Hutsonville, IL: Aban/Prairie Central/Conrail/PC//NYC/Big Four (Egyptian Line)

Ken Pryor Jr. posted
The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway (CCC&Stl), also known as the Big Four Railroad in Hutsonville, IL. This line would eventually become the New York Central, Penn Central, Conrail and finally Prairie Central before the tracks were torn up.
Not my photo. Got it from a Hutsonville page here on FB. Date and photographer unknown.
Bill Irwin The NS at Mt. Carmel Illinois still uses the CCC&Stl yard to store coal cars for serving the local mine.

Hull, IL: Union Depot (NS/Wabash and Aban/CB&Q)

(Satellite)

Jimmy Fiedler posted
Hull IL depot (pike county hist society)

Kam Miller My guess is Burlington or a joint depot as I believe you are looking at the Burlington tracks in the foreground and down the Wabash to the right side of the photo.

Dennis DeBruler It looks like it is a union depot because it was built on an angle so that it did not favor the east/west Wabash. Nice grain elevator in the background.

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Dennis DeBruler CB&Q went in a pretty straight line between Hull and Rockford, then it turned southwestish. You can see it enter this 1939 aerial photo in the middle of the top:

From ILHAP

Milwaukee, WI: North Milwaukee Junction: Milw vs. Milw

Satellite

Sam Carlson posted a picture of "North Milwaukee Tower in August, 1972." They were still using semaphores back then. When I asked where this tower was, he couldn't say for sure because the area has changed so much.

Scott Porinsky provided a detailed answer:

The tower was located on the north side of Milwaukee just north of Hampton Avenue and where 33rd Street would be. It was located at the north end of Glendale Yard which served A.O. Smith (auto frames) and other industries. The tower was at the junction of The Beer Line, which headed to the east, The Northern to Horicon to the west, and The Superior which ran north to Green Bay. A mile or so north on The Superior, a connection was established to the CNW at a junction named Canco. At one time this allowed CNW passenger trains from Milwaukee to Green Bay to share the Milwaukee Road Union Station in Milwaukee, and then head onto CNW rails from Canco to Green Bay. The Soo Line ran a daily train from North Fond Du Lac to Glendale Yard, using Milwaukee trackage on The Northern line from Rugby Jct (just south of Slinger) to North Milwaukee. There was also a North Milwaukee station just northwest of the tower between the Superior and Northern lines. A freight agent worked there yet in the early 1970s.

Edward Weisensel added "Google 3300 Cameron Av. The wye has a fenced-in tank car unloading spur in the center - just north of Hampton Av."

Bloomington, IL: Dean Tower: NS/N&W/NKP/LEW+Aban/CR/NYC/Big4/P&E vs. Aban/ICG/IC

(Satellite)

P&E was the Peoria & Eastern, and LEW was the Lake Erie & Western.

Roger Holmes posted
The engineer of an N&W eastbound reaches for his train orders at Dean Tower on the south side of Bloomington, Illinois, taken a year or two after the merger with the Nickel Plate Road. On the head end is a GP30 still painted in NKP colors and is about to hit the diamond with the Illinois Central's Freeport to Centralia line. Note the P&E concrete property marker, the P&E being just out of view to the left of the tower. At one time the interlocker also controlled the Illinois Terminal which followed the IC from Decatur and Clinton. © Roger A. Holmes.
[Note the signalling pipelines.]

In the photo, it looked like the tower was east of the IC tracks. But this aerial photo shows it was west of the IC, south of the NKP, and north of the Big Four. The white line across the top was US 66.

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

The following satellite image is of the same area. The north/south part of Trilakes Road is part of the old IC route.

Satellite

I include a bigger part of the aerial photo to provide some context. If you look southeast of Bloomington on a satellite image, you can easily see the tree line of the P&E route. You have to look further south of Bloomington to see the land scars and treelines of the IC route.

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Update:

Stephen N. Brannon posted
Dean Tower in Bloomington in 1973 at the crossings with the P&E and Nickel Plate lines to Peoria. IC northbound train order board out perhaps for No. 372 the northbound Clinton-Freeport "Long Gruber."
Everett Lueck: It looks a little bit worse for wear from the times that I used to hang out there in the 1960's. It is the Peoria and Eastern on the south side of the tower, the IC Charter line (Gruber Line) on the east side running under the 66 bypass, and the Nickel Plate on the north side of the tower.

