The Big Four and IC routes are abandoned, but BNSF and NS still run through the town.
Big Four
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| Jacob Hortenstine posted New York Central Litchfield Illinois Sam Anthony: worked extra in Litchfield on Wabash depot, also a brick depot, double main north and south. agent was named George if I remember right. sold tickets for passenger trains in early /mid 60 s. John LaRochelle: George Gregory, Seniority date August 30th 1917, a real old timer with 52 years service in 1969. Bill Edrington: I knew George Gregory well. I used to hang out with him at the depot when I was a kid. After he retired, he studied archaeology at SIU-Edwardsville and went on "digs" with the other students, who were all still in their teens and 20s. Remarkable guy. |
Bill Edrington commented about the Big Four Depot: "Litchfield was located on the "Old Line", the original route of Big Four predecessor Terre Haute & Alton Railroad. It was downgraded to branch line status in 1905 with the opening of the "Short Line" cutoff via Livingston. The old passenger platform at Litchfield, and the sidewalk leading to the depot from Edwards Street, are still visible today even though the railroad is long gone."
There has been a lot of construction in the area of the Big Four Depot and sove of the platform is either gone or corverd.
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| Satellite |
So I fired up Google Earth. The above image is from Sep 2022. The previous image shows the dirt-covered platform just north of the long building in the middle.
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| Google Earth, Oct 2020 |
CB&Q
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| Jacob Hortenstine posted CB&Q depot 1955 Litchfield Illinois John David Mitchell Jr: This depot was not a CB&Q design. It was a Jacksonville & Southeastern (Jax Line) design. Bill Edrington: Roy Heberer was the Q agent in Litchfield in the mid-1960s. I spent many happy hours hanging out at this depot back in those days. The era of heavy northbound coal traffic out of southern Illinois on this line was over, and normally only daily freights #73 and #66 came through. Later in the decade the joint CB&Q-CNW unit train coal move from Sesser, IL to Oak Creek, WI (interchanged at Virden) began. The BN merger; new run-through agreements with the Southern (over Centralia) and L&N (over Woodlawn); abandonment of the BN's Concord-East St. Louis line via White Hall; and the opening of the Cook Terminal rail-barge facility for Powder River Basin coal near Metropolis all brought much new business to this line and it is an important BNSF route today. Dennis DeBruler: Where was it? Just north of Union Street and east of the mainline? Bill Edrington: Dennis DeBruler - Yes. It was on the east side of the tracks and faced Union Avenue. BNSF now has a steel building in the same general area but a little farther east of the tracks, which I believe is used by MofW and signal personnel. Jacob Hortenstine: do you know when the railcar quite running that line? Bill Edrington: Yes. The "dinky" made its last run from Beardstown to Herrin and back on April 27, 1957. Bill Edrington: My dad could remember when one of the new Burlington Zephyrs was on display at Litchfield in the 1930s. I remember riding a steam excursion behind CB&Q #4960 from Litchfield to Sorento in 1963, when I was in 5th grade. I should also mention that sometime after the above photo was taken, a tornado damaged the south end of the depot. The damage was repaired but the depot was shortened somewhat and the south end no longer looked like it does in this photo. |
Illinois Central
Jim Yasinski posted four photos with the comment: "Illinois Central Depot and Right of Way at Litchfield, Illinois."
Dennis DeBruler: Jim, your photo of the last ICG train going southbound across Kirkham Street indicates that the depot was south of Krikham because the next photo in the album shows the train passing the depot.
How much further south of Krikham was the depot?
Are the tracks running along today's Adams Street?
I found a reference that places the location here: https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d39...
But that is next to the Wabash tracks and too far north.
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Wabash
It is a lot easier to find the location of the depot if it is still standing. I wonder when this depot was built because I could not find it on the historical aerial photo.
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| Street View, Sep 2013 |
All the Railroads
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| 1944 Mount Olive Quad @ 62,500 |
My thanks to Bill Edrington and his comments on this post for some of this information.
Blue: CB&Q
Orange: Wabash
Yellow: IC
Red: NYC/Big Four, the depot was north of the tracks and the freight house was on the south side. The big buildings west of the depot were the Illinois Power Co.
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| 1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
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