Muncie, IN: Lost/Union Station (NYC & NKP/LE&W) and Trailhead/C&O Depot

Union Station: (Satellite)

C&O: (Satellite)

Muncie Railroad Preservation Society posted
New York Central EMD E7A #4026 with 2 others stopped at Union Station in Muncie, Indiana  July, 1968

John E Lacefield: Wysor street station?

Jim Kelling: John E Lacefield no, South Walnut street; Wysor street has the former C&O station which is restored.

Muncie Railroad Preservation Society shared

Bill Edrington: Nice shot. This would be #316, the remnant of the Cleveland Special, enroute from Indianapolis to Cleveland with mail in Flexi-Vans and a coach for whatever passengers showed up.

 

Muncie Railroad Preservation Society posted

New York Central EMD NW2 #8807 at Muncie Union Station, 1968.

At midnight on February 1, 1968, the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad merged. This was the largest merger to date: It created America's sixth-largest corporation and the nation's largest transportation company.

Muncie Railroad Preservation Society shared

Muncie Railroad Preservation Society posted
New York Central Railroad Baldwin DR 6-4-1500A No. 3507 DCA-2a Build No. 73135 Built May 1948 Westbound at Union Station in Muncie, Indiana circa 1955-1960 Photo Credit: Herb Harnish
Muncie Railroad Preservation Society shared

Bill Edrington: Thanks for sharing this; it’s the first photo I believe I’ve ever seen of one of these Baldwin DR-6-4-1500 units running on the Big Four lines. This photo dates from May 1955 at the earliest, because that’s when this unit was renumbered from #3203 to #3507, after having been repowered with an EMD (General Motors) 567 engine. All three of its “A” unit sisters plus two cabless “B” units were also repowered during 1955; all were retired from service in 1960; and all were sold for scrap in 1962.

Paul Holtz: The second unit looks like a FM "Erie Built". Nice shot.

NKP/LE&W was on the north side of Union Station, and NYC was on the south side. This map does not mark the location of the C&O depot even though there is room.

1952/53 Muncie East and West Quads @ 24,000

Nov 8, 1948 @ 46,200; AR1HV0000010005

Trailhead/C&O Depot

Street View, Dec 2021

As "trailhead" implies, the C&O route is now abandoned, and the route is used by the Cardinal Greenway. 

Kyle Johnson, Feb 2017

The railroad next to the trail at the depot that we see on the right in the above view is a connector between LE&W's north/south and east/west routes through town.

Map via NKPHTS via Dennis DeBruler

Plymouth, OH: B&O Depot

(Satellite)

Street View, Nov 2021

Street View, Nov 2021

Roger Smith posted two photos with the comment: "1887 B&O station in Plymouth, OH."

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B&O was the north/south route. The east/west route was the Akron, Canton & Youngstown. This topo map does accurately mark the location of this depot.

1960/61 Willard and Shelby Quads @ 24,000

Oskaloosa, IA: Rock Island Depot and Caboose

(Satellite)

Track side:

Street View, May 2023

Street side:

Street View, Aug 2013

Tom Weber posted three photos with the comment:

A Rock Island lettered caboose at the former Oskaloosa, IA depot on September 14, 2024.

The caboose according to others is actually ex-Southern Railway Caboose X555.

The former depot is now the Rock Island Tap Brewery.

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Chicago, IL: Tower Auto Rebuilders/Service Station

(Satellite)

It is old enough that it still has the glass cylinder gas pumps.

Bill Meyer posted

Circa 1930, Tower Service Station, 5534 N. Elston. 

Building still extant.

Street View, Jul 2024

Street View, Jul 2024

Sunray, TX: Grain Elevator Explosion at about 3:25pm, Mar 28, 2025

(Satellite)

There were no deaths, but five people were injured and taken to area hospitals. I read that at least some of the injured were airlifted to Lubbock.

0:58 video

"Crews are responding to an explosion at a grain elevator in Sunray.

All people have been accounted for, but officials say several have been airlifted to area hospitals. Evacuations are also underway in the area near the building.

For the latest updates on this story, click here: https://tinyurl.com/m2stcbme

🎥: AW Broadband"

newschannel10, Source: Lilia Mena
They evacuated people and cutoff the power and gas. The power was restored on the 30th, but they expect the gas to be off for a few more days.

Storm Search 7 Chief Meteorologist Corbin Voges posted six photos with the comment:

5 injuries have been confirmed at the Sunray grain elevator. Power to the city of sunray will be cut off at 6PM.

