Harrisville, WV: Cliff's Museum of Automobile Memorabilia

(Satellite)

Street View, Sep 2023

They had a couple of vehicles for sale in 2025.

Street View, Sep 2025

Danny green nostalgia posted
This car memorabilia museum draws fans from everywhere.

Charlie Wilson: Cliff's Museum of Automobile Memorabilia, known as "The Building," is located at 305 East Main Street in Harrisville, West Virginia.

AtlasOcscura, 1 of several photos
"Located in a former Chevrolet dealership dating back to the 1930s, this 13,000-square-foot, locally owned museum is full of antique automobiles, gas station pumps, store signs, road maps, license plates, and thousands more items of automobile memorabilia. It is said to have the most complete collection of West Virginia licenses."

Note the firetruck in the left background.

OnlyInYourState
"Outside, notice the old gas pumps and perhaps an old car or two....More of both can be found inside, along with automobile equipment, oil cans and bottles, car parts, maps, a local West Virginia coca cola bottle collection, motorcycles, auto brand names and advertising, and of course license plates (more than 4,000!)."

Lawrence Johnson, Jul 2025

Atwood, IL: B&O Depot, Grain Elevators and Repurposed Gas Station

(Satellite, the depot was in the northeast quadrant of Main St. and the tracks)

In addition to the grain elevator behind the depot, we can see a leg for another elevator in the background.

1 of 2 photos in SouthernIllinoisRailroads (source)

The depot would have been on the left side of this siding. It looks like an old gas station was repurposed as the police station. The concrete silos in the depot photo are still being used.

Street View, Jun 2012

The street view driver did not get off Main Street.

Street View

This is the B&O route that terminates in Decatur, IL. Every source I checked says CSX still owns it. A street view shows that the crossing is maintained and the rails are shiny. 

Street View

I find it hard to believe that CSX would bother with this route. Sure enough, it allowed a shortline, DREI (Decatur & Eastern Illinois), to have it.

IDOT

WATCO

Gwinner, ND: Wood Grain Elevator and Bobcat Company Headquarters

Elevator: (Satellite)

Bobcat: (Satellite) Bobcat consumes almost as much land as the houses do in this town.

Street View, Aug 2025

Wesley Peters posted two photos with the comment:

Grain Elevator Photography Trip 2, North Dakota.

Gwinner, Sargent County, ND.

Gwinner Farmers Elevator Co. Headhouse built in 1948-1949, Wachtler Construction Co. 65,000-bushel capacity. Annex built in 1958. 116,000-bushel capacity.

One of two known surviving works by the Wachtler Construction Co. that I have come across in my research. The other example of their work is located in Dunnell, MN.

Photographed on 7/19/2025.

Photos courtesy of Wesley Peters.

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The town also has a fertilizer supply facility.

Street View, Aug 2025

I wonder if at least some of these railcars are carrying fertilizer. I could not find a fall protector for either elevator.

Street View, Aug 2025

The former Northern Pacific Railroad is now owned by Red River Valley & Western.

rail.guide

I recognize Bobcat as a pioneer of the skid-steer industry.

Jimmy Lee, Jun 2022

In fact, they were the pioneer in 1960.

bobcat_timeline
"The M400 was adapted from the second self-propelled loader designed by Melroe Manufacturing Company, the M200, by adding a rear axle. The skid-steer loader's unique use of two independent transmissions allowed it to turn within its own length, creating a new way of working. With the introduction of the world’s first true skid-steer loader, the M400 launched the compact equipment industry as we know it today."

They introduced the compact excavator in 1989. 

bobcat_timeline
"At the time and in the 25 years that followed, it was the only compact excavator manufactured in the U.S. Over the next three decades, Bobcat would bring multiple models of compact excavators to market."

Warren, IL: IC+Milw Depot

(Satellite, according to the Sanborn Map below. I could not find it on the aerial photo below.)

This town is on the original IC charter line between Freeport and East Dubuque. Because the Chicago, Madison & Northern route was built by IC to connect Freeport to Chicago, this CN/IC route to the West still exists. The Milwaukee route is abandoned.

Dave Martens posted

Here's a Sanborn map from 1898 showing the shared Milwaukee Road and Illinois Central facilities at Warren, IL. The Mineral Point RR built from Warren, IL to Mineral Point, WI by 1856. Warren was the MPRR's only connection to the outside world at that time. 

The Milwaukee Road purchased the MPRR in 1880 and the MILW then built west from Monroe, WI to Gratiot and Shullsburg. The MILW connection from Monroe to Gratiot rendered the Gratiot-to-Warren connection redundant because the MILW did not want to give traffic to the IC at Warren instead of the MILW keeping the traffic for itself through to Milwaukee or Chicago. The MILW abandoned the Gratiot-to-Warren line around 1923. Part of highway 78, south out of Gratiot, is on the former MILW Gratiot-to-Warren roadbed.

