Railyard: (Satellite)
Brush Tower: (3D Satellite)
Notes on the backshop and the coaling tower
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Marty posted some of the above photos again. This time I noticed the background in this photo.
Note only is that switcher rare, the fact that the smokestacks and processing building are still standing is also becoming rare. Evidently Tate & Lyle Ingredients owns it now.
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| Richard Fiedler posted Aerial view of Wabic crossing in Decatur. The Wabash (NS) runs up and down and the IC & PRR right to left. The Wabash engine terminal & roundhouse is in the upper left quadrant, the IC depot is in the bottom quadrant parallel to their tracks, the Wabash Depot is at a right angle to the IC and parallel to the Wabash tracks. I believe the photo is from the Decatur newspaper. Richard Fiedler shared |
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| Mid-Century Decatur posted This aerial of the Wabash roundhouse was taken on August 12, 1951, 72 years ago today, during the last years of steam on the Wabash. The roundhouse would be demolished two years later. The track sets leading to the roundhouse area were also used to stage and prepare locomotives with water, sand, or coal. Originally constructed in 1869 with 12 stalls, the roundhouse was rebuilt in 1907 to house up to 42 steam locomotives. The roundhouse would go through a major upgrade to accommodate larger steam engines in 1930; 14 of the bays were enlarged and capacity was increased to 46 engines. The semicircular pattern of the track stalls is still visible in aerial photographs of the area. Also of interest is the string of passenger cars along the Illinois Central tracks just below the roundhouse. Because the ICRR had terminated passenger service to Decatur over a decade previous, these are likely cars of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was still running daily service in both directions between Peoria and Terre Haute, Indiana, over those tracks. At the bottom of the photo is a view of two Wabash buildings which were prominent at the time, but less well-known today. In the bottom center-right is a large three-story wood structure that was known as the "Wabash YMCA". It was not actually affiliated with the YMCA, but it did provide temporary sleeping quarters and other services for transient Wabash train crews. It was replaced in 1964 by a brick Wabash Credit Union building. At the very bottom left-center is the Wabash freight station. A string of boxcars (often several) would be lined up alongside the east side of the freight station for "less-than-carload" services. On the opposite side of the freight station was a loading dock for trucks, which would then carry the loads the "last mile" to their final destination. This core business of the railroads would rapidly shrink with the advent of the interstate highway system. In 1963, Wabash exited the less-than-carload business, and the freight station was purchased by local scrap metal operator Sol Tick for use in his business. At the very bottom-right is the Wabash passenger station, which still stands today repurposed as the Wabash Antique Mall. (H&R photo) 1951 Wabash Railroad Roundhouse, Turntable, Shops and Yard, Decatur, Illinois. Daniel C Carroll Jr. shared Richard Fiedler shared |
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| Bob Chaparro posted Wabash East Decatur Yard A post from the Facebook History of the Heartland group. Description: In the left center of the photo, a long string of refrigerated box cars of the American Refrigerated Transport Company are lined up for icing in the Wabash East Decatur yard on June 3, 1930, 92 years ago today. Wabash fast freight operations were popular for refrigerated fruit shipments going from growers in Texas to markets in the east. The icing operations in the yards had a reputation for rapid servicing of the trains when ice needed refreshing midway through their journey. Predominantly black laborers at the Decatur yard's icing operation loaded blocks weighing hundreds of pounds through roof hatches at each end into two large bunkers. Fans driven by car axles circulated cool air. Mats of felted flax or cattle hair lined the floor and walls of the cars for insulation. American Refrigerated Transport Company was established in 1881. At the time of the photo they operated a fleet of 12,500 cars. The company was then jointly owned by the Wabash and Missouri Pacific Railroads. It outlasted both of its parent companies and today it still operates as a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad. Photo: Decatur Public Library My Notes: It was forbidden to drop 300 pound+ ice blocks into the bunkers due to potential damage to the bunkers. The block, at a minimum, were quartered. Bob Chaparro Hemet, CA More on icing operations and icing platform photos: https://groups.io/.../RailroadCitrusIndustryMod.../search... Bob Finan shared |
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| History of the Heartland posted A worker loads an ice block into a refrigerated boxcar at the Wabash Railway icing facility in the East Decatur yards on November 10,1929, exactly 93 years ago today [Nov 10, 2022]. Individual ice blocks weighed 200 to 400 pounds and a car would require 10,000 pounds of ice to fill. The Wabash ice workers had a reputation for the speed with which they could top up the ice of a refrigerated train and get it moving. Typically, the Wabash yard would ice trains carrying produce midway in their journey from Texas to markets in the Midwest and eastern states. Most of the ice workers were black men. The jobs were among the relatively high-paying industrial jobs that attracted black families to move to Decatur from Tennessee during the "great migration" between 1910 and 1930. The typical job in Decatur available to a black man paid three times as much as the jobs available in Tennessee at the time. Decatur's Polar Ice Company operated an ice plant dedicated to the railroad's needs until iced refrigerator cars were replaced with modern mechanical refrigerator cars in the 1950s when the plant was shut down. The railroad was their largest customer. Photo: H&R Kevin Reynolds sharedCarter B Morris Sr.: Last block ice reefers phased out in early 70s. |
