I'm making copies of the satellite images because I read there are plans to finally tear it down.
Purdue had the first full-scale steam locomotive test lab.
James Boudreaux
posted five photos with the comment:
University of Illinois steam locomotive testing lab. Photos dated either 1910-1935 or 1917, U of I Archives. Location on, or proximity to the campus, unknown. Remarks, IC RR 2-8-0 locomotive.
Art Lemke The birds eye also is a give away - the building is aligned to allow easier access to the ITS main. It has to be about the only rectangular building on campus not confirming to the street grid. If the building could talk, the stories it could tell about that interurban car and the wheel development for the first streamlined train for the UP.
Dwaine Holman What is on top of the loco in the last two pics?
Jeron Glander A wooden guard to keep the overhead wire from touching the steel loco.
Randy James Illinois central 900 class 2-8-0 consolidation
[The building housed a dynamometer that was big enough to hold steam locomotives.]
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Note the two smokestacks on the building west of the locomotive lab. As with
Purdue's heating plant, the railroad spur that served the lab also served the earlier heating plants.
This spur came in from the west along what is now Western Avenue in spots. How it connected to the Big Four tracks a little to the north is not obvious on the old aerial.
I suspect this diagonal parking lot edge has something to do with the spur's curve to the north.xxx
Champaign County History Museum
posted four photos with the comment:
This weekend [Aug 10, 2018], the community will lose one of the few remaining structures from our early days as a leader in railroad engineering. The Locomotive Testing Lab will be razed starting Saturday. The unique structure sits just south of Springfield Avenue and west of Goodwin Avenue. It used to sit adjacent to the streetcar rail line that first connected Champaign, the University and Urbana with a horse-drawn car. These photos from the interior are from a series of glass plate negatives in the museum's collection. Reprints are on sale in our gift shop!
For those asking why, this is an old brick building with no notable architectural details, albeit its heritage.. It has zero insulation, some of the wall sections are bowed, it has no hvac system, it did at an odd angle and faces no street, etc. Some structures, such as the iconic Burnham Mansion, are worthy of saving, while other buildings, such as this one, are not.
You can read more about the University of Illinois Test Car on George Friedman’s wonderful online book about the system.
http://friedman.cs.illinois.edu/champaig.../Chapter14.htm...
(source)
Articles are reporting the building is collapsing, and having not tested any locomotives for a long time, will be removed for more parking. http://www.news-gazette.com/.../tom-kacich-days-numbered...
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Also, Paul Jevert shared Illinois Central Railroad Scrapbook
In the early years of railroading, locomotive design was a "hit or miss" proposition. If mechanical engineers thought that a modification or new design would work, they would apply it a locomotive, send the locomotive out on the road, and get feedback from crews. But other than subjective answers such as "Yeah, it works", or "No, that sucks", there were few ways of objectively measuring a locomotive's output. In the early 1890s Purdue University built a locomotive testing plant on its campus. It was one of the first test plants in the world. The University of Illinois was not to be outdone, so in 1913 a similar test plant was built on campus. This RPPC (real photo postcard) circa 1915 shows an IC 2-8-0 (number unknown) on the test stand. The locomotive's drivers are resting on four large rollers to keep the locomotive stationary, and loco is attached to strain gauges that measured drawbar pull, etc. Water and coal consumption is carefully measured. The real photo postcard is from my personal collection. Unfortunately no publisher or date is known.lains Rai |
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The third professor described in the article used this test lab.
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