Pana, IL: B&O Depot & Freight House, C&EI Depot and UP Served Grain Elevator

C&EI Depot: (Satellite)

B&O Depot: (Satellite, the track is gone and the depot land is now a parking lot.)

B&O Freight House: (Satellite, it was also south of the tracks and across Locust St. from the depot.)

Jacob Hortenstine posted
B&O depot Pana Illinois only photo of this depot I have seen
Jacob Hortenstine shared
B&O Pana Illinois
Bret Robertson: Is that the Union Station in Pana?
Jacob Hortenstine: Bret Robertson no union station in Pana was at the crossing of the NYC and the ICRR

Jacob Hortenstine posted
C&EI depot foreground left B&O depot background right Pana Illinois
Bill Edrington And I believe that's the B&O freight house in the background, catty-corner from the passenger depot. I think we've got Pana pretty well covered now!

Update: The C&EI depot is still standing.

Street View

The red rectangle is the C&EI and B&O depots and the yellow rectangle is the IC+Big4 depot.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

1947 Pana Quad @ 62,500

UP Served Grain Elevator

Street View, May 2024

Since the grain elevator is served by UP, I looked along the C&EI route until I found it.

1949/49 Pana Quad @ 62,500

safe_image for The Building Continues: Assumption Cooperative Continues Expanding Pana, IL Facility with Steel Storage

David Jordan: Served by Union Pacific.

Dennis DeBruler: I noticed when looking at a satellite image that the siding is not long enough to handle a full unit train. And then the article mentions 25-car trains: "It ships 25-car unit trains of corn on a Union Pacific main line to sites in Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana." Does UP really run 25-car trains to the south, or is there a nearby yard where UP divides a unit train into 25-car cuts for delivery to the elevator?

Augie Kay: Dennis DeBruler They are probably, presently running 25-car cuts, and no shuttle train is currently involved.

Dennis DeBruler: Augie Kay Thanks. In this day in age of Class I's pushing for longer trains, I'm glad to learn that UP is willing to run rather short trains to serve grain elevators.

Augie Kay: Dennis DeBruler It's unlikely these are moving on their own, but instead in manifest trains. Picked up as 25-car cuts from the origin, slopped into a road freight or three to 'near' destination, local drops them off in 25-car cuts. Highly unlikely these are moving in their own dedicated train.

Dennis DeBruler: Augie Kay Again, thanks. That makes a lot more sense than a "25-car unit train." That mistake would not surprise me in a general media publication. But I would think a grain elevator publication would know the difference between a unit train and a long carload cut of cars.

The article states that they have two 15kbph legs and the 2024 construction is adding a 20kbph leg. So when they are done, they should be able to unload about 50 18-wheelers per hour.

"The Pana facility’s grain volume, Beard says, is split between corn (70%), soybeans (25%), and [soft red winter] wheat (5%)."

They also have a lot of ground storage.

Satellite

And north of the elevator are facilities to sell chemicals to farmers.

Satellite