Towns and Nature: July 2020

Friday, July 31, 2020

MWRD: Using animals as "lawn mowers"

Putting some "Nature" into the "Towns and Nature" title of this blog.

(Update: a WTTW article "Goats and sheep will eat almost anything that’s edible, including poison ivy and pesky buckthorn." (source))

MWRD updated

Screenshot
The goats and sheep are BAAAAAAAACK at work managing native prairie landscapes for the MWRD! Stay tuned for additional coverage of their activities at the Calumet Water Reclamation Plant in Chicago. In the meantime, learn more about MWRD native prairies and green infrastructure at mwrd.org. #goats #sheep #nativeprairies #greeninfrastructure #chicago #cookcounty #illinois

MWRD posted

MWRD posted eight photos with the comment:

We have a new group of hard workers at our Calumet Water Reclamation Plant. President Kari K. Steele visited the goats and sheep with Ben Robel of Vegetation Solutions to film a video and see how they are helping us graze on overgrowth, invasive species and maintain our native prairie landscaping. This sustainable practice allows us to trim hard-to-reach places and avoids us from having to use fuel to power motors and herbicides that can harm our water environment. We have more than 30 acres of native prairie landscaping infiltrating stormwater, improving water quality, sequestering carbon and increasing biodiversity and wildlife habitat. The herd adds yet another sustainable measure to maintain our facilities.

Screenshot

Thursday, July 30, 2020

Chrisman, IL: Rose Tower: CSX/Big4 vs. CSX/B&O/

(Satellite, it is a lot easier finding the location when both tracks still exist)

Judy Goby Oxtoby posted

Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad 

A passenger train speeds past a track crossing and railroad switch tower identified as a Big Four and C.H. & D Tower at Chrisman, Edgar County, Illinois, about 1915.

Bill Edrington Thanks for sharing this. This was “Rose” Tower, which sat in the southwest quadrant of the crossing of the Big Four (New York Central System) and Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton (later the Baltimore & Ohio) on the south side of Chrisman. The train in the photo is a southbound Big Four passenger train heading toward Paris.

The Big Four line was the Egyptian Line. The 2005 SPV Map shows CI&W, Cincinnati, Indianapolis & Western as the B&O predecessor. It doesn't list the CH&D. So did the CH&D start building in Ohio and then changed its name to CI&E before it got to Illinois? I checked the 2005 SPV Map volume that covers Ohio and Indiana, and it does show CHD as another predecessor to B&O. The specific predecessor in Illinois doesn't matter to me because by 1928 it was the B&O line between Decatur, IL, Indianapolis and Cincinnati.

Eric Berg posted two photos with the comment: "Not sure if these at Rose tower have been posted here, but here are 2 more I found today. Says, "Big Four and CH&D tower Chrisman, Ill No. 7 Photo by Williams". 2nd one is unlabeled."

Bill Edrington posted three photos with the comment: "Rose Tower controlled the crossing of the Big Four’s Cairo Line and the B&O’s Indianapolis-Springfield, Illinois line at Chrisman, Illinois. The B&O line changed hands several times and at one time was part of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton, which is why the first photo below is labeled the way it is. The tower stood at the edge of a field in the southwest quadrant of the crossing of the two railroads, and so the photo shows a southbound Big Four passenger train heading toward Paris. A later photo of Rose, as well as an early one of the passenger depot at Chrisman, are also included."

Doug Nipper: Wow, I was just at that crossing a couple of Fridays ago. You can still see pipe carrier foundations in the southwest quadrant, so that's definitely where the tower was. The Decatur and Eastern Illinois (Watco) owns both lines now, and two connecting tracks south of the crossing allows them to get from the ex-NYC to the south to either side of the diamond on the ex-B&O side. Trees now surround the crossing almost entirely. My friend works for CDL, which does the signal work for Watco, and he says they plan to retire the automatic interlocking and replace it with a gate. Same with the ex-NKP crossing at Metcalf a few miles to the west.

The ex-NYC north towards the old coal loop at Vermilion Grove is used only for car storage, and that business is phenomenal now. So they only cross the ex-B&O to make a move onto that storage track.

Mark Egebrecht: When was the tower razed?

Bill Edrington: Mark Egebrecht - I don’t know for sure, but by April 30, 1961, when Timetable #9 took effect, Rose was an automatic interlocking. So my best guess is that the tower was closed and torn down sometime in the late ‘50s. It was still a 24-hour office in 1955.

James Kehn: Holy smokes! I just sent a whole bunch of tower photos to the modeling committee of the NYCSHS and here pops up another. I call these 2X style for the number of "X's" on the long side. This is a nice tower! Thanks for posting.

