Davis Junction, IL: Junction: Milw vs CB&Q+Milw and Milw Depot

Satellite

(April 2019 Update: The Illinois Railway has petitioned to abandon the track that goes south of here to Flagg Center.)

1972 VintageAerial
The east/west route was Milwaukee and the north/south route was shared by Milwaukee and CB&Q. The Canadian Pacific now owns the east/west route.

CP

The north/ south route is now one of the former CB&Q branches that is operated by Illinois Railway (Overview, Some Details)  Regular readers may remember that we first encountered this north/south route when I researched why a Milwaukee caboose was in Rochelle, IL.

Update:

Jeff Kehoe posted
Let's go back to 1967 at Davis Jct. which was once a busy spot on the Milwaukee Road's main line going west. Check out that water tank...still standing, but not for very much longer! ---Rob't. Janz photo.
Brian Keith Landis: I remember when i was a kid going to the Track Inn Restaurant with my family i remember seeing that big water tower there were two of them.

 

Larry Foht posted

This Depot is

Davis Jct. Illinois

East and west  was the  Milwaukee Rd.  and North and south was the CB&Q and the Milwaukee Rd.

 North is Rockford, South is Rochelle, East is Chicago and West is Savannah IL.

Savanna had a large Roundhouse and Shops for the Milwaukee Rd.

Lance Wales: The Davis Jct depot sat in the NE quadrant of the diamond.

 

Larry Candilas commented on Foht's post
This is Davis Jct back when everything was still there looking SE - the bar was in the NW quadrant and was one of a kind.

Larry Candilas commented on Foht's post
Davis Jct back in the late 1930s

 

Andy Zukowski posted
The Milwaukee Road Depot at Davis Junction, Illinois, in 1954.

Bob Koscik: Looked the same in the 80s then they tore it down. Lonesome place for an important junction.

Richard Fiedler shared

William Shapotkin posted
It is July 1969 and passenger rail service still calls at the Davis Jct, IL station -- and will continue doing so until May 2, 1971. View looks west in this uncredited photo. William Shapotkin Collection. (Shapotkin 610)
Colin Harding: According to my 1940 Official Guide, on both the CB&Q & Milwaukee Road.
William Shapotkin: Colin Harding That is correct -- it was a joint station.
Dennis DeBruler shared

 

Lou Gerard posted
U30C 5654 leads an assortment of Milwaukee and BN GE’s and one BN SD on a westbound coal empty at Davis Jct. IL. October 1978.
Richard Oppenheim: Should be adding a C&NW unit at Savanna for ATC on the C&NW between Clinton and Tama. Richard Fiedler shared

Michael Wayne Sitter posted six photos with the comment:

Eastbound 472 manifest getting back under way after doing some work at Davis Junction, IL on the CP’s Chicago Sub while a westbound UP coal waits in the siding. Soon after the passing, the coal heads west out of the siding. March 2018. -Michael W. Sitter

Mark Ciechelski These trains usually run on CP's River and Tomah Subdivisions toward the Columbia Power Plant in Portage, WI, but as of lately, they have been coming into Chicago via CP's Chicago and Elgin Subdivisions, and C&M and Watertown Subdivisions. CP 813 is coal loads to Columbia, CP 812 is coal empties from Columbia.

I assume this is the destination power plant. The last photo has the best view of the junction.

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Lance Wales posted three photos with the comment:

A Difference of Decades at Davis Junction. Thanks to the timely heads up that the IR 3500 was venturing northward from Flagg Center to Rockford, IL on Monday, April 15, 2019 I managed to duplicate the same basic angle just south of the HWY 72 crossing at Davis Junction. The NKC #3 and IRN #5 were northbound from June 13, 1999 with seven cars of coil steel. And from May 19, 1985 the Milwaukee Road 355, 359 and 489 had 78 cars on the Bensenville to Janesville, WI run.

Gilbert Sebenste 34 years ago, you could sit in the wye, eat dinner and have a drink. Today, you'd have to bring your own food and drink, and then you'd be arrested.
Terry Peterson Went by with kids on the way back from Rochelle, a few hours before the Track Inn burned!!!

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Laird Barber posted
The winter of 1978-79 was tough for the railroads in northern Illinois. The MILW Road leased units from other roads; because they were power short. Here's a couple of Southern SD's in the "tuxedo" paint scheme in Davis Jct., IL in January, 1979. Laird Barber photo.
Pete Kranz: Milwaukee leased the power because their own was broken, and they didn't have the money to fix them.
Laird Barber: You're right there about not having money, and not being able to fix their own power. In about a year the Pacific extension would be gone. The largest abandonment in railroad history.