Nelson, IL: UP/C&NW Coaling Towers

(Satellite)

Update: several of Michael Matalis' photos in a Flickr Album include the coaling tower. A Flickr side view.

This is a view of the west side of the coaling tower in Nelson, IL, taken from the railroad crossing with a 200mm focal length.

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HS House Camping posted
January 1943. "Nelson, Illinois. Chicago and North Western Railroad freight en route from Clinton, Iowa, to Chicago. Stopping for coal and water to give passenger trains the right of way." Acetate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information
Candice Marie Lynn shared
DogmaDismantled posted
January 1943. "Nelson, Illinois. Chicago and North Western Railroad freight en route from Clinton, Iowa, to Chicago. Stopping for coal and water to give passenger trains the right of way." Acetate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information
Joseph Obrien shared
HassaN WorlD StatuS posted
January 1943. "Nelson, Illinois. Chicago and North Western Railroad freight en route from Clinton, Iowa, to Chicago. Stopping for coal and water to give passenger trains the right of way." Acetate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information.
Daniel C Carroll Jr. shared

Greg Mross posted
CNW caboose 11043 trails an eastbound freight under the old coaling tower at Nelson, IL. on frigid day in January of 1985.

Robert Ball commented on Greg's post
I spent a lot of time at Nelson when we visited my wife's family in Dixon. There was a lot of action. I saw 6 trains in about 2 hours once. Great high speed trains.

Robert Ball commented on Greg's post
Great tower there too.

Steven J. Brown posted
Union Pacific SD70M 4082 (built 2000) westbound at the CNW coaling tower in Nelson, Illinois - January 4, 2008.
Steven J. Brown shared

The coaling tower in the background of this photo at Clyman Junction still exists. It shows that Nelson is probably missing a tower that was on top.

Joe Holman posted, Joe Holman photo.

This is the first shot I took when I arrived. I used a relatively wide angle, 23mm, to catch the signal bridge because these old signals are supposed to be replaced by equipment that supports Positive Train Control. Also note the BNSF truck parked on the right. I was careful to stay in the pedestrian part of the railroad crossing.

Because disk storage is cheap, I took a shot along the north side as well. I'm glad I did because I can see that Main 1 uses concrete ties whereas Main 2 still has wood ties. So this provides some insight into the question I raised when studying the tracks by the depot in Dekalb, IL. I assume that Main 1 carries traffic in both directions and that Main 2 is used as a very long siding so that trains don't have to stop for meets or passing. Or maybe it just takes a long time to replace wood with concrete ties across Illinois. I'll have to check out the ties again in a year or so.

Because I learned with the DeKalb tower that the east side is more interesting than the west side, I struggled to get shots of the east side. One reason it was a struggle was that there was a rather dense treeline between Railroad Street and the tracks on the east side of the tower. Another bummer was that it was backlit. Finally, the road had no shoulders and I missed the one spot I now see in a satellite image where I might have been able to pull off. While driving back to town, I was able to grab a shot through a gap I saw in the trees. I tried compensating for the backlighting by adjusting the contrast and brightness, but it is still hard to see that the ladder up the side still exists.

But a satellite image does show the ladder.

Satellite

I'm assuming that no urban scrappers bother to read this blog so I note that UP uses the old Nelson yard to store signalling equipment for crossings.

For completeness, when I was on the north side of the railroad crossing, I turned around and took a picture in the opposite direction. You can see the tracks on the left curve south. This is the beginning of the branch that C&NW built to southern Illinois to tap the coal fields around Benld, IL. In fact, C&NW owned the Superior Coal Co. in that area. This branch to Benld was completed in 1914. (cnwhs1) In 1926 C&NW obtained trackage rights over the Litchfield & Madison to gain access to the St. Louis market. It bought the L&M in 1958. (cnwhs2) According to a 1909 C&NW map, this branch extended just to Peoria in 1909.

(Facebooked 20151016)

Michael Wayne Sitter -> Chicagoland Railfan

Michael's comments:
CNW, 6817 leads a UP/CSX loaded coal train onto the Southern Illinois Branch at Nelson, IL off the former CNW's east/west mainline in the fall of 1996.- Michael W. Sitter

From his other pictures, the engines were C&NW 6817, CSXT 7994, and CSXT 7585.

Tom Horvath -> Chicago & North Western Railroad Fans

Tom's comments: "C&NW #6844 west roars past NY Tower at Nelson, IL. Tom Horvath image."

I'm glad Tom took the picture before the train obscured the NY Tower. Note the coaling tower and the complexity of the signals. Remember, the turn off for the branch to southern Illinois is just behind the Tom.

