Vienna, IL: Big Four (Egyptian) Depot

Bart Hileman posted

Vienna, IL has the headquarters for the Tunnel Hill State Trail. It looks like a convenient stop to break up the grind the next time I have to drive to Kentucky.

Update: thanks to the incompetence of the Illinois politics, this state run facility was closed when we visited. Fortunately, on the way in we passed the Forman Depot Tourism Center, and it was open. And the trail itself was still open with an old railroad bridge now carrying the trail across Little Cache Creek. See my pictures below. The route was abandoned by Southern Railway.

Bart Hileman posted

20160404 2052

They do have an interpretive sign on the outside that is still available for the public to read.

This photo is a repeat, but it is worth it.

Bart Hileman shared
Vienna Illinois on the NYC (photo looking south)
Diane Martin Annable photo
Found one of Rex Settlemoir's photos on "Trainboard" website. This was taken in 1948.
Rex Settlemoir My Dad climbed the railroad water tower to take this photo! The water tower and pumphouse were right beside Little Cache Creek, just north of the depot.
Rex Settlemoir posted
[The comments on this posting indicate that not only do other Big Four depots in southern Illinois look like this depot, some of the depots on the L&N's Evansville-St. Louis line look similar. The depots in Nashville and Mascoutah have been preserved.]

Rex Settlemoir posted
Here is a very old photo of the NYC/Big 4 depot in Vienna, Illinois, in a view looking south in 1915. Note the wagon and team of horses on the west side of the building. I obtained this picture from the U.S. National Archives, since they have custody of ICC historical files. My Grandfather bid in the agent/operator job at this depot in 1919 and when he died in 1946, my Dad gave up Illinois Division dispatcher seniority to bid into the job. Dad remained there until NYC closed the station in 1958
Bill Edrington Does anybody know of any other Big Four depots of this design? It almost looks like an L&N depot. I'm guessing it may have dated all the way back to the Cairo & Vincennes days.Rex Settlemoir According to the ICC record from the National Archives, it was built in 1872, and the bay window at trackside was added in 1910.Bill Edrington Rex Settlemoir - thanks. That means it was indeed an original C&V building. It's a shame it was lost.

Rex Settlemoir posted
This is another photo that has made the rounds on the internet, but I still have the original. My Grandfather (W.C. Settlemoir) with a 1906 Cairo Division seniority date, bid in the agent/telegrapher job at Vienna, Illinois in 1919. He remained at that job until he died of a heart attack in 1946. After he died, my Dad (H.C. Settlemoir) bid in the job and remained at Vienna until the station was closed in 1958. This photo inside the depot (mid-1940's), was taken shortly before my Grandfather's death at age 57.
Rick Giles I would like to see more of these photos taken inside a telegraph operator's bay. I would love to have that desk, phone, telegraph key and sounder, and the wall clock. I'd even take that hanging lamp shade.
Rex Settlemoir I donated the telegraph key to the Stonefort Depot museum in Stonefort Illinois (about 15 miles north of the Vienna depot) - it's still on display there. My Dad saved quite a few of the items shown in the above photo when the NYC closed the station, but most have been lost over time.