The turntable seen in this map was for turning MPRR/MILW locomotives. The depot at Warren was an IC design but was used by both railroads. Recent research uncovered that the MILW paid the IC about $300/year for use of the IC's facilities in Warren.

1946 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

The topo maps for the area don't have good coverage at the same scale.

1923 South Wayne @ 62,500, 1902 Mineral Point @ 125,000 and 1937 Lena Quad @ 48,000

Havana, ND: Wood Grain Elevator

(Satellite)

Street View, Oct 2024

Wesley Peters posted two photos with the comment:

Grain Elevator Photography Trip 2, North Dakota.

Havana, Sargent County, ND.

Havana Farmers Co-op Grain Co. False-front headhouse built after 1960 (exact year unknown), Hogenson Construction Co. Bushel capacity unknown.

Photographed on 7/19/2025.

Photo courtesy of Wesley Peters.

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The railroad was the Great Northern. Today, it is the DMVW.

1956/67 Havana Quad @ 24,000

It is a rather big elevator, but it doesn't seem to be rail served even though it is next to a shortline railroad instead of a Class I railroad.

Street View, Oct 2024

Street View, Oct 2024

Cincinnati, OH: Cincinnati Milling Company

(Satellite, my guess based on the topo map below.)

VintageMachinery
"Frederick A. Geier died in 1934, and although Geier's son, Frederick V. Geier, was felt by some to be too young, he took charge and ran the company for the next quarter century. The younger Geier had a college education, considerable experience as a machinist, and had served in the military during World War I when he fixed production problems with 75 mm cannon. During a trip to Germany in the early 1930s Geier realized that another war was inevitable and upon his return he aggressively expanded his company's production capabilities: by 1939 they were the largest in the US. He realized that the then-future Allies would not be able to machine the barrels of big naval guns, so he tooled up his factory to do just that. During the Second World War, all of the country's largest guns were machined by Cincinnati Milling Machine Co."

Penn Central was Pennsy and is now IORY. The B&O is also now IORY.

1974/75 Cincinnati East Quad @ 24,000

Practical Machinist posted
A picture from the Cincinnati Milling Machine factory. Here you can see a machinist has a casting for a dial-type vertical mill set up on a large HBM, ready to machine some of the cast surface. Source: lathes . co . uk

Richard Taylor: Poster has failed to mention this is from the British Cincinnati factory in Birmingham. Uk also had a Blanchard factory, kearney and trecker, gleason gear cutting machines and gidding and lewis factories.

Aug Blanchat: Machines making machines.

Old Photos Of Cincinnati posted three photos with the comment: "Cincinnati Milling Machine early 1940's."

Arnold Dykes: The machine capital on the world’ Cincinnati . [And several comments say that Cincinnati Milling was the world's largest machine tool manufacturer.]

Dustin Eng Mcdole: Those pics the Oakley plant or Batavia? [This taught me to look in Oakley Cincinnati for the plant. Batavia is the more modern stuff and now is plastic injection mold machines.]

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At one time the "Mill" was the world's largest Machine Tool Builder.

Some of their products.

Milling machines, Horizontal, vertical, tool toom and production models.

OD Grinding machines

Centerless Grinding Machines

Profile milling machines, The Hydrotel etc

Horizontal and Vertical Broaching Machines

Transfer Lines that took in raw castings at one end and a finished auto engine came out the other.

Grinding Wheels and Coolants

N/C Milling ...The Cintimatic Machining Centers and many versions of it.

N/C profiling mills big enough to park several tractor trailers on. Most of them 5 axis

The Cimtrol Div built the Acramatic controls.

Plastics Div made Injection molding Machines

[Gary E comment in PracticalMachinist]

 

Alvin, IL: C&EI + IC Union Station, Junction Tower and Two Old Grain Elevators

(see below for satellite image)

Mike Sypult posted
Alvin, Illinois Union Station after 1910 when the name was changed from Alvan to Alvin. Must have been after 1917, when the Alvin Power Plant was started. Notice the power poles. The double tracks are the C&EI running north & south. The Illinois Central "Punkin Vine" is running east & west. The Alvin Elevator is behind the depot. The Farmers elevator is up the tracks. To the left is the interlocking tower. The picture was taken from West Railroad Avenue.
Chris Wintering: I wonder what that spot looks like now?

Dennis DeBruler commented on Chris' comment
All traces of the IC are gone except for the connector track, but both grain elevators have grown.
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.3083841,-87.6068431,294a,35y,2.9t/data=!3m1!1e3

Dennis DeBruler commented on Mike's post
1938 Hoopeston Quad @ 62,500