Carl Venzke posted
IC No. 908 at Dean Tower in July, 1957, near the end of the use of steam power here. Dean was where the Illinois Central crossed the Nickel Plate and the Peoria & Eastern. Perhaps No. 908 had been sent there to handle transfer traffic between the railroads. Richard Leonard photo.

Matt Smith posted
From the Barringer files, with enhancement: Dean

Thomas Dyrek posted
A westbound Norfolk & Western train crosses the Illinois Central Gulf at Bloomington on an unknown date. John and Roger Kujawa photo, Thomas Dyrek collection.
Craig Ross: As for the date, sometime between 1978 and 1983 based on the U1 dot and the consolidated stencil on the caboose.
Dennis DeBruler shared
Kristopher Isaac Barrington shared

Steven Kakoczki commented on Thomas' post
Did a little work to the photo.......

Altamont, IL: Railroad Hub: CSX/PRR+UP/C&EI+Aban/B&O+Aban/Wabash

The Terre Haute & Alton, which was built in 1854, is what probably put Altamont, IL, on the map. It became part of the Vandalia Railroad which, in turn, became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. [Maxinkuckee] The route is easy to find today because it still exists as the CSX route from Terre Haute to St. Louis.

Altamont, IL History posted

Altamont wouldn't exist without the railroads. With the building of the Vandalia and Ohio, Chicago and Eastern Illinois, and Mississippi Railroads, Altamont became an economic hub. Pictured below are Altamont's train stations. This area is near the current site of the grain elevators. For years, this area was the epicenter of activity in town with passengers, mail, freight, etc passing through it.

The stations were the site of many interesting stories including one about a group of gypsies. A young gypsy was pregnant and gave birth to a child in the station waiting room. The delivery of the baby became a spectacle. Drapes were set up around the delivering mother and bystanders could pay 25 cents to watch it.
Patrick Zacha This appears to be the old B&O tracks looking straight north just south of the east west tracks of the Penn tracks.

The Chicago & Eastern Illinois had a southern branch off of its western branch that went down into coal country. This southern branch entered Altamont on the north and left on the west. The Baltimore & Ohio had a branch that went north/south through town. The B&O branch must have initially been the Mississippi Railroad mentioned in the caption. Wabash had a branch that came from the northeast and terminated in Altamont.

Satellite

You can see how the B&O came in from the south on an angle until it crossed 300th St. Then it curved north and went straight through town once it crossed County Road 800 N.

Satellite

The B&O continued straight north while the C&EI crossed it with a "wiggle" north of Jackson Street.

Satellite

The B&O paralleled the C&EI until just south of Moccasin where it headed northwest while the C&EI continued north.

Satellite

I found just a diagonal property line as a remnant of the Wabash route to Altamont. Very little current evidence of the route is consistent with it being abandoned a long time ago by the Wabash. That is, it was abandoned before the N&W merger.

Satellite

Following that line towards Altamont allowed me to determine that this curved treeline is where the Wabash turned south and joined the C&EI for entry into town.

Aerial

I used a 1939 historic aerial photo to confirm that the Wabash joined the C&EI where it curved south and then the C&EI crossed the B&O north of Jackson.

The photo below shows how the C&EI used to curve westward and parallel the Pennsy out of town. Now the UP/C&EI curves less sharply and joins the CSX/Pennsy route. You can still see the remnants of the C&EI curve and the parallel route. I find it interesting that the C&EI goes back to its old route at 100th St.

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

The Prairie Trunk Railway (PARY) was the last owner of the B&O route before it was abandoned.

Altamont, IL History posted

A senior class posing for a photo before departing on their class trip. Late 1950s.

Behind the senior class is the Altamont Depot. The first station was built at this site in 1870. The station changed over the years, but for decades, it was the center of the community. It brought passengers, news, mail, and freight into Altamont everyday.The station was demolished in the 1970s after a steady decline in passenger train usage.