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Ravenna, KY: CSX/L&N Car Repair Shop is now Kentucky Steam Heritage

(Satellite)

Kentucky Steam Heritage posted

Kentucky Steam to Partner With Sherman Carter Barnhart Architects in Creating Kentucky Rail Heritage Center

For Immediate Release

July 30th, 2018 - Lexington, Kentucky

The Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation (KSHC), a 501(c)(3) public charity announced Monday that they will be collaborating with Lexington-based Sherman Carter Barnhart Architects (SCB) in creating the long-term vision for the Kentucky Rail Heritage Center.

The Kentucky Rail Heritage Center project was announced in May, when KSHC unveiled a partnership with CSX Transportation to purchase a large tract of decommissioned ex-L&N rail yard in Ravenna, Kentucky for economic development.

The Rail Heritage Center will be a living restoration shop, showcasing the rehab and maintenance of historic steam locomotives. The sprawling campus will creatively integrate a rail-based tourist attraction featuring train excursions with recreational space, technical skills training component and a regional community center complete with restaurants, shops, and lodging.

Chris Campbell, KSHC President, looks forward to the partnership with the highly-acclaimed Architectural firm.

“Sherman Carter Barnhart is the perfect fit for helping us craft the long-term vision for this region-changing economic development project,” he said in a statement Monday. “We are hoping to create a progressive environment while utilizing design components that harken to the region’s industrial past. The goal is to produce a modern campus that’s timeless as well as distinctly Appalachian. SCB’s body of work makes them a perfect fit for this exciting endeavor.”

Sherman Carter Barnhart is based in Lexington with offices in Louisville and Paducah. They have been designing award-winning projects for civic, educational, institutional, and private clients throughout the region since they opened in 1979. They have earned a reputation for design sensitivity to both the site and project context by creating buildings tailored to their surroundings and function, yet sensitive to the environment. The firm has won over 120 design awards, including the Kentucky Society of Architects Distinguished Firm Award, and their work has been published in numerous trade and professional journals.

Newby Walters, Business Development Director for SCB, provided encouraging words for the partnership.

“Sherman Carter Barnhart is proud to be working with KSHC on this exciting project which we all hope will spur economic development in this region. We are always interested in designing projects that will showcase the history of Kentucky and this rail-based campus, showcasing historic steam locomotives, will be an exciting project to work on with KSHC and CSX. We look forward to beginning our collaboration.”

Initial renderings and site plans will be developed over the next few months. More information will be published when available.

For more information on the project, contact KSHC President Chris Campbell at chris@kentuckysteam.org

Visit https://www.scbarchitects.com/ to learn more about Sherman Carter Barnhart.
T.J. Mahan We're trying to be diverse, more than a RR museum, a hodge podge of activities. One of our tenets is to not turn into a boneyard for rust. Only have what we can use and maintain.

I saved a satellite image because there should be significant changes to this property.

Satellite

It still has a footprint of part of the roundhouse.

Fort Boonesborough State Park posted (BridgeHunter)
It has recently been brought to our attention that the railroad bridge in a couple of the previous posts was not actually the first but the second railroad bridge across the Kentucky River at Ford, KY. Today’s Throwback Thursday photo shows the first bridge after it was moved upriver from Ford and repurposed as a pedestrian walk bridge at Ravenna, KY. For more details on the sawmill boom town of Ford please check out some of our previous posts. This town is located just about a mile upstream on the Kentucky River from the State Park.
[This truss was part of the 1883 bridge at Ford, KY. The second bridge was built in 1907. [Ford Bridges]]

The initial purpose for building a steam locomotive restoration shop was to give the C&O 2716 the TLC (Tender Loving Care) that it needed. Trains Magazine, Aug 2018, p60, reports that the C&O 2716 is currently stored at Kentucky Railway Museum in New Haven, KY (201+ photos). A Flickr album of the restoration.

(new window)

But in the meantime, they have used their new Ravenna location to save NKP 587.

By Jeremy C. Schultz - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Nickel Plate Road 2-8-2 Mikado steam locomotive #587 in the restoration shops at the ITM.

Like the Yacht Club in Port Huron, MI, it seems that Nobelsville, IN has their elitists that don't want ugly industrial stuff in their town. I've been seeing postings for a couple of years about them kicking the Indiana Transportation Museum out of town. I have not been following it closely because it is too depressing. A couple of years ago the elitists stopped the state fair specials that would run passenger trains to the fair grounds during the state fair. ITM would carry 10,000 people and earn money to help fund their operation.