Michael Wayne Sitter posted a 1993 train with a C&NW C40-8 and SD60 pulling a westbound CSX coal train onto the south branch. A reminder that the purpose of this branch was to access the coal in Southern Illinois.

Lance Wales posted

Lance's comment:

Nelson, IL on July 1, 1985. Got word that there was a funeral train heading toward East St. Louis coming out of Oelwein, IA. Between SD40-2s 6861 and 6865 on the headend and 6840 on the rear, there were 70 small Geeps and ex-CGW F3As and F3Bs heading for scrap. They had been traded in 2 for 1 on the coming order of 35 SD50s. Bound for St. Louis Auto Shredding, they would be reduced to scrap over the coming months. I never got a chance to see most of these locos in operation, so it was with mixed emotions that I watched them parade past.

If you have access to the C&NW group, he posted additional pictures of particularly noteworthy locomotives with comments. It they were  being shredded, then what was the 2-for-1 trade-in value?

Steve OConner posted
A shipment of Whitcomb locomotives built in Rochelle photographed in Dekalb, 1949. Waite Embree collection, NIU. The Dekalb coal tower in the background.
Arthur Shale Looks like some of CN's 75-ton 75-DE-12c types being delivered. All eighteen were returned to Whitcomb in 1950 and 17 were sold to Rock Island.

Steven J. Brown posted
Frisco 1522 (SLSF 4-8-2), fresh from rebuild, is being ferried from St Louis to Chicago for break-in runs and excursions on the Wisconsin Central. At Nelson, Illinois with CNW SD40-2 assist on July 22, 1988.

Steven J. Brown posted
Strangely, that steam era coal tower will outlive these Chicago and North Western searchlight signals. The signals will likely be replaced very soon.
Union Pacific coal drag westbound at Nelson, Illinois - February 26, 2017. Thanks to Jon Roma for suggesting we get here for a last look!

John Purvis posted three photos with the comment: "Here's some photo's I snapped of an abandoned coaling tower outside Nelson, IL."

1

2

3

Frank Smitty Schmidt posted
Taking on coal and water at Nelson, IL.
Dennis DeBruler OWI (Office of War Information) means this photo was taken during WWII. It is interesting that C&NW would make such a significant investment as a concrete tower when the use of steam power was dying.
Comment from another posting:
This is a classic well known Jack Delano photo taken under the coaling tower at Nelson in January 1943. The wooden structure was replaced by a famous concrete coaling tower which can be seen in the photo published just "below" this one. The original photo is held at the Library of Congress.
[LC-USW3-014097-D, part of lot 227]

A different exposure:

Kristopher Isaac Barrington posted
Chicago and Northwestern freight train in Nelson, IL. Photo credit: Jack Delano

Greg Wiatr: What year was this?

Dennis DeBruler: Greg Wiatr Jan 1943, https://www.loc.gov/item/2017842483/

Fredrico Von Furstenberger III: Is this the exact same location the present cement coaling tower stands?

 

Dennis DeBruler answered Fredrico's question
Judging from the farm field boundaries, the concrete tower was built a little east of the wood tower. 1939 aerial photo

Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted
Someone wanted to see photos of Nelson, Illinois. Nelson was a pure railroad purposed town located about half way between Dixon and Sterling, Illinois. It was a main line coaling station. A line branched off here to the south on the way to Peoria, Illinois which would connect with the Litchfield and Madison Railroad (which the C&NW eventually purchased) allowing for entry into the St. Louis market. One can see at the far right of this "real photo" postcard the station site and tower which guarded the connection to the Peoria line.
[The tower in Jack Delano's photo replaced this coaling dock.]

Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted
The concrete coaling tower which spans the old C&NW main line from Chicago to Clinton, Iowa just east of DeKalb is not the first coaling station on that site. This is what that concrete coaling tower replaced. The date of the photo is 1912.
[I think this doc was replaced by the wood tower that Jack Delano photographed. And it was the wood tower that was replaced by the concrete tower. That means they built the concrete tower just before it would no longer be needed.]

Mike Ironman posted
7/30/19: Abandoned Coaling Tower has a Rare Steam Engine( The Biggest in the World) Roll under it at 12:01 in Nelson, Illinois. My Day started at 4am to Catch This, but it was well worth It!!

Mike Ironman posted
7/30/19: Nelson, Illinois.

Andrew Elges posted
Coaling tower in Nelson, Illinois

Mike Ironman posted five photos around Nelson.