Altamont is like Chicago in that its Union Station is not really a union station that handled all of the railroads in the town. The Union Station handled the Pennsy and B&O. The C&EI/Wabash had their own depot.

Altamont, IL History shared
Today's picture takes us to Altamont, Illinois and the Wabash/C&EI Depot.

In the following closeup of the junction, I put a red rectangle around the C&EI+Wabash depot, a blue rectangle around the PRR+B&O depot and a green rectangle around the junction tower.

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Effingham County Courthouse Museum Effingham IL posted

Good morning! Today's picture takes us to Altamont, Illinois. This is a depot in Altamont but for which railroad line I don't know. I also see a two-story building that you can see in the background on the left. Perhaps that can help identify which depot this is.

This picture is circa 1940. The railroad lines that ran through Altamont were the Pennsylvania, the C.E.&I, the Chicago and Paducah (later the Wabash), and the Springfield & Ohio (later the Baltimore and Ohio). The only one I think I can rule out is the Pennsylvania.

I'm asking for those of you who are more familiar with the railroads of Effingham County and/or the Altamont area to help me out with this picture. I know the rough location of where this was but not the specific railroad. I confess to getting confused with the large number of railroad lines that used to or still do cross in Effingham County and the subsequent name changes throughout the years. I'm sure many of you will be able to solve this for me and others. I for one would love for someone to write a book on the history of the railroads of Effingham County (complete with pictures!). Any takers?

Wherever you may be, I wish you a wonderful day!
Patrick Zacha This is the C&EI (Chicago and Eastern Illinois) depot. The street in the foreground is Jefferson Avenue. I don't remember when it was torn down but I remember it through all of the 1950's and into the early 60's.

To the right or west of the depot building you can see the Penn Tracks that ran west to east. Follow those tracks east behind the depot, you can see the tracks again on the left side of the depot. The three story building is located on the south side of the Penn tracks so it is not the old Altamont Hotel or the current apartment building.

I believe I remember being told there was a hotel on the south side of the Penn tracks but west of the B&O tracks which ran north and south and intersected the Penn tracks. There was a Penn Depot on the east side of the B&O tracks but on the south side of the Penn tracks. I believe this hotel in the photo burned down but I down know for sure. 

The C&EI tracks crossed the B&O north of town as the B&O went north to Beecher City while the C&EI went north and crossed Route 33 east of Beecher City just west of Wolf Creek.

The area directly behind the depot today would be the grain elevator operation. 

My parents, Leo and Ann Zacha, owned the home I grew up in at 704 West Jefferson which is just west of the photo on the south side of Jefferson.

The Altamont Hotel in the 50's and 60's was owned by my aunt Rosie Zacha Armstrong. The hotel had rooms upstairs, a large kitchen and dining room Inge first floor along with a parlor area and a bar area. 

As a child, I remember Penn passenger trains would grab a bag of mail from an arm as they were going west to St. Louis. I remember on time they missed it and the bag went under the train and there was pieces of mail everywhere. The postal worker was picking up pieces for several hours. 

The intersection of the three railroads brought a lot of traffic to and through the City of Altamont. But it also brought railroad 'bums' or hobos to the area. This is what they were called back then, but they would hitchhike across country rail cars. 

I remember some coming up to our back door asking for food.Tom Denton I agree, C&EI Depot on the curve. The C%EI came into town from the north and turned west to parrallel the Pennsy. The Pennsylvania is the east west track in the back ground. It's station is to the left (or east) of this picture. The B&O ran north south, parallel to the C&EI before crossing the Pennsy. The diamond was between the Pennsylvania station and this picture.

Update: After seeing a covered wood bridge, my GPS routed me over some country roads to get me to my next intended target, a railroad water tank. That routing took me across some railroad tracks. When I saw a headlight to the west, I made a quick right turn and parked to catch the train.

While I was looking west, I heard the crossing gates activate. This surprised me because the train with the headlights was still far away. But then I heard diesel engines behind me so I turned and saw this:

20170316 8089, 6:10:36pm

No real railfan is going to take a picture this close to a locomotive. But I'm glad I did because I never noticed before that some of the panels have a slight pyramid shape. I left it as the raw tilted view because that catches most of the front truck. And the tilt emphasis how surprised I was by the appearance of this train.

