Chesaning, MI: Lost/MC Depot and Grain Elevator

Depot: (Satellite, according to the photos below, it was close to the curve in the tracks. I did not drop a pin because I could not find it in the aerial photo below.)

Elevator: (Satellite)

Thumbwind posted

History of Chesaning Michigan - Big Rock Beginnings

Chesaning grew along the Shiawassee with mills, farms, rail service, and Main Street parades. See how a Chippewa place-name and early industry shaped a Michigan river town between 1900 and 1930.

https://thumbwind.com/.../history-of-chesaning-michigan/...

Larry W Harrell shared

Chesaning.

thumbwind

thumbwind

thumbwind

The photos imply that the depot was south of Broad Street. So that rules out the obvious rectangle, which is now part of a parking lot. Was the depot removed before this 1954 aerial?

May 1, 1954 @ 23,600; AR1VDI000050151

The town still has a grain elevator, and the 2005 SPV Map indicates the tracks were owned by Tuscola & Saginaw Bay (TSBY). But the grain elevator does not have rail service.

Street View, Jul 2024

The town had a small railyard.

1943/43 Chesaning Quad @ 62,500

The diversion dam shown in a couple of photos in thumbwind has been replaced by a fish ladder. The grey structure on the right is a "Riverboat Playland."

Street View, Jul 2024

Adams, MA: Restaurant/Boston & Albany Depot

(Satellite, the B&A is now the Ashuwillticok Rail Trail.)

Dave Blaze Rail Photography posted

Station Saturday

For Station Saturday here's a look at the brick former Boston and Albany Railroad Adams Station and adjacent express office which both date from 1884, the station having replaced an earlier wooden structure dating from the line's construction.  Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 the well kept station is now a popular restaurant AJ's Trailside Pub.  

The tracks once ran on this side, dating from 1846 when opened as the aptly named Pittsfield and North Adams Railroad (a wholly owned Western Railroad subsidiary). As late as 1951 the New York Central served this station with two round trips on this Boston and Albany (the Western's 1870 successor) branch line that reached 18 1/2 miles north from a connection with the mainline in Pittsfield. The little NYC 'Beeliners' (as Budd RDCs were referred to on that road) made their last revenue runs in March 1953 though occasional excursions rode these rails in later years. The branch passed from NYC to PC and then CR until the later sold it to the Boaton and Maine in 1981. It held on another 11 years until all but the northern five miles down to Adams were ripped up by Guilford in 1994, with another mile cropped back a year or so later. Guilford and Pan Am continued to provide freight service to two moderate sized customers near Zylonite station, about 4 miles south of North Adams. 

MassDOT purchased the line in 2015 with Pan Am retaining the freight rights and BSRM running passenger excursions on weekends when freight trains (now operated by Genesee and Wyoming's Berkshire and Eastern Railroad) are not running. MassDOT even reconstructed one mile of previously removed track into downtown Adams ending about 3/10ths of a mile ahead to the north. The tracks share the corridor for that last mile with the north end of the popular Ashuwillticook Rail Trail which now occupies the abandoned right of way down towards Pittsfield through Lanesboro and Cheshire in a nice example of 'trails with rails.' 

To learn more about the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum and and their wonderful little excursion on the surving stub of the line check out their page.

Adams, Massachusetts

Saturday September 20, 2025

Street View, Sep 2025

Photo, Dec 2016

Jacksonville, IL: Old Gas Stations

(Satellite)

Vintage Gas Stations posted
Jacksonville, Al highway 21 .I don't what station it used to be ,so maybe someone can let us know .

Revis Edmonds: American/Amoco originally built by predecessor company Pan-Am.

It was a car wash shop.

Street View, Jun 2014

It was restored by 2022.

Street View, Mar 2022

They found a Coke machine as well as two pumps.

Street View, Mar 2022

Someone stole the globes?

Street View, Oct 2023

And then stole the pumps and Coke machine?

