Crystal City, MO: Frisco Depots and Pittsburg Plate Glass Co.

Depot: (Satellite)

Glass Plant: (Satellite, brownland with a few brave trees.)

Richard Crabtree posted five images with the comment:

The Frisco Depots of Crystal City, Missouri

Crystal City, Mo., residents are happily proud of the new Frisco station recently completed in their city. The new building is a one-story combination of passenger and freight facilities and cost $25,000. Its construction is of glazed tile with cement floors. The station contains spacious general waiting room, ticket office, freight and baggage rooms with a four hundred foot long passenger platform of brick, and a wooden freight platform. The roof is of tile. Crystal City has one of the largest plate glass plants in the world within its boundaries-the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company. Glass from this plant is shipped to all parts of the United States and to Canada, Mexico, South America, Cuba and the Philippine Islands.

November 1926 The Frisco Employes' Magazine

Photo 1) Frisco Depot Crystal City, MO 1968

Photo 2) Sanborn Map Crystal City, Missouri 1908 1st depot LOC

Photo 3) Sanborn Map Crystal City, Missouri 1926 2nd Depot LOC

Photo 4) Frisco Depot Crystal City, Mo 1971 Photo Ken McElreath

Photo 5) Frisco Depot Crystal City, Mo 1980

Jim Kelling shared with the comment: "Crystal City, Missouri (Frisco Lines)."

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Note that the water tower in Photo 1 is extant. This is a view of the current BNSF building.

Street View, Aug  2022

Today's building is larger than the 1980 building in Photo 5. One normally does not see a yard office, let alone one that has grown. I wonder what kind of business BNSF does in the area to justify a local office.

 Street View, Aug 2022

1964 Festus Quad @ 24,000 and 1949 Crystal City Quad @ 62,500

PPG appears in a 1985 image. These old images make one appreciate how good today's satellite images are.

Google Earth, Dec 1985

The next available image is 1993, and it is gone. So, we lost more than steel mills and tractor manufacturing in the 1980s.

Google Earth, Oct 1993

So how contaminated is this former Pittsburg Plate Glass land?

Statellite

Indianapolis, IN: Massachusetts Avenue Tower: Big Four vs. Monon and NKP

(Satellite, the ramp up to the Monon Trail has wiped out the tower's foundation.)

Darren Reynolds posted four images with the comment:

Conrails (EX- CCC&STLRY/NYC)"Massachusetts Ave" tower

Indianapolis, Indiana

This tower is no longer standing

Tim Shanahan shared

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Little "Massachusetts Ave" tower in Indianapolis, Indiana 1970

Photo by

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The interlocking machine at "Massachusetts Ave" tower

Photo by: Bob McCord

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The back of "Massachusetts Ave" tower in Indianapolis, Indiana

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A track and interlocking diagram for "Massachusetts Ave" tower and interlocking machine information...

Matthew Lappin: question, was the diamond a slip switch or moveable point frog setup.

and my guess is Pratt is Polk?

believe the NKP Hole track was for a PSI substation

Daniel Kopack: That would be a slip switch..

Daniel Kopack: Indy had one of the best track plans of any major city...

Corydon, IA: Lost?/CB&Q Depot

(Satellite?)

Michael Emerson Avitt posted
April 19, 2005 - CB&Q depot at Corydon, Iowa.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Michael's post
2005 is fairly recent. Is it still standing? I looked along the former right-of-way, but I could not find it. https://maps.app.goo.gl/Kz9gwHQ37oTLZ8Sw6

It was on the east/west route between Humeston and Sedan.

1902

Youngstown, OH: 1846 Lanterman's Mill at Mill Creek

(Satellite)

Mill Creek joins the Mahoning River in Youngstown.
 

Note the grist stones on the left side of the view.

Street View, Oct 2015

This photo shows the waterfall that creates the head for the mill.

Joe Labbiento, Feb 2023

This is the post that motivated researching this mill. Note the Lanterman Covered Bridge in the right background.

Facebook Reel

Jon Rackson, Apr 2025

The overshot waterwheel is in the basement. I think the first floor has the millstone, the second floor has the sifters, and the third floor is storage.

Philip Lautenschlager, Jun 2021

Water enters the side of the building that has the control gate and flows down the mill race to the top of the waterwheel. The water behind the "Google Maps" label in this photo is on top of the waterwheel.

Cindy Laveck, Oct 2024

Here is another view of the water falling onto the water wheel. Note the vertical drive shaft to the left of the waterwheel.

Tom Turney, Aug 2021

Here is a video of the water driving the wheel.

ofri haimi, Aug 2021

And a video in the sub-basement of the wheel turning.

ofri haimi, Aug 2021

Remember the driveshaft I noted above in Tom's photo? Here we see that a ring gear on the waterwheel drives a bevel gear on the driveshaft.