At this point, I was just grabbing shots to record the locomotive numbers. 3428 is an ET44AH built in 2016. That would explain the high steps with pyramid shaped panels under them. GE had to make more room for all of the Tier 4 stuff they had to add to meet EPA regulations. (EMD has yet to meet them.) 4586 is a SD70MAC built 4-5/98, an ex-Conrail unit. So CSX was putting on a good show of the new and the old for me.

As the intermodal rolled by, I walked further west to get that stupid signalling box out of my way. Even though I was not far enough to get a clear view, I took this shot to capture the meet between the two trains. Note the headlights in the lower-left corner.

6:11:08pm

6:11:34pm
My camera lens flares (starbursts) even more than my eyeballs do.

I was lucky that the CSX train did not skunk the UP train because it turned north. If I had known the train was going to curve north, I would have walked further west to be closer to it. At least one can tell it was a UP train with two locomotives.

Since it was a mixed freight, I did walk closer as it passed and took some sample shots to get a feel for the consist.

I took this picture as I was walking back to the van to note it had a cut of tank cars as well as hoppers.

After some research when I got back home, this is the C&EI southern branch. This train will proceed north over the Wolf Creek and Shelbyville trestles.


You can tell this town used to be a railroad town, The downtown has four bars within about a block of each other. And, even though it is next to an I-70 exit, it has more bars than gas stations.

Rick Braggs posted
Altamont Illinois. Depo shared by the C&EI and B&O

Effingham County Courthouse Museum Effingham IL  posted

Railroads have economic impact on Effingham County

Altamont was laid out by J.W. Conologue, then surveyed and platted by C.A. Van Allen on July 19, 1870. Conologue was the first superintendent of The Vandalia Railroad and felt the east-west Vandalia intersecting with the north-south Springfield Division of the Ohio and Mississippi railroads was a desirable place to start a town. The first train to run from north to south from Streator to Altamont was June, 29, 1874.

Logansport, IN: PRR's 18th Street Yard, TP&W East End

Pennsy's Panhandle had service facilities north of the river and a more traditional freight classification yard south of the river.

Satellite

David's posting confirms that this yard is the east end of the Toledo, Peoria & Western.

David Jordan posted
I shot TPW 5010 at the ex-PRR 18th Street Yard in Logansport this afternoon. View looks east from its namesake road. This is the east end of the TP&W.

Update:

Jason Jordan posted
Early 1980's, finds this little N & W shorty and a much larger T P W covered hopper in a train at the west end of the Pennsylvania / Conrail's old Yard A near 18th St. at Logansport, IN. Out of the Bruce Emmons collection.
[So 18th street was Yard A. I assume the service facility yard north of the river was then Yard B.]

Alliance, OH: PRR's Freight House, American Steel Foundries and Morgan Engineering

Freight House: (Satellite, some modern freight handling buildings still stand)

Foundry: (Satellite, Alliance Casting/American Steel Foundries closed in 2017)

Morgan: (Satellite, web page)

Rich Fleischer posted
PRR freight house at Alliance,Oh.

I looked at a 1950 aerial photo, but I could not find this freight house.  The cars on the left would be outbound. As we have seen before, cars are parked parallel to each other with ramps between the cars to offer more destinations for the outbound freight.

Update: The photo shows it was were the two Pennsy lines crossed. It would be the building marked "Sta" on this topo. 

1952 Alliance Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Now that I know where to look, I can find an updated freight house on 1950 and 1952 aerials. Unfortunately, the only photo I know of is copyrighted. I think the existing building on the right below was one of the 1950 buildings. The next aerial photo after 1952 is 1971 and it shows the buildings on the left replaced a long freight house building.

Street View

On the topo map, I included the industrial area south of the Pennsy railyard because of this Facebook post:

safe_image for a Google link to a YouTube drone video
The foundry I [Larry Stewart] worked at, made the best and strongest bolsters and side frames for rail in the entire world... on idle since January 2017.
Robert Garza: I worked for American Steel Foundries in East Chicago, Alliance was once ASF, very sad to see all these plants shut down.
Greg Bara: I was a Class"A" Chipper on sideframes and yokes on Old 9 Floor from 78-88....go money but hard work! [I presume he chipped the sand of the casting after the metal cooled.]