Satellite

Knoblesville refused to renew ITM's lease because they wanted a trail, and the judge gave ITM 2 weeks to get their "junk" out of Forest Park. A lot of ITM's railroad cars were wrecked in place and hauled away as trash. Fortunately, the Kentucky Steam Heritage people offered this new facility to restore ITM's NKP 587 steam locomotive. It took 7 truck loads, but they were able to get the steam locomotive and its tender moved to Ravenna. ITM itself plans to relocate to Logansport, IN.

Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp. posted

Welcome to Kentucky, 587!

Please Consider a donation to Kentucky Steam Heritage: https://bit.ly/2Kvljp9

Donations will immediately fund our restoration shop, the Kentucky Rail Heritage Center as well as to help cover costs of the 587 move.

This shop will eventually be an epicenter for steam locomotive restorations...and unexpectedly, its first tenant will be NKP 587 - rather than the locomotive we have leased from The Kentucky Railway Museum, C&O 2716. 2716 will be moved once the shop is ready for rail transport.

In this shot, 587 parades through the streets of beautiful Irvine, Kentucky in Estill County, just down the street from Ravenna.

Read more about this unexpected turn of events at our news pagehttps://bit.ly/2LgIaFS

Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp. posted two photos with the comment:

For the first time in our organization’s history, we have a steam locomotive under roof!
After many hours of volunteer work, we have prepared the shop for indoor storage of Nickel Plate Road 587. The engine has been stored outdoors for the past several weeks after we moved her from her former home in Noblesville, Indiana.
KSHC has contracted to restore the locomotive to operation for Indiana Transportation Museum for eventual use back in Indiana.
Work will commence on the engine as capital becomes available through ITM and their fundraising partners’ efforts.
Now...how about a stablemate 🤔

Some details concerning the vacate order and the move.

C&O 2716 arrived a year ago today. I think "today" was July 29, 2020.

An update video

CSX is evidently teaching NS that donations can be good PR. "NS 6162, a 3,000-horsepower SD40-2 locomotive, was built in May of 1978 by General Motors, Electro-Motive Division (EMD) in LaGrange, Illinois, for the Norfolk and Western Railway. It performed duty all over the railroad, predominantly hauling coal out of Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky....Norfolk Southern 6162 joins the KSHC roster alongside CSX 1100, a former-CSX and L&N SW-1500 switching locomotive, and R.J. Corman 2008, a Chinese-built steam engine, given the moniker “Old Smokey.” Both engines were donated to KSHC by their respective owners within the past year. The organization also rosters Nickel Plate Road 2-8-2 steam locomotive number 587 which is on indefinite loan by the Indiana Transportation Museum." [WTVQ]

Fort Wayne, IN: Indiana School for Feeble Minded Youth (State School)

(Satellite, the land is now a city park)

I've seen a photo of this facility before, but now I can't find any notes about it. The photo showed the fire escape "tubes" from second story windows that I remember seeing as a kid when we traveled down State Street. (I wonder when State Street became State Blvd.)

Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted three photos with the comment:

1912
Indiana School for Feeble Minded Children
Ft. Wayne, Ind.

The Indiana School for Feeble-Minded Youth in Fort Wayne opened its doors in 1890 on East State Street, in an area that was, at the time, in the country. The school's campus included the Administration Building, cottages, a school, an industrial arts building, a hospital, and a gymnasium. The vocational arts were divided by gender, with men learning carpentry, agriculture, painting, upholstering and the making of mattresses, shoes and bricks, and the women learning the domestic arts of cleaning, cooking, canning, dressmaking, loom weaving and laundry. Residents came from all over the state. In 1931, the 1130 resident capacity facility housed 172, and had a waiting list of 200. That same year, the legislature changed the school's name to Fort Wayne State School.

In 1960, many residents moved to the new site at Stellhorn and St. Joe Roads, but some residents continued to live at the old school for about 20 years. After a number of years in which the State Street campus was inhabited by vagrants and rats, the Administration Building was demolished in 1982 to make way for North Side Park, which became Bob Arnold Northside Park. The Park Department saved a stone archway to leave as memorial to the former residents.

[GenealogyCenter]

The "new" location is now also gone. Ivy Tech has used that land for expansion.

AsylumProjects, this page has three more photos

FortWayneReader has a more detailed history. The architects also designed the City Building.

JA Motter posted

Many of you will recognize this august Richardsonian-Romanesque edifice as the Fort Wayne State School. It was located on E. State Street, a few blocks east of Northside High School.  While attending South Side High School in the late 1960s, my friends and I would sometimes drive past the institution and say: “I wonder what really goes on in there?” Few knew then, few even know today.

