Towns and Nature: Charleston, IL: Big Four/NKP(Cloverleaf) Depot and Junction Tower

Tower: (Satellite, it is gone. Railroad Ave. has been added to take advantage of the abandoned NKP.)

Duplicate alert: see also this.

There was also a NKP coaling tower and roundhouse.

The abandoned straight east/west route through town was the Big Four. The existing route was the NKP(Cloverleaf) and is now the Eastern Illinois.

Nikki Burgess posted
An Eastern Illinois Railroad train trundles past the depot in Charleston, Illinois in July of 2014. This was once an NKP branch. Interestingly, the NKP freight house still stands nearby this location and in 2014 was still in use to store rail-delivered freight, in this case, lumber for the local yard. Pretty cool.
Dave Hyer It was once the Nickel Plate's mainline to St. Louis, not a branch.
Nikki Burgess Thank you for the clarification.
Brian Carlson Sweet!!! EIRC doesn't get much press...
Nikki Burgess My one big day on the line. Otherwise I've only got them dinking around at Neoga a couple of times.

Paul Jevert posted
Charleston IL.
Mike Samuel posted a different exposure.
A view from the southeast of the Depot in Charleston Illinois

Jason Grothe commented on Mike's post
Caught this last summer [2025]

Jim Fleming: Did the Big 4 use this depot too?

Paul Nichols: Jim Fleming no. It was to the west on the north side of the tracks I think.

Andy Zukowski posted
Clover Leaf & Big 4 R.R. Depot, in Charleston, Illinois. C1908 Photo by CU Williams

Bill Edrington: This view looks west. The Clover Leaf passenger depot is at the left. The eastbound Big Four train in the distance is stopped at their passenger depot, and the Big Four freight house is at the right with a boxcar spotted next to it.

Richard Fiedler shared

Larry Candilas commented on Andy's post
MP 319.0 Clover Leaf District crossing NYC-Big Four St Louis District MP 117.6 at CO Tower

I noticed the wood grain elevator in the right background that has been expanded with metal bins. There is still an elevator at that location, but it has been significantly upgraded.

Street View

Note the tower in the center background.

Andy Zukowski posted

The Norfolk and Western Station, Charleston, Illinois

View of the former Nickel Plate station at Charleston, Illinois. The view is looking northeast, timetable east on the NKP's Cloverleaf main. In the distance can be seen the tower that controlled the movements across the diamond with the former New York Central main between Indianapolis and St. Louis.

The former NKP still survives today as the Eastern Illinois Railroad, however the New York Central was pulled during the Conrail era around 1983 or so. Photo taken in 1968 and is from the Barry Lennon Collection

Bill Edrington: The building behind the Oldsmobile, to the right of CO Tower, is the Clover Leaf (NKP) freight house. It still stands today, as does the passenger depot.

Richard Fiedler shared

Fred Hilgenberg commented on Andy's post
"The former NKP still survives today as the Eastern Illinois Railroad" I heard it's the DREI (Decatur & Eastern Illinois), a Watco line, since about 2019. I recall blowing through town once in 2004 hoping to see the EIRC, but no such luck. I did see the depot (can't find my picture), but I did shoot a freight house. Not sure which former line it was.