Street View, Oct 2025

While looking for this station, I found some others.

This one is now a used car lot office. This station was probably built before WWII.

Street View

Car washing seems to be big business in this town.

Street View

I'm guessing this one was 1960s. I wonder how many islands it used to have. It is just south of the station at the top of these notes. 

Street View

I'm guessing this is late 20th Century with updated pumps. I can't tell if the extra nozzle is for diesel or E-15.

Street View

While I'm at it, I added a couple of representatives from the 21st Century.

This one was purpose built to sell gas. But I've heard that gas is so competitive that these stations make their profit on the in-store sales.

Street View

I don't know if this was built for gas sales or if it was a convenience store that added gas pumps.

Street View

Jewett, TX: Nucor Steel Bar Mill (Including Rebar)

(Satellite)

Brian Olson posted two images with the comment: "Irony.  US Steel's American Bridge division supplied the original 50 ton EAFs to Nucor Jewett facility in Texas in 1975."

Jonathan Haynes: They used Fuchs eafs also.

Brian Olson: Jonathan Haynes I they have a completely new high bay now. I'm sure the American Bridge furnaces are all gone and the area is used for some other purpose now. They did their job.

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2

Satellite

The railroads were CB&Q and MoPac.

1982/83 Jewett Quad @ 24,000

Ogden, IL: Lost/Big Four/P&E Depot

(Satellite)

Andy Zukowski posted
Big 4 Railroad Depot in Ogden, Illinois. 1918

Rick Harris: My home town

I remember the depot

My grandpa worked telegraph operator here

Thanks for sharing

Bob Kalal commented on Andy's post
Ogden IL Peoria and Eastern Illinois Railroad Co. Depot 1962

Larry Candilas commented on Andy's post
MP 102.7 Peoria & Eastern Line

Most of the grain elevators were already gone by 1940. Now the town doesn't have any grain elevators.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Rick's comment
Was it north of the tracks and east of East Avenue? https://maps.app.goo.gl/virgZFZzUQGT9mvTA 1940 aerial photo

Illinois Terminal tracks were south of the P&E tracks.

1957/57 Fithian Quad @ 62,500

Michigamme, MI: Lost/(C&NW and DSS&A) Depots, Museum and Henry Ford Camp

Museum: (Satellite)

DSS&A = Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic

Greg bunce posted two images with the comment: "The Chicago and North Western depot is at the center and the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic depot is at the right in this photo  at Michigamme, Michigan.  Michigamme was at the end of the C&NW branch from Ishpeming.  Photo from the David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography in the William L. Clement Library at the University of Michigan."

Paul Hillmer: Boom town

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The photo shows the C&NW depot is closer to town than the DSS&A depot. So the C&NW tracks would have been south of the DSS&A tracks. But the 2005 SPV Map shows the C&NW was north of the DSS&A tracks. The C&NW was gone so much before 1956 that this map doesn't even mark an old railroad grade. It does look like CN uses the C&NW route instead of the DSS&A route through town.

1956 Michigamme Quad @ 24,000

The building on the left looks like the old fire house. The building beyond it is labeled as the museum.

Street View, Jun 2025

Dawn K. Aug 2023

This is why Henry Ford was familiar with the Upper Peninsula.

Dawn K., Aug 2023

Mt. Airy, NC: 1743,1889-2025 World's Largest Open Faced Quarry Closed, It Provided Granite

(Satellite)

polycor_blog

"This quarry was first operated in 1743, well before the Revolutionary War, by the Brothers of the Moravian Church who came to this region from Germany. Operations were limited in those days because of the lack of equipment and technology. The ownership of the quarry site passed through many hands over the next hundred years until 1889, when the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railroad was built from Greensboro to Mount Airy. Mr. Thomas Woodroffe was selected to build the railway stations along the new rail line, and he decided to use the stone from the Mount Airy Quarry. He organized the North Carolina Granite Company May 14, 1889, and purchased the quarry site. The quarry has been in continuous operation ever since. [until 2025, see below]" [polycor]