Cause of the explosion is unknown still which occurred at approximately 3:25 PM this afternoon. Evacuation orders are still in place from 2 blocks south of the co-op to 1 block north. ABC 7 Amarillo

Photo Courtesy: Lynne Cartrite

Bob Avant: As a young Ag Engineer, 50 years ago my first job involved working on grain elevator explosions. This was just after the horrific Goodpasture explosion in Houston and the Galveston explosion. Here is what we learned:

1. Grain dust is very explosive.

2. Conditions have to be right to trigger an explosion basically low humidity.

3. Accumulated dust provides the fuel.

4. Electric motors, fans, and bearings as well as arcing switches provide the ignition source.

5. Elevator operations entrain dust in the elevator enclosures.

6. The absence of blow out panels provides containment for a violent explosion.

Tony Pennington: Bob Avant where's the grain?

Bob Avant: Tony Pennington absence of grain is a bigger problem than a full bin because it allows more area for dust entrainment. Looks like those bins might have been empty.

Mark Reardon shared

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Looking West. It looks like a big elevator. The fall protector sticking out at the right indicates that it does get rail service. 

Street View, Apr 2023

Looking East. Note the long cut of cars in the left background. That is more evidence that it gets rail service.

Street View, Jan 2023

The railroad was the Rock Island.

1972/74 Sunray Quad @ 24,000

Niota, TN: Southern Depot, the oldest standing depot in Tennessee

(Satellite)

 

CityOfNiota

 

Street View, Feb 2024

Jeremy J Schrader posted three photos with the comment: "Niota, TN of Southern heritage has the fame of being the oldest standing depot in the state of Tennesee."

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John Watson, Apr 2024

Peggy Avila, May 2024

Delaware, NJ: Lost/DL&W Depot

(Satellite)

Metrotrails posted two photos with the comment:

Metrotrails Then and Now Series: Historic postcard image of the railroad station in Delaware, New Jersey, compared to the same scene on our 2023 visit, now a gas service station.

The Warren Railroad was first built through Delaware in 1856, a sparsely populated little community with few others besides the Albertson family who had lived here and operated the ferry over the Delaware since colonial days.

John I. Blair purchased land here for the railroad from Henry Albertson on his deathbed.

The community proved to be more important than was originally expected. Blair's original plan was to run his railroad north through the Delaware Water Gap on the New Jersey side, but a competitor purchased land needed by Blair for this, and Blair had the route re-surveyed to cross the Delaware just north of the station.

By 1876, the community was home to the junction with the Blairstown Railroad (later New York, Susquehanna, and Western).

The town remained an important point on the main line until the Lackawanna Cutoff bypassed it to the north in 1911. Still, community saw regular service until the mid 1900s when the NYS&W cut traffic to Delaware, and the Pennsylvania Railroad eliminated its junction some three miles to the south due to damage from the Flood of 1955.

The Lackawanna abandoned its trackage from Delaware to Washington in 1970.

The sleepy little community remains a charming place with beautiful homes and buildings, tucked away on side streets parallel with busy Rt 46.

Metrotrails shared with the comment: "The old Lackawanna railroad station in Delaware New Jersey."

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The topo maps did not help find the location of the depot.

But because of the white line by the black rectangle, it was easy to find the depot on this aerial. The white line would have been the platform. Judging by the shadow, there was a grain elevator about a block south and on the other side of the tracks.

Jul 7, 1957 @ 60,000; ARA550530040040

The bridge and the tracks on the Pennsylvania side are extant, but the tracks are gone on the New Jersey side.

Satellite

Millbrook, OH: Pennsy Big Run Tower

(Satellite)

Darren Reynolds posted four images with the comment: "Conrails (Ex-PRR)

"Big Run" tower 

Millbrook, Ohio"

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The 2004 SPV Map marked "CP Big Run" as about halfway between east of Millbrook and Wooster. That put it a little north of where the Pennsy route bends.

1961/63 Holmesville and 1961/62 Wooster Quads @ 24,000

So I got an aerial photo in that vicinity and looked along the route. I found the shadow and roof of a tower on the north side of a railyard. It is in the upper-right corner of this excerpt.

Apr 21, 1951 @ 17,000; AR1PH0000040127

But it is out in farm fields that have changed a lot since 1951. But then I found a rectangle of trees to the west of the tower and an angle road northwest of the tower that still exist. The tower is on the right side of this excerpt.

Apr 21, 1951 @ 17,000; AR1PH0000040127

This is the comparable area on today's satellite map.

Satellite