Mound City, IL: CGB & ADM Grain Elevators, IC Depot and Old Gas Station in Mounds, IL

CGB: (Satellite)

ADM: (Satellite)

Depot: (Satellite)

Old Gas Station: (Satellite, this is in Mounds, IL.)

The CGB elevator is on the left, and the depot is on the right. In the center background is a remnant of its downtown.

Street View, Nov 2025

A closeup of that downtown remnant.

Street View, Nov 2025

Both of the Mound City elevators are rail-to-barge.

CGB:

Street View, Nov 2025

ADM:

Street View, Sep 2023

I see that CGB has a couple of big grain piles. 

Satellite

This confirms that the railroad along the river was the Big Four's Cairo or Egypt line. But that railroad was abandoned a while ago. So how do the trains get to the elevators? This map shows that there was a shortline that provided access to the Illinois Central. And a satellite image shows that that route is still intact to the CN route.

1953/59 Cairo Quad @ 62,500

Roger Kujawa posted eight photos with the comment: "Mound City, Illinois; Illinois Central depot and ADM SW1001 locomotive."

Roger Kujawa shared

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Roger Kujawa posted five photos with the comment: "Mound City, Illinois.  Consolidated Grain and Barge locos at the north end of the plant. There is a switcher and another GP locomotive in one of the plant buildings."

Roger Kujawa shared with the same comment.

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Old Gas Station

While checking out the nearby Mounds, IL, to confirm that they still have some stores or residents in Mound City, I found this old gas station. This is on the original US-51 route.

Street View, Nov 2025

The diamond above the garage door reminded me of Sunoco. But that doesn't fit. So I don't know what brand this station pumped.

1000logos

Port Byron, IL: Lost/Milwaukee Depot and "Will B. Rolling" Statue

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

Andy Zukowski posted
Port Byron Depot during flood of 1965
Richard Fiedler shared

Dennis DeBruler commented on Andy's post
It was a Milwaukee Railroad depot. 1950 Port Byron Quad @ 24,000

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

I think this statue repurposed the depot's land. This "Will B. Rolling Stature" was installed between 2013 and 2015. I'm sure the depot was torn down long before that. I've noticed that Google's AI is smart enough to blur faces, but not smart enough to tell the difference between statues and people.

Street View, May 2023

Chicago, IL Depot: (Metra 11th/IC 12th Street Suburban) Station

(Satellite)

Robert Daly posted six photos with the comment: "IC's Twelfth Street suburban station was a plain structure perched over the electric tracks just north of Central Station. It was approached from Michigan Avenue and Grant Park by an increasingly rickety wooden walkway.  Metra replaced it with the much nicer Eleventh Street-Museum campus facility. See photos for details and dates."

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Looking northeast from the site of Central Station, 9/26/87.

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View looking northwest from Grant Park, 9/26/87.

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Ticket office, 9/26/87.

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Looking west along the walkway from Grant Park, 9/26/87

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Northbound platform, April 1970.

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New bilevels, 3/4/72.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Robert's post
This post helped me understand why old photos of the north side of Central Station had a clear façade, but newer photos had a walkway across the front. That walkway provided access to the 12th Street Suburban Station. The walkway is not present on a 1929 topo map, but it does appear in a 1938 aerial photo.
Overview posted by David M Laz,
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ILLRRHISTORYBUFFS/posts/1971479686411521/

A closeup of the walkway.

Illinois Central Railroad Scrapbook And Occasionally Other Railroads posted

Alco PA's were pretty rare at Chicago's Central Station.  After all, the IC never owned any.  The New York Central's Big Four subsidiary did serve Central Station, and the NYC did own several PA's, but the Big Four trains were typically (but not always) pulled by IC locomotives while on IC rails between Kankakee, IL and Chicago.

This is one of the few photos I've ever seen of a PA at Central Station.  The photo taken on June 6, 1951 when GE's "More Power to America" train was on display at Central Station.  This 10 car train  was put together by GE and featured 2,000 products and innovations (all designed and built by GE, of course) that were intended to showcase new ways of "making, distributing, and using electric power".  Of course, the goal was to boost power consumption, which in turn would boost sales of GE equipment.  To heck with conservation - the train's goal was to boost electric consumption!

Pulling the train was an Alco PA2/PB2 set that doubled as a demonstrator for Alco (remember, at the time Alco and GE were in a partnership to build diesel-electric locomotives).