Mid-Century Decatur posted two photos with the comment:
Behold the Wabash turntable and roundhouse complex during the last days of its operation, as pictured on July 20, 1953, 68 years ago today. Wabash had originally constructed it in 1869, and had refurbished and expanded it several times during the steam era. But Wabash had converted to diesel power except for emergency backup use by this date, and the old roundhouse, which had once housed 46 steam engines, was empty, and about to be demolished.In the first photo, looking west, we see F7 freight engines staged on the left track. On the center track, a passenger E8 stands in front of a switch engine. The background of the photo gives us some panoramic insight into the setting.The long building with tall windows behind the roundhouse in the center background is the Wabash freight station. This is where the railroad managed its less-than-carload boxcar shipments. This business was rapidly shifting to trucks. Ten years later, Wabash would exit that business completely and close the freight station. It would eventually be sold to Sol Tick & Company who used it for scrap operations for another two decades before it fell into disrepair and was razed.The building just to the right of the tall smokestack is the Walrus Manufacturing building, which still stands as a storage building. On the far left is the Wabash passenger station, which now operates as an antique mall.The second photo gives us a view of the same setting, looking east from the roundhouse across the turntable toward the same parked engines.(H&R photos)
Raymond Storey shared
I commented on Richard's posting that the two aerial photos seem to have been taken at the same time because the cuts of cars are in the same place. You can see this more clearly with the boxcars by the B&O freight house.
You can still see the round "land scar" of the roundhouse.
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| 1 History of the Heartland posted The Wabash steam engine roundhouse in Decatur was imaged 69 years ago today, on July 20, 1953. The Wabash transition to diesel locomotives was then nearly complete. The roundhouse, which in previous decades would have been filled with steam engines undergoing routine service, is now empty. It would soon be demolished. On the left track are four F-7 freight diesels. On the right track is an E-7 passenger engine and a diesel switcher. The setup on the right with hoppers for coaling and sanding the few remaining steam engines is now empty and idle. We are looking to the west and in the distant background of the photo, behind the roundhouse, from center to left, is the long Wabash Freight Depot, the Walrus Manufacturing building, the Wabash crew quarters building, also known colloquially by traincrews as the Wabash YMCA, and the back of the Wabash Passenger Depot on the extreme left. Photo: Decatur Public Library Richard Fiedler: Wabash’s 11th District part of the original Northern Cross from Bluffs IL and north to Quincy IL and Keokuk IA used steam until 1955. There were 5 class F7 2-6-0’s that remained in use due to the old wrought iron swing bridge over the Illinois River in Meredosia. They were serviced and ran out of the wooden 3 stall roundhouse at Bluffs. The bridge was very old 1879 and rickety due to being repeatedly hit by barges over the decades. The heaviest power allowed were the old 2-6-0 Moguls and they could not be double headed either. Further weight restrictions on the bridge specified heavy cars be coupled to empties. Crews were afraid of the bridge. One of those moguls #573 survives at the National Museum of Transport in St Louis. |
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| 2 [Note the coaling tower in the background.] Kevin Reynolds shared a darker exposure that was posted by Mid_Century Decatur The Wabash turntable and the last vestige of the roundhouse complex are pictured on July 20, 1953, 70 years ago today. Wabash had originally constructed the roundhouse in 1869 and had refurbished and expanded it several times during the steam era. But Wabash had converted to diesel power except for emergency backup use by this date, and the old roundhouse, which had once housed 46 steam engines, was empty, and about to be demolished. The photo looks east toward the massive concrete coaling tower which still stands to this day. The concrete structure is extremely strong, and while it has served no functional use for 70 years, it would be expensive to demolish. Other examples of reinforced concrete structures in the city include the former Woodrow Wilson Jr. High School (brick facade over concrete) which cost over $1,000,000 to demolish, and the Staley Pump House, which was demolished at a cost exceeding $1,600,000. (H&R photo) Rolando Maggi shared |
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| History of the Heartland posted The Wabash Roundhouse stood just northeast of the Wabash Passenger Station in Decatur (now the Wabash Antique Mall). Built in 1869, it served the railroad for 84 years until at the end of the steam era, in 1953, it was razed. The structure held 46 stalls in a semicircular shape constructed around the turntable. The current aerial photograph shows where it once stood. What we find remarkable is that even today, the flower-like impressions of the stall rails are still clearly visible in the ground. The ground compaction from the weight of locomotives endures. (The bottom left corner is the "WABIC" intersection where the old Wabash and Illinois Central tracks cross next to the station. The lower right edge shows the old coaling tower that still stands west of Jasper Street.) |
