.  In 1923, it became the first plant in Ohio – and only the second in the United States – to burn pulverized coal.  At one time, it had a peak generating capacity of 520 MW, but most recently was operating a single 245 MW unit."

Sidnaw, MI: Milwaukee+DSS&A Depot and Junction Tower

Depot: (Satellite)
Tower: (Satellite, the connector track between the Milwaukee and DSS&A was added after the tower was removed.)

DSS&A = Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic

Greg Bunce posted two photos with the comment: "Here's a view of the Sidnaw, Michigan depot that is unusual in that it is of the east end and also shows the interlocking tower. Most photos only show the west end. The DSS&A is in the foreground and the Milwaukee Road curves around the left side of the depot.  I've enlarged the photo to show the depot and tower more clearly.  The tower was replaced with a gate in 1929.  Photo from the David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography at the University of Michigan Library."
Gret Bunce also posted
Robert Chitwood: Is that a snow fence on the right?
Greg Bunce: Robert Chitwood yes it is. Most of the land has been clear cut and not much to stop the snow.

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1954/65 Sidnaw Quad @ 62,500


Windsor, CT: Amtrak/NHNH&H Depot

(Satellite)

Street View, Jun 2024

Jim MacKey posted
Windsor, CT
Harrison Peloso: back before the platforms got changed

This taught me that the route was the New Haven Railroad.
1952/54 Hartford North Quad @ 31,680

Friday, August 29, 2025

Ancona, IL: Lost/Santa Fe Depot

(Satellite)

Andy Zukowski posted
The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Depot in Ancona, Illinois. C1910
While the Pekin Branch was abandoned in 1982 due to changing economic landscapes, the double-tracked mainline remains active today. The tracks, now owned by BNSF Railway, continue to serve as a vital freight corridor, carrying goods and commodities across the nation. The historical foundation laid by the AT&SF in the late 19th and early 20th centuries ensures that Ancona, though a quiet village today, retains its place as a functional and integral part of the nation's supply chain.
John Yoder: There's a big grain complex there now.

1927/27 Streator @ 62,500

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Bill Meier, Aug 2017

Satellite

Ellsworth, WI: Lost/C&NW Depot

(Satellite, my guess based on the aerial photo below.)

Trent Briggs posted four photos with the comment: "Ellsworth."
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4

This was at the end of a C&NW branch. I assume it was east of the main part of Ellsworth because Ellsworth was up on a hill.
1950/52 Maiden Rock Quad @ 62,500

1939 Aerial Photo via WIHAP