Orchard Place, IL: Lost/Wisconsin Central Depot

(Satellite)

Not only is the depot lost, the whole town is lost. It was swallowed by O'Hare Airport.

George Almaraz posted two photos with the comment: "In light of recent discoveries (thank you Tom Dueringer for your post on the Guthrie, Illinois train depot,) I wanted to share my own that I’ve made as of a month ago. —I’ve been researching about the lost town of Orchard Place, Illinois (what eventually became O’Hare Int’l Airport, hence, “ORD”) and trying to find as many photographs of the town and/or depot that was located on the Wisconsin Central railroad. There are a couple well known and published photos/info of the depot, but I’m hungry for more. In the midst of my research, I found two photos that were not known of before on an antique auctioning website (WorthPoint.) These photo postcard scans were listed on their sales archive and I was able to download the images. They’re from circa 1910!"

Paul Hurst: I would like to see a map of Orchard Park too. Just to see what it looked like.

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George Almaraz commented on Paul's comment
Ah, you mean Orchard Place, Illinois. Where this depot was located. Orchard Place itself fell into the hands of progress, and pretty much got flattened down with the expansion of the airport and highways in the late 1950s. —Here’s a circa 1930s low aerial photo of the “main square” of Orchard Place. The train tracks are the Wisc. Central (Soo-Line), street going across is Higgins Rd., and the diagonal street on the right is Mannheim Rd. If you zoom in, you can see the depot on the right side of the tracks

Dennis DeBruler commented on Paul's comment
1900 Riverside and Highwood Quads @ 62,500

Dennis DeBruler commented on George's post
This image uses a transparency feature that shows the 1900 topo map overlaid on a base map that has the airport. Orchard Place is at the top to the left of Rosemont. https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/topomapexplorer/index.html...

Dennis DeBruler commented on George's comment
I was confused until I realized this photo is looking South. It appears that the depot was under today's I-90, https://maps.app.goo.gl/9NiHjp2x3y47HE1T8. 1938 aerial photo

Harristown, IL: Lost/Wabash and Illinois Terminal Depots

Wabash: (Satellite)

IT: (Satellite)

Mark Barnett posted two photos with the comment: "Illinois Terminal Harristown depot.Top one taken in 1953 and bottom one in 1951. Photographers unknown, from my collection."

Christopher P Allen: Great pic Mark Barnett

I literally just drove by it🤣

I know the owner, he’s trying to sell…

Tough market/niche

Michael Massa: was that the wabash railroad across from it?

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Dennis DeBruler commented on Michael's question
Yes. And it looks like Mark caught the Wabash depot in the first photo. 1954 Niantic Quad @ 62,500

Street View, Jul 2013

Anderson, IN: 1912 Dow (JR) Tower: Big Four vs. Pennsy (PanHandle)

(Satellite, the Pennsy used to continue southeast.)

Mark Teer posted

Bill Haines: Dow tower in Anderson, IN where the Pennsy Richmond - Logansport line crossed the NYC branch.

David L White: Anderson, Indiana. http://madisonrails.railfan.net/dowtower.html

Photo via NorthAmericanInterlockings

1960/61 Anderson North Quad @ 24,000

Whittier, AK: High Urban Density/Military Base

Alaska Railroad Depot: (Satellite, it is just a platform across the street from the cruise ship terminal.)

The only access from land is through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel.

Most of the people in town live in this former military base, which was the Hodge Building. It is now the Begich Towers Condominium and has about 200 apartments. I saw a comment that the town gets 24' (7.3m) of snow.

Street View, Aug 2011

Facebook Reel
There is a tunnel that connects Begich Towers to the school building because of the winter weather and the bears.
[A comment observed that you could tell that she was a city girl because she locked her van.]

In the summer, cruise ships come here so that people can visit Alaska for a few days.

Street View, Aug 2009

Alaska Railroad runs "cruise trains."

James James, Mar 2021

Or is this the "cruise train?"

virgil Ellsworth, Jul 2023

The town also has a ferry that goes to Valdez.

Photo, Aug 2016

The railyard appears to handle containers.

Satellite

The Buckner Building was the first part of the military base. It is now abandoned.

