Grain Elevator: (Satellite, it is now [2024], literally, just brown land. Note that the street views below where captured in Sep 2015.)
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| Mike Sypult commented on Jon's post Jon Roma I recognize that picture; I think it appeared in the Wabash historical society's magazine a a couple decades ago. The image reminds me that Route 10 was once elevated over the Wabash at Lodge. I don't know when the viaduct disappeared; Illinois 10 has crossed the Wabash at grade as long as I've been in central Illinois (ca. 1979). |
Two of the images posted by Jon Roma with the comment:
Erik Coleman Nikki Burgess NS still retains trackage rights, and has run an occasional "extra" that way, but all other traffic has been rerouted via the Marion District to Elkhart and back west to Chicago.
Mark Rickert mostly diverted it to trucks. The trucking industry has no greater friend than the railroads.
[IC and/or ICG tore up all of their tracks on their mainline except for one. Now CN doesn't have enough capacity. I've read that Amtrak trains are late because CN makes them wait in sidings. And CN refuses to add more sidings. If they make Amtrak trains wait, they probably make NS trains wait even longer. I'll bet NS now wishes N&W did not abandoned the Wabash route between Strawn and Manhattan.]
Mike Sypult Some 14 coal-laden Wabash railroad freight cars piled up at Lodge, Illinois, about eight miles north of here, at 7:25 a. m. Friday, December 22, 1950, spilling contents of the cars over a wide area, destroying a frame signal tower and doing serious damage to the depot. Each of the cars contained about 50 tons, a total of over 1,400,000 pounds of coal. It was littered along the track waist deep in places. Signal operator C. L. Wells was saved from possible serious injury by being in the right place at the right time. Wells was outside watching for defects in the train as it went by at an estimated 35 to 40 miles an hour. The sudden accident knocked the tower down, but Wells, covered with coal thrown from the cars escaped uninjured. A broken journal probably caused the pileup, but the cause would not be determined until an investigation was conducted. The derailment came in front of the seldom-used Wabash depot in Lodge. The depot itself was knocked from six to eight feet off its foundation. The tower, located directly across from the station, was knocked over when it was hit by one of the cars. It normally contains levers for crossing switches for the Wabash and Illinois Central railroads. The accident also tied up traffic on an Illinois Central railroad line, but an IC official said that that part of the line is used only once a day by a freight train between Champaign and Clinton. DeLand and Monticello fire departments extinguished the fire in the signal tower. A diesel locomotive was pulling the approximately 70 cars in the train. It had left Decatur early Saturday morning and was bound for Chicago. Wabash railroad phone communications were halted as lines were torn down. Decatur-Chicago communications were cut off, but C. W. Furry, ticket agent at Monticello said one line had been repaired at 10:27 a. m. Long distance phone service to the rest of the community was also disrupted. Interlocking equipment at the crossing was torn up by the impact. The first car derailed was approximately 38 cars from the front of the train. The crew, none of them injured, was made up of Decatur men. Traffic was rerouted over IC Tracks between Decatur and Gibson City. The Blue Bird and Banner Blue passenger trains were detoured in both directions over the IC tracks. Section crews totaling 50 or more men were rushed to the scene of the mishap. Wreckers from Chicago and Decatur and a derrick from Clinton were brought to clear the hundreds of feet of torn up track.Taken from the December 28, 1950 issue of The Piatt County Republican newspaper Derailment occurred December 22, 1950.
Mike Sypult A few more Lodge tid bits: The original tower dated to April 1901 with Wabash paying $3,124.83 to construct and paying 13/36th of operating costs. Lodge also had a wood depot constructed in 1880 measurements 20’x50’ with a tin roof. Lodge telegraph call on the Wabash was “DG”.
The tower was in the northeast quadrant along the IC route and the overpass was already built.
A 1:08 railfan video that includes the elevator, Dennis DeBruler shared
The town of Lodge, IL lies 18 miles west of Champaign on the IC's Havana District, which was part of the railroad's Springfield Division (headquartered at Clinton). The Springfield Division would be merged into the Illinois Division (headquartered at nearby Champaign) around 1960.Nikki Burgess Jon Roma can you comment on what NS has done with the traffic that was running up the IC to Chicago? Where did they move it to?
At Lodge, the IC Havana District crossed the Chicago-Bement main line of the Wabash Railroad at grade. There was an interlocking tower dating to 1901 consisting of 18 levers in a 20 lever frame protecting the crossing.
The IC Havana District was a typical sleepy rural branch line and was never particularly busy. In view of the low traffic on the IC, both railroads were interested in cutting the labor costs of having the Lodge agency and tower manned round-the-clock by telegraphers. The Wabash was going a step further and was in the process of installing TCS (traffic control system), which is to say CTC, piec by piece between Gibson City and Bement to further streamline operations on what was then a relatively important main line.
The solution to the problem, eventually agreed to by both railroads, was to install an automatic interlocking. The Wabash dispatcher would use the CTC machine to line routes on their railroad. If an IC train approached Lodge, and there was no Wabash move in progress or approaching on favorable signals, the plant would automatically line a route for the IC train.
This part of the Havana District was abandoned during the Eighties, though traces of the IC can still be seen some 35 years later. The Wabash line, of course, is now Norfolk Southern. Around 1990, the line was severed at Gibson City because of a lack of viable traffic north of that point. NS obtained trackage rights over IC's Chicago District and Gilman Line for its trains to and from Chicago. NS also built a connection at Gibson City to tie the live portion of the severed Wabash main line to the live portion of the severed Nickel Plate to allow trains from Decatur to travel through Lodge and Gibson City, en route to Bloomington and Peoria.