I had an opportunity to go inside in the spring of 1971, during my freshman year at the “Indiana/Purdue Extension.”  How so?  Because the IU/PU campus had no gymnasium, all intramural basketball games would be played in other local venues (mostly elementary schools) around Fort Wayne.  One of those venues was the gymnasium at the Fort Wayne State School.  My team played one game there. Upon arrival, we were surprised to learn that State School administrators allowed the residents of the institution to attend the games. As a result, the large gymnasium was filled with several hundred fans of all ages.

In some ways it was just another basketball game, but in others the experience was exceedingly odd.  For one thing, college intramural basketball games almost never have spectators, but here we were playing before a full house.  For another, the people in the stands were unusually animated. No doubt they were excited to have an opportunity to watch the game, but their behavior was quite loud and borderline chaotic. Perhaps the oddest thing was when one 50+ year old man (perhaps a “lifer”?) proclaimed to the players on the court his fantasy for a young girl he had in tow. She was 16 years old at most.  How bizarre it all was.

But there is more to this story.  Just two years ago, I was teaching a course here in Atlanta on C.S. Lewis’ success in debunking various philosophical fallacies, such as subjectivism, moral relativism, rationalism, scientism, historicism, and progressivism.  As I was conducting research on Progressivism, I discovered several surprising facts.  One such finding was that the world’s first Fascist totalitarian dictatorship was not that of Mussolini, nor Hitler, but in fact was the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson (look up the American Protective League).  Wilson and his Progressive cohorts--including education reformer John Dewey, editor Herbert Croly, journalist Lincoln Steffens, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, and eugenicists Harry Laughlin and Madison Grant--had a profound impact upon the world, and not to the good. How do I mean?

Most people believe the hideous practice of eugenics was first introduced to the world by the German Nazis. But that is not true.  Amazingly, the practice of eugenics had its origin in the United States . . . in the State of Indiana . . . in the town of Peru, Indiana to be precise.  From Indiana this cancer spread across the nation, and years later, to Germany.

It may be true that 1920s Wilsonian Progressives in America learned about fascism (i.e., managing the railroads) from the Italians, but it was these same Wilsonian Progressives who instructed the Germans on eugenics. For example, in Mein Kampf, Adolph Hitler wrote: “We Germans must emulate what the Americans are doing” . . . and so they did. When Adolph Hitler was in prison, he read Madison Grant’s book: The Passing of the Great Race, a clarion call to safeguard the “right race”. Hitler wrote Grant a fan letter saying: “This book is my Bible”.

In 1933 Hitler came to power, and with him the concept of eugenics as inspired by the “Model Eugenical Sterilization Law” written by American Harry Laughlin, who was corresponding with German scientists. Laughlin was awarded an honorary degree in 1936 by the University of Heidelberg for his work on “racial cleansing”.

It was our own ruling elites who hatched the idea of a utopia comprised of a master Aryan race created through selective breeding and then passed that idea along to the Nazis. Sadly, with “the Final Solution” the Nazis took the idea of sterilizing inferiors, first implemented in America, to horrific new levels.

Madison Grant’s book led to the 1924 U.S. Immigration Restriction Act, which cut immigration by 97% for 40 years.  As for the mentally deficient already here, state-sponsored centers were opened around the country for the purpose of sterilizing the mentally and morally incapacitated.

One of the first institutions serving people with intellectual/developmental disabilities in the nation (and for that matter, anywhere in the world) was commissioned by the Indiana State Legislature in 1887, and constructed on land just outside its second largest city. When it opened its doors in 1890, it was called the Indiana School for Feeble-Minded Youth, but in 1931 the state legislature changed the school’s name to the Fort Wayne State School. It always seemed the "State School" was primarily a place for boys who behaved badly, but in a 1916 annual report to the Governor of Indiana, 56% of the residents were girls. 

This school would become a leader in forcing their students to become sterilized. From 1927 through 1974--when sterilization laws were at long last overturned by Gov. Otis Bowen-- 60,000 people were forcibly sterilized in America due to “Progressive” policy. Records confirm that 1,500 of those people (2.5% of the national total) were sterilized at the Fort Wayne State School. 

This not-so-august institution might be a blight on the City of Fort Wayne, but the blame for this can be placed squarely at feet of the Governors of the State of Indiana to whom this institution reported. The State Legislature chose an area that at that time was outside the Fort Wayne city limits, and thus outside the purview of the Mayor and City Council.  It was not until 1979 that the State of Indiana deeded the property to the City of Fort Wayne.

It boggles my mind to think: They were still performing forced sterilizations when I played basketball in their gymnasium in 1971.