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| 1941 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
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| 1915-1950 Sanborn Map, Sheet 44 |
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| Satellite |
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| Midwest Inland Port posted Norfolk Southern Corp Thanks for sharing!! Larry Hinton The main yard is just north of Staleys and in between 22nd and Brush College Rd. There is also a west yard and a north yard. The north yard mainly services ADM, while the west yard was used for Maintenance Way and storage. Brian R Bundy Larry Hinton - The north yard is now barely used these days. Since ADM built their own yard just north of their west plant, car storage in the NS yard is pretty minimal. Just passing along some updated info. Kathleen Gebauer Decatur is also the soybean Capitol of the world. Jennifer Havlin Wagner Kathleen Gebauer ADM and Staley. Peter Lorenz Explosion happened July 1974. Best I can tell picture must be somewhat new because the east end of Wagner plant has been demolished which happened around 2015 to 2016. Kam Miller As you are looking at this. the yard to the right with the CSX locos in it is the former B&O yard. The Yard office is above the 'ric' in America. The facility that the long curved line of covered hoppers just to the left of the B&O yard is heading to what was A.E.Staley, now Tate & Lyle. (The two big smokestacks). Across 22nd Street (The long bridge in the middle of the two yard areas) is more of the former A. E. Staley. Out of sight to the right would be the former headquarters building. Running up the middle is the current Norfolk Southern, formerly Wabash. The green area to the left of the big concrete slab area used to be houses that have been demolished for being drug houses. The long brown building with many windows is the former Wabash Engine Shops. On the other side of the bridge is the NS Freight care repair. At the left end, opposite side of the bridge is the Sol Tick scrap yard. Somewhere under that rubble is rumored to be lots of broken Wabash china from the Dining Cars. Also there, many freight cars and some engines have come to their end. That large set of buildings in the upper left is ADM and their corporate headquarters. I'm trying to remember what factory was on the big slab area there, but I am coming up short in my memory. If you follow the front edge of the "D" in Decatur upwards, you see a portion of the NS Offices in Decatur. Don Miner Kam Miller Wagner Castings used to occupy the "big slab area". Jennifer Havlin Wagner shared Stephen Hyatt The picture is deceiving because it is not all NS. The bottom right where the black tanks are was the former CSX yard now owned by Watco operated under the name DREI. |
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| Mid-Century Decatur posted A pair of EMD SD-45 demonstrator diesels operates outside ADM facilities by Brush Tower in the East Decatur yard in 1967. First produced in 1965, the SD45 suffered from reliability problems. The crankshaft of the higher horsepower motor than its predecessors suffered from frequent failures. Despite that, the Norfolk & Western purchased 115 units. One of these, #1776, survives as a static display at the Virginia Museum of Transportation. |
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| Brian R Bundy commented on Midwest Inland Port post 1 is the westbound yard. 2 is the eastbound yard. 3 is Woodford St yard and the DIT (diesel inspection terminal) or more commonly, the “roundhouse”. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Midwest Inland Port post https://www.google.com/.../@39.8447663,-88.../data=!3m1!1e3 |
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| American-Rails.com posted Wabash 4-8-4 #2921 at Decatur, Illinois, circa 1950. Fred Byerly photo. American-Rails.com collection. Kevin Reynolds shared Leonard Perlmutter: But is that Decatur?? What ever is behind the locomotive, I have never seen a picture of. Fernando Luna posted Wabash 4-8-4 'Northern' type locomotive number 2921 is being serviced between assignments at Decatur, Illinois. Twenty-five of these steamers were built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1930 for Wabash freight service until 1956. Image Fred Byerly |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Leonard's comment I think it was part of the ash pit operation. I agree with a comment in this photo's post that the photo was probably taken from the coaling tower. https://www.facebook.com/Historyoftheheartland/posts/pfbid0Rf...78Acl Leonard Perlmutter: Dennis DeBruler I do believe you are right. Thanks for clearing that up. Don't see too many pictures really outside the roundhouse. Thanks. |
Marty Bernard posted four Roger Puta pictures in the NW/Wabash facilities. The commentary was provided by Marty.
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| Roger Puta Photo, NW (Wabash) 386 (an H12-44) and GP9 510 |
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| Roger Puta Photo, NW 401, a Lima Hamilton switcher model LS 1000 |
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| Roger Puta Photo, NW 655, and 3718 (both ex-Wabash F7As), and 2 geeps |
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| Roger Puta Photo, NW 1302, an ex-Wabash GP35 with no dynamic braking |
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| Marty Bernard posted NW 401, a Lima Hamilton switcher model LS 1000 Roger Puta photo |
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| 3D Satellite |
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