In 2020, much of the traffic on this hybrid Wabash/NKP line (known on NS as the Bloomington District) has declined, particularly with the closing of a large auto plant in Bloomington. NS has rerouted the Chicago traffic due to service problems on the trackage rights over CN. Yet, the signals on the Wabash that were installed at Lodge in 1959 remain – as does the Wabash siding there.
Erik Coleman Nikki Burgess NS still retains trackage rights, and has run an occasional "extra" that way, but all other traffic has been rerouted via the Marion District to Elkhart and back west to Chicago.
Mark Rickert mostly diverted it to trucks. The trucking industry has no greater friend than the railroads.
[IC and/or ICG tore up all of their tracks on their mainline except for one. Now CN doesn't have enough capacity. I've read that Amtrak trains are late because CN makes them wait in sidings. And CN refuses to add more sidings. If they make Amtrak trains wait, they probably make NS trains wait even longer. I'll bet NS now wishes N&W did not abandoned the Wabash route between Strawn and Manhattan.]
Mike Sypult Some 14 coal-laden Wabash railroad freight cars piled up at Lodge, Illinois, about eight miles north of here, at 7:25 a. m. Friday, December 22, 1950, spilling contents of the cars over a wide area, destroying a frame signal tower and doing serious damage to the depot. Each of the cars contained about 50 tons, a total of over 1,400,000 pounds of coal. It was littered along the track waist deep in places. Signal operator C. L. Wells was saved from possible serious injury by being in the right place at the right time. Wells was outside watching for defects in the train as it went by at an estimated 35 to 40 miles an hour. The sudden accident knocked the tower down, but Wells, covered with coal thrown from the cars escaped uninjured. A broken journal probably caused the pileup, but the cause would not be determined until an investigation was conducted. The derailment came in front of the seldom-used Wabash depot in Lodge. The depot itself was knocked from six to eight feet off its foundation. The tower, located directly across from the station, was knocked over when it was hit by one of the cars. It normally contains levers for crossing switches for the Wabash and Illinois Central railroads. The accident also tied up traffic on an Illinois Central railroad line, but an IC official said that that part of the line is used only once a day by a freight train between Champaign and Clinton. DeLand and Monticello fire departments extinguished the fire in the signal tower. A diesel locomotive was pulling the approximately 70 cars in the train. It had left Decatur early Saturday morning and was bound for Chicago. Wabash railroad phone communications were halted as lines were torn down. Decatur-Chicago communications were cut off, but C. W. Furry, ticket agent at Monticello said one line had been repaired at 10:27 a. m. Long distance phone service to the rest of the community was also disrupted. Interlocking equipment at the crossing was torn up by the impact. The first car derailed was approximately 38 cars from the front of the train. The crew, none of them injured, was made up of Decatur men. Traffic was rerouted over IC Tracks between Decatur and Gibson City. The Blue Bird and Banner Blue passenger trains were detoured in both directions over the IC tracks. Section crews totaling 50 or more men were rushed to the scene of the mishap. Wreckers from Chicago and Decatur and a derrick from Clinton were brought to clear the hundreds of feet of torn up track.Taken from the December 28, 1950 issue of The Piatt County Republican newspaper Derailment occurred December 22, 1950.
Mike Sypult A few more Lodge tid bits: The original tower dated to April 1901 with Wabash paying $3,124.83 to construct and paying 13/36th of operating costs. Lodge also had a wood depot constructed in 1880 measurements 20’x50’ with a tin roof. Lodge telegraph call on the Wabash was “DG”.
[Some comments discuss the removal of the overpass we see in the tower photo. It was gone by the 1970s.]
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| 1 This marked up signal department drawing was produced by the Wabash, and circulated to Illinois Central officers for approval. Though manned by Wabash employees, the interlocking was a joint facility, and IC paid part of the costs of the plant. Note that the signal engineer, superintendent, as well as a couple IC vice presidents had to sign off on the project. Red coloring shows the apparatus placed into service, while yellow coloring shows apparatus that was retired. |
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| Nikki Burgess commented on Jon's post If the NS has taken its leave (at least mostly) from the IC in northern Illinois, then this was probably my last shot of such a train (LOL well, I also moved to Seattle, which doesn't help the odds either!). On a sunny but cold early November day in 2014, I chased this train from Homewood south to Gibson City. My last good shot was as the train roared through Roberts, on the Gilman Line. Dennis DeBruler One nice side effect of railfan photos is that some of them also document the grain elevators. I've learned that both Lodge and Roberts still have a wooden grain elevator. https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m6!1e1!3m4... |
Nikki's photo got me looking for the wood grain elevator.
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| Street View, Sep 2015 |
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| Street View, Sep 2015 |
When I couldn't reconcile any street view with Nikki's photo, I finally noticed Roberts in her comment.
The tower was in the northeast quadrant along the IC route and the overpass was already built.
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| 1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
The train is on a connector from the Wabash to the IC.
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| Richard Jahn posted June 1981 - Illinois Terminal was making their last trip to Monticello. It was a damp day in June - with all the green I should have posted this on St Patricks day. 🙂 Train is backing up on the connecting track. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Richard's post I'm glad you caught the grain elevator equipment. It is now all gone, https://www.google.com/.../@40.1055627.../data=!3m1!1e3... According to Google Earth, the elevator was removed between Oct 2020 and Jun 2022. |
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