Admission to the train was "by invitation only", and was open only to big shots in the electrical, railroad, manufacturing, distribution, aerospace, and military fields (ie, those who influenced purchasing).  On the IC the train visited several cities (somewhere I have a list). 

After the train's 1950-51 tour the locomotives were sold to the NYC and were scrapped by the mid-1960s.

While poking around on the Internet I ran across an old GE film put together by GE to promote the film.  It's not the best quality but it has some rare color shots of the locomotive.

Cliff Downey coll

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CAwy4pgLpg

Paul Webb shared

You can tell by the periodic black horizontal lines over the easternmost tracks that they are the electrified suburban service. Those lines are the bridges that hold the catenary wires. Photo 5 above has a view of one of those bridges, and Photo 6 has a nice angle on some of the wires.

Mar 29, 1952 @ 23,600, AR1SA0000040050

Newberry Springs, CA: Whiting Brothers Gas Station

(Satellite? I could not find it.)

US-66 Overview

Any gas station that still has old pumps is worth noting. But I could not find it on Google Maps. I spent more time looking for it than I care to admit.

Lost Corners posted

📍 Location - This abandoned Whiting Brothers Gas Station is located in Newberry Springs along Historic Route 66 in the Mojave Desert, east of Barstow, California.

⛽ History

The station was part of the Whiting Brothers chain, a well-known roadside fuel company that operated across the American Southwest during the mid-20th century. The Newberry Springs location served Route 66 travelers during the highway’s busiest years.

🛣️ Decline

After Interstate 40 bypassed much of Route 66 traffic in the 1970s, many small roadside businesses in the area began to decline, including this station.

🏚️ Current Status

Today, the building remains abandoned and weathered by the desert climate. The site has become a popular photography location for travelers exploring forgotten Route 66 landmarks.

The silver lining of not being able to find this station is that I found some more Route 66 history.

The Barn (Satellite)

Street View, May 2024

Howard Fox, May 2026

Newberry Springs Route 66 Marker (Satellite)

Street View

Old Henning Motel sign (Satellite)

Street View

Bagdad Cafe (Satellite)

Street View

What was this? (Satellite)

Street View

Santa Fe Caboose (Satellite)

This caboose is in an RV park. The BNSF/Santa Fe tracks are a little north of here on the other side of I-40.

Street View

Ruins of Mrs. Orcutt's Home (Satellite)

Alvin bustamante, Sep 2024

Wilson, KS: World's Largest Czech Egg & Old Gas Station on US-40, four Wood Grain Elevators and Feed Mill

Egg: (Satellite)

Gas Station: (Satellite)

Feed Mill: (Satellite)

US-40 Overview

Street View, Jun 2024

Street View, Jun 2024

The egg was installed after Mar 2014.

Street View, Mar 2014

Jerry Krug posted
Wilson, KS. Photo by Todd Wilson

David Budka: The weird feed mill complex in Wilson, Kansas!

They have preserved a remnant of the old downtown along US-40. The building on the left is labeled "Historic Wilson Czech Opera House Theatre." 

Street View

Their Chamber of Commerce building is a repurposed gas station. I'm guessing 1930s. They still have the pump island. It would be nice if they could find some pumps for it.

Street View

This is the wood grain mill in the background of the above view. Obviously, none of the elevators now get rail service. The route was Great Northern.

Street View

There are at least three wood elevators in the complex that Jerry posted. I don't know what is between the stave silo and the bolted-steel silo near the middle of this view. Given David Budka's comment above, maybe that is the building that houses the feed mill equipment.

Street View

I see in this view that there is another elevator on the right side. This view shows that this elevator doesn't have any jump-form silos. They are all stave silos.

Street View

I had noticed that the above elevator had about every old grain storage technology except slip form silos. Well this elevator has a slip-form elevator and the widest bolted-steel bin that I have seen.

Street View

I thought I found a fifth wood elevator, but then I realized that this is just another view of the elevator in Jerry's post.

Street View

Old-US 40 is south of the tracks. The road north of the tracks also tried to appeal to tourists. This statue is labeled "Statue of Liberty."

Street View

And across the street from this park, a hotel still functions as the "Midland Railroad Hotel & Restaurant."

Street View

Fortunately, later I found Todd's original post.

Todd Wilson posted nine photos with the comment: "Wilson Kansas."

Eric Miller: Most people just take pics of the Sunflower sign and the elevator’s behind. There’s a whole lot more than that to photograph.

Todd Wilson: Eric Miller we stayed at the midland. It was a neat old hotel.

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