Danville, IL: CSX/.../Big Four (Egyptian) Lyons Railyard, Coal Dock, Water Towers & Roundhouse and Hobbs Tower

Actually, the yard is south of Danville. It is so long that it passes by two small towns: Hegeler and Belgium. Satellite images are below.

Coal towers used a bin elevator or skip hoist to raise the coal into the coal storage bin. An alternative was the coal dock where the coal was raised by shoving the cars up a ramp.

New York Central System Historical Society posted

Evie N Bob Bruns posted
NYC 7612 at Lyons yard (Danville) 6/25/1950

Satellite

This remnant of the Egyptian line is still used today. Lyons Yard is gone, but it is still mostly "brownland" east of the mainline between Spelter Ave. in Hegeler, IL, and Hickman St. in Belgium, IL. with Lyons St. crossing its middle.

1940 Aerial
Photo from
ILHAP

The engine servicing facilities starting with the roundhouse were just south of Lyons St.

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Satellite

You can still see traces of some stalls and the western half of the turntable.

Eric Berg posted three photos with the comment: "New York Centrals Hobbs tower located on the south end of Lyons yard in Danville, Illinois.  All taken on May 30th, 1919 by an unknown photographer.  Probably NYC Company shots...."

Seth Lakin: It was 200 feet south of Hickman St, on the south end of Lyons yards according to valuation maps.

James Kehn: I call this a 2X style stilt Big Four tower. Note the stairway entrance on the side. It goes straight into the door and doesn't hug the side of the building like most. I wrote a two- part article on building a similar tower in O scale in NYC MODELER e-zine back in 2018.

Rick Giles: James Kehn Variations on a theme. I never noticed the pronounced overhang of the cabin over the legs of the support structure on the 2X size towers. Gives it even more of a spindly appearance than usual. Really makes the tower look like it wouldn't take much to make the whole thing collapse. The larger 3X and 4X towers don't seem to have that from what I've seen in photos.

Seth Lakin: During WWI the US government “nationalized” all of the country’s railroads in 1917. Part of the deal is that they would be returned to the private companies with in 24 months of peace in the same condition as when they were taken. Part of that was a valuation survey was conducted on every inch of the county’s railroads. Track diagrams were taken, all structure sketched and larger ones photographed. It appears that these photos are part of that survey.

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