Granite from this quarry replaced the marble sheets on the Aon Center in Chicago. (The marble sheets warped and cracked in the Chicago weather and started to fall off the building.)

polycor_aon

Marble was chosen because the architect wanted a white surface. The marble product "flamed" was close to white.

polycor_stones_flamed
Flamed

"In the late 1980s, this instantly recognizable part of the famous Windy City skyline faced a problem: the Carrara marble panels on the 83-story building were cracked and buckling and in need of replacement after only 15 years. In fact, the building hadn’t even completed construction when the first panel of marble cladding came crashing down to the street below. White Mount Airy Granite® was chosen as the replacement stone because it can stand up to Windy City weather while retaining white, brilliant luster over time. Today, the Aon Center is the third largest building in Chicago, and the world’s tallest granite clad building."  [polycor_blog]

The Arlington Memorial Bridge is clad with the Sandblasted product.

polycor_arlington

polycor_stones_sandblasted
Sandblasted

"The neoclassical bridge, whose original construction was launched in 1925, underwent a massive rehabilitation project starting in 2018, where hundreds of pieces of stone were removed from the historic span and were cleaned and repaired. While the original balusters were handcrafted, replacements for the few that couldn’t be repaired were made with high-tech guidance from computers, seamlessly matched with stone from the same quarry. It’s an astounding testament to the stone’s integrity that blocks mined from Mount Airy nearly a century ago match perfectly with stone extracted today." [polycor_blog]

NorthCarolinaMuseum
"Granite from the 90-acre quarry (the largest open-faced quarry in the world) is pure in color and texture; a piece removed today matches a piece removed a century ago."

"NCGC has continued to grow and evolve with the technology and markets. Today, NCGC is honored to be a part of the Polycor family of brands, having been acquired by the world’s largest dimension stone quarry company in 2021. Nothing has changed from an operations and service perspective, and you can continue to expect the same level of quality and trust that has been NCGC’s foundation and which is shared by Polycor across all of its family of brands." [polycor]

But four years later the quarry was closed at the end of Aug 2025!  [mtairynews]

I'd say that was a change. So, were they lying in 2021 or that ignorant of the economics? Either way, it is a rather low "level of trust."

The mother mass is "is about 7 miles long and 1 mile wide, north and south. And it’s 8,000 feet deep." They have mined just 60' down. They estimate that they have enough granite to last another 500 years. The mining process uses a water pressure jet at 40,000psi, a diamond saw and explosives (Primacord). [OurState]

About 336 million years, to be precise. It was then that The Rock formed through a geological process called plate tectonics.

“Our planet is a restless planet,” says Bert Meijboom, a Pilot Mountain geologist who does consulting work for the North Carolina Granite Corp. and is familiar with the granite quarry. “Continental plates are constantly on the move.”

North Carolina sits on the North American plate, Meijboom says. Several times in geological history — remember, we’re talking about millions of years here — that plate has collided with the African Plate. The last time it happened — approximately 360 million years ago — portions of the African plate subsided beneath the North American plate, creating a subduction zone that set the stage for the formation of Mount Airy’s huge granite quarry.

“It was along such a zone, some 12 to 25 miles underneath the American plate, that blobs of molten rock were formed,” Meijboom says. “Due to its relatively lighter weight, the molten rock, also called magma, started to rise toward the surface, intruding the upper portions of the plate.”

The magma slowly solidified over millions of years and formed what’s known as a pluton — basically, a body of igneous rock that develops beneath the earth’s surface. As the plates continued to move and extensive erosion occurred, these plutons — one of which geologists actually refer to as the Mount Airy pluton — appeared at the surface, giving The Rock its designation as an open-faced quarry.

[OurState]

 This is what motivated my research.

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