The buildings East of the tracks looks like those in the 1952 topo. But the buildings West of the tracks are a small fraction of  those that stood in 1952. 

Larry Stewart: The place on the other side of the train tracks is Morgan Engineering still running and started in 1846. They are the oldest crane company in the U.S.

Colleen Gantz: Larry Stewart Just built new offices cranes coming out of there every week!!!

American Steel Foundries closed in 2002. Billionaire financier Carl Icahn used a lot of incentives to restart the foundry as Alliance Castings and they started production of sideframes and bolsters in Jan 2004. (Sideframes and bolsters are parts used to build the "trucks" that go under freight cars.) A new union "agreement reduces the number of job classifications from 21 to four and contains lower wage scales and new health plans." [Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen] (Foundries in Cicero, IL, and Columbus, OH, also made parts for freightcars. [FoundryMag] It was registered in 1986 as an EPA Superfund Site, but it is an archived site. [HomeFacts]

AmstedRail
[A Chamber of Commerce web site listed AmstedRail as the URL for Alliance Casting.]

Postcard
[I believe the foundry is on the left and Morgan Engineering is on the right.]

 

AllianceMemory
American Steel Foundries, Alliance, Ohio

This video claims Morgan Engineering was founded in 1868.

Screenshot @ 1:22

This video is well worth watching. These are just some examples. In addition to overhead cranes, guns (during the wars), shears, rolling mills, etc. they more recently helped build retractable roofs for stadiums. ( In 2006 they built the world's largest tunnel boring machine (4:54).

Screenshot @ 1:37

"Our exposure to extremely high wheel loads has led us into the moveable stadium roof market. These roofs require many of the same mechanisms and parts as overhead cranes, with which we of course have extensive, well-documented experience." [MorganEngineering-KineticServices]

MorganEngineering-KineticEquipment
Rogers Centre (formerly Toronto SkyDome)

MorganEngineering-KineticEquipment
Safeco Field
"The structure covers nearly nine acres, weighs 22 million pounds and contains enough steel to build a skyscraper 55 stories tall. The three movable panels glide on 128 steel wheels powered by 96 ten-horsepower electric motors....The project included detailed engineering and tight tolerance manufacturing of both driven and idle wheel assemblies."

Dan Aikens posted
Bob Coffee: MORGAN….a truly great crane manufacturer! As a former ARMCO/AK Steel employee I worked closely with their sales and engineering staff, all were tops in my book!!
Jim Jenkins: Working in electrical, we maintained many Morgan cranes at Great lakes works. Baby 15 ton up to 400 ton hot metal cranes. Definitely machines to be respected. There were several originally rated for 250 ton, that were later state certified to run at 400 ton. (Process was upgraded). Thats a heck of a safety factor.
Craig Dickerson: Fish belly riveted girders, no catwalk, side hung bridge drive with additional pinion reduction at wheels. Looks to be half shell brass bearings on the wheels. I’ve worked on quite a few ancient ones like these. Probably also has split motor housings with pinions mounted directly onto motor shaft that is inside the gearbox which required the gearbox top to be removed to change the motor. But most likely just replace the armature and/or field coils. Open gearing, dc motor control and resistors built into a huge single unit with a lever handle in cab. Most of the ones this old I’ve seen (and worked on) had the hard drawn solid copper trolley wires strung on the inside of the bridge girders.
Nathan Burcl: I had one of these in my last shop. External gear with oil bath and rope seals.
Jim Smith: My father-in-law Louis Bondoni worked there 25 plus years till they closed in the 80s. And went to work with his daughter and son-in-law at Smith Machine Inc. So many great memories of the day's past! Still building the best Cranes to this day!
Kyle McGrogan: They also made mine locomotives for the coal mines, I do believe!
Julius Nagy: We did!

Bryan Reule commented on Dan's post
Here's the Morgan I run. 50 ton.