Mt. Carmel, IL: A Grain Entrapment Fatality

(Satellite, this is one of the three farms near the intersection given in the article. This one looks like the photo.)

tristatehomepage via a post by Eyewitness News WEHT WTVW
Update: One dead following grain bin entrapment in Wabash County

Greg Poe: I’m no farmer but aren’t you not supposed to go in there?

Steve Robinson: Greg Poe terrible deal whatever happened. A teenage boy died in a bin accident in our neighborhood just a few years ago and a few years before that an elderly man died in a grain bin accident here also. Bad things can happen quick.

Logan Pezzoni: Greg Poe you can, but to comply with osha standards you are supposed to have a confined space permit along with a harness pinned to a secure connection point. A lot of times moisture seeps into the bin and creates a crusty outer shell in the grain and blocks unloading equipment so you’ll have to go in and clear the obstructions. Hope this is informative!

Roger Rush: I've worked for a farmer and done this. The top layer of corn draws moisture and get hard. Then when they are loading trucks an air pocket forms below the crusted grain . The one's I did had a bar that went halfway around the bin I would hang onto it and use my feet to break loose the grain I've seen how fast the grain gets sucked down into the air pocket. It's always so sad to read these stories prayers for the family and friends 🙏 💔

Levi Bridwell: Roger Rush facts.. it's faster than quicksand.

[I've heard of the term "bridge" used for the c rusted grain that creates air pockets. There are several comments on the post about people getting in the bin when they were kids help the grain flow. They now appreciate how lucky they were. There were also several comments about the final cleanout of the bin. That is not the dangerous part because your feet are on the bin's floor, not on a bridge of grain.]

I think this is the farm that had the problem.

Satellite

There is some serious grain storage nearby. These grain operations are larger than many commercial grain elevators. I presume that a local fire department has the equipment needed to rescue a person. In addition to ropes and harnesses for the rescuers, you need a cylinder and grain vacuum to free the engulfed person. Even if the upper part of the body is still out of the grain, you can't just pull on the harness rope of the entrapped person. You have to put a cylinder around the person and then suck out the grain that is around the body and legs. Then you can pull on the harness rope.

Satellite

Satellite

Sublett, IL: Lost/IC Depot

(Satellite, based on the aerial photo below. It was on the east side of the track about halfway between Main and 1st Streets.)

Andy Zukowski posted

Illinois Central Depot, Sublette,

Illinois. The Illinois Central's Amboy sub at the small town of Sublette. Sublette lies about halfway between Amboy and Mendota. View is looking north towards Freeport.

This stretch of the IC was abandoned under the ICG in the mid-80's. Photo from the Barry Lennon Collection 3/13/1966

Larry Candilas commented on Andy's post
MP 800.2 Charter Line - last train Aug 1985

Jim French: Larry Candilas the last train ran in December 1985.

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

The grain elevator has grown since the IC tracks were torn up.

Street View, Jul 2023

Nappanee, IN: Open Door/B&O Depot

(Satellite)

Street View, Aug 2025

Gary Hostetter posted
This is a photo of the B&O station in Nappanee, Indiana. The station was built in 1910 and while not being used these days, the station is still there near the center of town after being restore a few years ago. Nappanee was a station stop for the Capitol Limited and remained a stop for Amtrak for at least 30 years. The Amish buggy parking lot can barely be seen in this photo behind the station.

Charles Wingate commented on Gary's post
beginning of May this year [2026]

Street View, May 2023

NappaneeOpenDoor
[The webpage won't allow me to copy&paste their description of what they do. The city maintains the depot for this non-profit charity organization.]

Anchor, IL: Lost/IC Depot

(Satellite, based on the aerial photo below.)

Roger Kujawa posted

RPPC Railroad Train Station Depot At Anchor, Illinois. Mclean County

Cropsey IL was laid out in 1880 and in the same year the people in the Township attracted the Clinton, Bloomington, and Northwestern RR and the first train from Kankakee ran 7/4/1880. Anchor, Colfax, and Cooksville were all laid out at the same time because of the RR. The CB&NW soon was absorbed by the Illinois Central RR becoming its “Bloomer Line”. So this would be a depot built by the CB&NWRR.

Thanks to Jimmy Fiedler for info on the depot.

Roger Kujawa shared with the comment: "Anchor, Illinois depot, McLean County."

This topo map accurately marks the location of the depot.

1957/58 Colfax Quad @ 62,500

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Obviously, the grain elevator is rail served.

Street View, May 2025

Jonathan Fischer, Sep 2021

This route is now part of the Bloomer Line.

IlliniRail via Dennis DeBruler

Rockport, KY: Peabody Ken and Homewood Coal Mines

(Satellite, Ken was west of Rochester Rd. and Homewood was east of the road. Both mines stretched between Western Kentucky Pkwy and the Green River.)

