East Alton, IL: Big Four and CB&Q Depot

(SouthernIllinoisRailroads; Satellite)

Madison County ILGenWeb posted

FIRE DESTROYS EAST ALTON BIG FOUR DEPOT

Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, March 12, 1901

Fire destroyed the passenger station of the Big Four and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy at East Alton this morning. Within one hour after the fire was discovered in the shingles of the roof, the building was level with the ground and only heaps of charred wood remained. The loss was not heavy, as the building was lightly constructed and all the valuable papers in it were saved by the office men when the fire broke out. At 10 o'clock the flames were discovered in the roof, and an effort was made to extinguish the fire after valuable books and papers had been removed to places of safety. The water supply at East Alton would have been sufficient to have saved the building, but no ladder to reach the roof could be found and the pressure was not sufficient to throw water up there. The building was old and dry and made quick fuel for the flames. Temporary accommodations for the office force and passengers will be provided, and the Big Four will at once build a new and better depot.

Dale Ashauer shared

So is this the building that replaced the above after the 1901 fire?

Raymond Storey posted
ALTON ILL

Madison County ILGenWeb posted

SIXTY-SIX PASSENGER TRAINS IN ALTON PER DAY

Source: Alton Telegraph, December 6, 1894

The actual number of passenger trains that arrive in or depart from Alton is sixty-six trains per day. Chicago, which it was a city of 150,000 inhabitants, boasted of having sixty trains a day. Alton probably has as fine railroad facilities as any town in Illinois, outside of Chicago. The number given above is the actual number of trains that either pass through the city, start from here, or arrive at Alton as a terminus. It does not include the duplicates which appear in the time cards. Twenty-two trains leave the city before 9 o’clock a.m.

Bill Edrington: At that time, 20 of the daily trains using the Alton Union Depot were on the “Big Four Route” (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway). Its main line from Cleveland to St. Louis ran through East Alton, where the main line trains stopped. The Big Four’s tracks from East Alton to Alton were on the north side of the Union Depot, while the Chicago & Alton’s tracks were on the south side, closer to the river.

[Some comments describe an 1850's railroad: Terra Haute and Alton Railroad.]

Candice Marie Lynn shared

This is very interesting to know. Alton is my home town. 22 trains depart before 9am.. 66 in total a day. 

Credit is always given…

 

Note that the Union Depot is on the right side of this image.

Adam Davis posted via Dennis DeBruler

I presume the first depot was the building in the junction at the bottom of this photo. This is where the CB&Q (left route) and Big Four (right route) joined to go further south. It is interesting that the land east of Shamrock Street was already a parking lot.

1941 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

But that junction is not on CB&Q's through route. I put a yellow rectangle around the curved connection that CB&Q would use between their north route and their west route that goes over their bridge over the Mississippi River. But looking at a system map, it makes sense that there were no through passenger routes. JohnP's comment explains that CCB&Q shared the track with the Big Four to St. Louis.

1927 Alton Quadrangle @ 1:62,500