Victor Locke commented on JA's post

Monday, July 27, 2020

Ashtabula, OH: Pennsy roundhouse still stands

(Satellite)

Josh Guerney posted two photos with the comment: "The abandoned PRR Ashtabula roundhouse."
Dennis DeBruler I didn't even know PRR had a branch up to Ashtabula. I see Conrail was the one that abandoned the branch. https://www.google.com/.../@41.8743858,-80.../data=!3m1!1e3

[I'm sorry that the links in the above text are garbage. Google is threatening us with a new version of blog authoring software that is far worse than the existing version. One of the joys of the new version, which they are still claiming is an improvement, is that, when you copy text onto a clipboard, it replaces the link in every URL with garbage. I reported this corruption of user data weeks ago. In fact, more than once. But, like all other feedback, it seems to have gone into a bit bucket. I now try to go back to the old version before I copy text, but I forgot in this instance.]

Street View

Bob Mcgilvray Jr. posted three photos with the comment: "Ashtabula, Ohio - Pennsylvania Railroad roundhouse - January 2020 - 41.874380, -80.798523"

[These notes seem to be jinxed. In this case, I forgot to copy the "posted" link.]

Dennis DeBruler commented on Bob's post
Thanks for specifying that it was Pennsy. I had to check a topo map to see how Pennsy threaded itself through NYC territory.
1969 North & South Ashtabula Quadrangles @ 1:24,000

Dennis DeBruler commented on Bob's post
I see on a satellite image that the roundhouses of Pennsy and NYC were within about a couple blocks of each other.
https://www.google.com/.../@41.8717719,-80.../data=!3m1!1e3

Knox, IN: Junction Tower: NKP vs. NYC/III

(Satellite)

Ken Durkel posted
X Tower, Knox, Indiana. NKP/NYC Kankakee Belt (Three I) crossing. M.D. McCarter photo collection. Nickel Plate train is eastbound. I believe the track adjacent to the main was a siding that no longer exists.
Brad Johnson What year would this be?
Ken Durkel Not sure, I would say mid 1950s. Adam St Germain would this tower have survived after CTC reached this portion of the NKP?
Adam St Germain I'm not sure how long that tower survived but the siding used to run through town to the east. In the 80s it was cut back to west of where the NYC diamond was to eliminate all the crossings in town. Judging from the signal in the background, the line was already CTC when this photo was taken.
Ken Durkel My 1952 timetable says at Knox, the east end of the westward and the west end of the eastward sidings at Knox were controlled by the Dispatcher Ft. Wayne. So CTC had reached Knox by at least 1952, though I don't think it had been extended completely west to Van Loon by 1952 yet.
Adam St Germain I found a website that states the tower was installed sometime prior to 1906, and made into an automatic interlocking by 1957. The diamond was removed in 1982.

Mark Egebrecht Berkshire!

According to the 2005 SPV Map, there where two "Knox IN" locations. There was this one and another that is not labelled by Google Map. That one was located where the abandoned Big Four track curved north of Knightstown, IN.

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Franklin C: West Frankfort, IL: Orient #1 & #2 Mines

#1: (Satellite)
#2 North: (Satellite?, motor shaft)
#2 South: (Satellite, main shaft)

Scroll down to "Photographs" in ILmines for several photos of Orient #2.

Roger Kujawa posted
Orient No. 1 Coal Mine Franklin County IL Illinois 1939.
Todd Stevens The interstate exit sign used to not say:
West Frankfort
Zeigler
It used to say:
Orient
Zeigler

David Budka Looks like a small mine-mouth power plant too. I love those little steam or diesel powered self-propelled cranes!

Larry Joe Jenkel posted
Orient #1 Mine Franklin County 1913 - 1955. Last production March 1955. Coal seam 6, 9" - 10" thick. Depth 510" to 520"

Larry Joe Jenkel's post got removed before I got the info. I think it was because of someones political comments on the post.
Orient #2

hinton-gen, this page has several interior shots as well

Larry Joe Jenkel posted
Orient #2 Franklin County, 480 ft to 500 ft depth, 8" to 12.5" thick, 6 seam. 1921 to 1960. Last production was November 30, 1960.
Allen Wilson That is where my dad work when it blew up killing 119 men.
Steven Kent Allen Wilson that disaster set practice at #3. If the barometer dropped to 29.5 inches. The mine was shut down and everyone when home. The gas behind the seals in the old works escapes to the lower pressure area in the return and caused the explosion at #2. Sad that so many men died...
Allen Wilson Steven Kent - dad always said that air pressure was really low. He thought that it was a probability the explosion occurred when a miner snuck into the old works for a smoke.
Steven Kent Allen Wilson that was the speculation. That’s why 29.5 became the standard. The pressure was 29.5 when the disaster at #2 occurred