Ottawa, IL: CSX/Rock Island Depot, Freight House and Lost Old Grain Elevator

Depot: (3D Satellite)

Elevator: (Satellite, Windy's now occupies that land.)

Jim Arvites posted
View looking east of the Rock Island Railroad passenger depot and mainline at Ottawa, Illinois in the late 1930's.
(John W. Barriger III Photo)
[That is probably a freight house and team tracks on the north side of the tracks.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/12308349233/in/album-72157640508240733/]
Andy Zukowski posted a different exposure

View looking east of the Rock Island Railroad Passenger Depot and mainline at Ottawa, Illinois in the late 1930's.

(John W. Barriger III Photo)

Matt Peterson: Didn’t know there was a little yard there.

Rick Powell: Matt Peterson I vaguely remember a third track to the east of the crossing before the land was redeveloped into a Wendy’s and a strip mall.

Richard Fiedler shared

Harold J. Krewer commented on Mathan Hess' post
Here is a view looking east from the Columbus St. crossing taken sometime in the 1930s.
[We can see in the upper-left corner that the tracks on the north side also serviced a grain elevator.]

 

Harold J. Krewer commented on his comment

Doesn't look like anything resembling an elevator east of the depot on the south side. That building in the distance on the horizon is likely part of the industrial area around the brick works east of the Fox River.

I tried to fix the exposure as best I could to help bring out the detail:

 

Dennis DeBruler commented on Nathon's post

It appears that John Barriger III made multiple train rides on the Rock Island through Ottawa. I presume the grain bins were built on former team tracks.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/12308461216/in/album-72157640508240733/

Harold J. Krewer

Looks like the elevator's loading spur is still there, hemmed in between the building and the bins, but yes, it looks like some of the other ancillary tracks are gone.

Andy Zukowski posted
Rock Island Railroad Depot in Ottawa, Illinois. C1910

Frank Borkowsky: It's still there. I'm not sure what it is used for though..

Pete Zimmermann: CSX uses it as a MofW base

Richard Fiedler shared

William Brown posted
From the "You might be from Ottawa, Illinois" Facebook Page, what appears to be the Golden State passing the Ottawa Depot with the Business Car "Lake Michigan" on the rear. The Rock Island 40' Trailer and Rock Island Motor Transit Truck on the right is a seldom photographed bonus. No Date or photographer noted. Any help appreciated.
[The depot would be out-of-frame to the left (south).]

20150809 4086

CSX now uses the former Rock Island depot in Ottawa, IL, as an office building. The building has not been preserved very well. For example, most of the windows have been boarded up.

(I took another look at the former CB&Q depot because it struck me as well preserved when I visited Ottawa. I see now that they also boarded up the top layer of windows.  Their approach of preserving the bottom structure of the windows and removing completely the top structure is much more appealing to my eye. Of course, maintaining the gutters and downspouts is also important for preservation. On the other hand, other CSX management have done a good job of maintaining the Murfreesboro Depot.)

It looks like the freight door has gone through multiple iterations of "remodeling." The other reason I took this close up is that I could not figure out why there were two rails laying on the old brick platform.

Steven J Brown posted

This March 1986 photo of the depot shows that most of the preservation damage ("remodeling") was done by either Rock Island or CSX rather soon after they assumed control of the route. Note the ice machine is at least a few decades old. Also note that the second main has been removed.

American-Rails posted
Rock Island E8A #643 with the "Golden State" (Chicago - Los Angeles) at Ottawa, Illinois during July of 1963. Roger Puta photo/Marty Bernard collection.
Stuart B. Slaymaker IIRC, this was the summer of the unfortunate consolidation of the Golden State and the Rocky Mountain Rocket, between Chicago and Rock Island. It was an operational nightmare, as the huge 18-20 car train had to double stop every station. It took an inordinate amount of time to split the trains, at Rock Island, with delays to both trains. The trains were returned to their separate status, with the October time change.

William Shapotkin posted
We are at the Ottawa, IL ROCK psgr station on May 16, 1976. This structure (still-standing in 2021, as I understand) was still serving four psgr trns a day at the time of this photo. View looks west. Joe Pierson Photo/William Shapotkin Collection. (Shapotkin176)

William Shapotkin posted [same comment]

Joe Kraus posted
Went past the Ottawa, IL station couple days [Apr 2024] ago on a family vacation. Always loved the architecture.

 

This view reminds us that railroad routes remain valuable as utility corridors.

A 1960 photo

It still had its train order semaphores as late as 1982.