Robin Teagarden III, May 2025

tommorow.city
85% of the town's population lives in the Begich Towers. The deep-water port is ice free. The average temperature in winter is -21 Centigrade (-5.8F).
The tunnel is 4km (2.5 miles) long.
"The town also has a port, used by cargo ships, cruise ships, commercial fishing boats, and hundreds of vessels carrying recreational boaters, sport anglers, and tourists. It is an important part of the Alaska Marine Highway System, using Whittier as a terminal for its central-south routes and as a connection to the railroad that transports goods and passengers in and out of the city.
In summer, Whittier changes. Between May and September, cruise ships stop there for two and three days of the week to enjoy the glaciers and the nature in the area. In 2016, according to the most recent figures available, up to 129,894 passengers arrived by this mode of transport."

Arthur, IA: Old Concrete Grain Elevator, Feed Mill and POET Bioprocessing

Old: (Satellite)

Feed Mill: (Satellite)

POET: (Satellite)

CN now owns this C&NW branch from Ida Grove Junction with the former IC route.

The elevator on the left is the old elevator. The elevator on the right looks like a feed mill.

Street View, Sep 2021

Wesley Peters posted four photos with the comment:

Revisiting Arthur, Ida County, IA.

Shotwell Manufacturing Co. Built in 1916, No contractor mentioned. The construction supervisor was B. Sampson. 1,750,000 pounds of popcorn could be stored in this complex.

Believed to be the second oldest concrete elevator in the state behind the Cannon, Haase & Metcalf Elevator (1907) at Granville, IA. [The only concrete silos I found in Granville did look that old.]

Photographed on 4/21/2026.

Photos courtesy of Wesley Peters.

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Feed mill:

Street View, Aug 2025

I had to zoom out to find the elevator on the left side of Photo 3 above. Notice all of the tank cars stored in their railyard. It is an ethanol plant.

Street View, Aug 2025

Michael Wilhelmi, Sep 2020

POET
"This state-of-the-art bioethanol production facility produces 132 million gallons of bioethanol annually."

Avon, IL: Lost/CB&Q Depot, Water Towers and Wood Grain Elevators

Depot: (Satellite, based on the aerial photo below.)

Wood Elevators; (Satellite)

Lance Lowe posted
Avon IL. C1909
Richard Fiedler shared

In addition to the railroad water tower in the above photo, the town has a modern water tower.

Street View, Aug 2025

Two wood elevators on the left and some bins on the right.

Street View, Aug 2025

A couple of blocks north is a feed mill and more grain storage. In the right background we see the above two elevators.

Street View, Aug 2025

It is easy to find the municipal water tower because it casts a shadow across the tracks. But I could not find the railroad water tower.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Sistersville Ferry on Ohio River Sunk Apr 10, 2026

(Satellite)

Facebook Reel

Apr 29, 2026:

This is from the link referenced in the above reel. The crane came from Pittsburgh. There was no mention of why it sunk.

wtov9

An Apr 13 report:

wtov9
"Sistersville Mayor Bill Rice said harsh winter conditions caused the river to rise and move the ferry into the bank. As the river level began to drop, the boat started to adjust. On Friday, the ferry was pushed back to its regular position and sank within minutes, Rice said."
They have removed the fuel. The plan was to attach bladders to the rear and blow air in them to raise the rear. Evidently that plan failed, and they called in the crane that we see above.
The ferry doesn't open for business until May anyhow.

Facebook Reel

Apr 29:

City of Sistersville Mayor - Bill Rice posted four photos with the comment: "Thank you lord."

Jim Hudkins: A large boat sitting on the bank after the water recedes is never good, shoving it back in the water from dry land is even worse. Expensive lesson learned.

Michael Somales: Obviously it was insured. My guess is the recovery was 100K. A full overhaul will take a year with new power costing 600K-800K.

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Sistersville Ferry posted 14 photos with the comment: "Here are the still pics I got today at the Ferry's lift."

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9, cropped

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wtrf Apr 30 report:

“Well we found out this morning when  we brought it out of the water that the right rudder has been tore off of it and there’s some other damage to it that the insurance company is still assessing right now. So once we get that done, then we can go from there on what we’re gonna do.”

Mayor Bill Rice, Sistersville

Here is what the ferry looked like during better times.

Dana Rukse, Feb 2018

Dana Rukse, Feb 2018