Billy Pope, Nov 2023

The above photo also shows how the mill used the side of the canyon as one of its walls.

Fatima A, Jun 2022

A closeup of the ring gear.

Randy Bentley, Jul 2023

And then up on the first floor, the vertical drive shaft drives a horizontal shaft. 

Zack Braley, Jul 2025

Does the horizontal shaft in Zack's photo then drive another vertical driveshaft?

Simi, Jay 2022

These are three views of the same gears and belt. I didn't have a bucket list, but I do now. I need to visit this mill to figure out what is driving what.

Kyle Kendzierski, Jul 2017

Dena Ward, Oct 2016

Frank Bosso, Nov 2021

Eventually, something drives the mill stone

Simi, May 2022

And here is a spare set of stones and the crane that is used to replace them.

Andie Morgan, Sep 2023

I presume this is the second floor. I don't know how much of this equipment was native to the mill and how much are museum pieces. For example, I see two different grindstone containers in the background.

Cindy Laveck, Oct 2024

I was surprised to see Route 66 and the San Francisco 49ers logo in this mural.

Drew Saunders, Sep 2023

The variance in river flows continues to fascinate me. This was the lowest flow I found.

M affina, Nov 2022

And when the flow is high, people tend to make a video of it.

Miss Reviewer, Apr 2023

Misty Hightower, Apr 2024

Bettendorf, IA: JI Case: Construction Equipment and/or Combine Plant

(Satellite, along the river upstream from the bridge)

I knew International Harvester was big in the Quad Cities. They made tractors in Rock Island and combines in East Moline. Now I have learned that JI Case had a big plant in Bettendorf, IA.

Quad Cities Buildings / Landmarks / History posted

Aerial photograph of Bettendorf 1972.

Quad-City Times.

(Aerial Photo by Harry Boll)

In 1947, Case bought three more factories. These were in Stockton, California; Bettendorf, Iowa and Annis-ton, Alabama. The one in Bettendorf is used to manufacture large combines, corn harvesting equipment and hay balers. [FarmCollector]

Fans of Rock Island Lines posted
The former Bettendorf steel car works a train car manufacturer. A IH/ case plant doubled in size for war production under the war department.

Quad City Images commented on the above post
I'm pretty sure the building at the far east of the property is what's still there now, most recently operated by Alter as essentially an indoor scrapyard, but currently vacant and crumbling. I always thought that the sheds on the west side of the Isle property were the big shops in the foreground of the historic photo, but now I see that they have an entirely different roofline, so I'm not sure where the images line up.

Fans of Rock Island Lines posted

Linda Weatherly: At one time [the implication is during WWII], the largest factory in the world.

Fans of Rock Island Lines: Linda Weatherly yes the building on left was doubled. Ive got a bunch of Sherman's rolling out during WW2?

So both IH and Case had plants in Bettendorf?

Fans of Rock Island Lines commented in Linda's comment

One of nine photos posted by Mark Nyenhuis
In 1952 the JI Case plant in Bettendorf had a major fire. My father who always seemed to have a camera with him took these pictures on that May morning on the way to the plant

One of several photos in CQtimes, Roy Booker

It is obvious from the interior shots in the above referenced collection that the plant made at least dozers and engines. I've seen a headline ("From Combines to Casinos") that implies the plant made combines. Of course, the plant may have made different things at different times. Or, since it is a big plant, it may have made multiple products for different divisions.

If I put together enough articles, I better understand the history. In 1985, when Tenneco bought the IH agriculture assets, it already owned the JI Case assets. Tenenco added the IH assets to its JI Case subsidiary. Tenneco effectively closed the IH Farmall Plant in 1985 because it refused to buy that asset. It did buy the Combine Plant in East Moline, IL. The purchase of the IH's factories in 1985 made the Bettendorf factory surplus and thus its closure in 1986. [upi,  timeline, QConline] I still need to find where JI Case had a plant in Rock Island. ("Rock Island plant became part of Case in 1937, Bettendorf in 1947 and Terre Haute in 1966." [ChicagoTribune])

In 1970, The Case crawlers were moved from Burlington, Iowa to Bettendorf, Iowa. Bettendorf will build rubber-tired tractors. They also build harvesting machinery. Also, products from Rockford will be transferred. Four-wheel-drive loaders will be made at Terre Haute, Indiana. The 1470 will be made in Racine. The Uni-loader and 480ck will go to Burlington. Farm implements will go from Rockford to Bettendorf. [FarmCollector]

1927 Aerial Photo from ILHAP, the case plant is on the left

1937 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

1975 Davenport East and Silvis Quadrangles @ 1:24,000