The Ken Mine started before Homewood Mine did, and continued operations after Homewood closed. But one hears about Homewood instead because it had the first dragline with a 100 cu. yd. bucket, a repaired Marion 8800.

Michael Davis photo from RockportKY via Dennis DeBruler

"Homestead Mine The first of the Marion 8800 series of draglines and the first to break the 100 cu-yd barrier. Peabody Coal Company started using this one at their Homestead Mine in Western Kentucky in 1961."

Mining Photography Archive posted

Peabody Coal Company Marion 8800 (Homestead Mine)

From the Eric Orlemann Collection

Originally installed at Peabody's Homestead Mine near Echols, Kentucky.  The 8800 was, at the time, the largest dragline in the world.  Sporting a factory equipped 85CY bucket, it was soon upgraded to a 100CY bucket (the first in the world).  A boom failure would lead to prolonged down time shortly after inception at Homestead.  She would return to work in short fashion and would eventually end up working the remainder of her service life at neighboring Ken Mine where she was scrapped in the mid-90's.

A few stats for your records:

Boom Length: 275 feet

Overall Weight: 6,040 tons

Overall Height: 115 feet

Started Work: 1963

A little tidbit of information you may not know, this dragline was installed at the mine the Marion 6360 was originally supposed to go to.

Mining #Shorts posted

The Marion 8800 was a record-breaking dragline.

Introduced in 1961, the big machine went to work at Peabody's Homestead mine in Kentucky, stripping overburden to expose coal seams.

But what made the Marion 8800 so special was its bucket.

In 1961, no dragline had ever broken the 100-cubic-yard mark. The 8800 changed that, becoming the first to cross that line after its original 85-yard bucket was upgraded.

The Marion 8800 was a monster, weighing 6,300 tons and carrying a 275-ft boom.

But in the 1960s, records didn't hold for long. Less than five years after the Marion 8800 entered production, other units such as the 8900 were moving up to 145 cubic yards, crushing old milestones like they never meant anything.

Data from "Giant Earth-Moving Equipment" by Eric C. Orlemann. 

Must read!

RockportKY_homestead, Photographer was probably David Hope's father, a career Peabody Miner.
"A Marion 8800 85-yd. shovel was constructed for the operation of the Homestead Strip Mine. This mine operated for several decades and had a variety of shovels, draglines and other equipment. Pictures and information just seems to be almost non-existent. The picture above is the 8800 sitting on an erection pad in Oct. 1963 at Peabody's Homestead Mine, Beaver Dam, Ky. This machine had a boom failure after a few years of operation and the question of what to do with the broken machine, had one of three choices: 1) Repair and continue operation. 2) Shut down and salvage. 3) Recondition the machine and replace the 85 Yard bucket with a 100 yd. bucket. The decision was to shorten the boom a little, and install a 100 Cubic Yard bucket and continue operation. I think that this was the first of the 100 Yard buckets. When Homestead closed, the 8800 was walked to Ken Mine (Peabody), worked a few years at Ken, and when Ken closed, the Marion 8800 dragline was scrapped."

Both mines had rail tipples. I presume they were on the south ends of the industrial spurs off of the Illinois Central. The Ken Mine later built a loading dock on the Green River. (I have not been able to determine the exact location.) "The first coal was loaded on a barge on June 6, 1956." [RockportKY_ken]

1957/69 Evansville Quad @ 250,000

ebay
1972 Peabody Coal Co Homestead Mine Rockport Ky 8x10 Photo Green River 7491

Dearborn, MI: Ford's Garage (A Restaurant)

(Satellite)

Street View, Aug 2025

Street View, Aug 2025

Facebook Reel

Wapella, IL: Lost/IC Depot and Wood & Modern Grain Elevators

Depot: (Satellite)

Wood Elevator: (Satellite)

Andy Zukowski posted

Illinois Central Depot, Wapella, Illinois 1/15/1966

Photo from the Barry Lennon Collection

Larry Candilas: MP 777.9 Charter Line

1941 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

I didn't think that locomotive had a CN livery. But about a day after I saw this photo, I saw an orange, standard-cab locomotive parked south of Otto Tower along the former-IC mainline. And then I remembered that CN bought EJ&E, and EJ&E used to have orange locomotives.

Street View, Aug 2025

This map indicates that CN still owns this route to Heyworth, which also has a large grain elevator.

CN

I happened to catch three locomotives parked in town.

Satellite

Note the yellow fall protector on the right. That implies that this elevator gets rail service. In fact, this elevator, and the one in Heyworth, IL, are probably why this segment of the Charter Line still exists.

Street View, Aug 2013

Street View. May 2023

And spreading chemicals on the fields is also a big business in this town.

Street View, Aug 2013