Anchor, IL: Lost/IC Depot

(Satellite, based on the aerial photo below.)

Roger Kujawa posted

RPPC Railroad Train Station Depot At Anchor, Illinois. Mclean County

Cropsey IL was laid out in 1880 and in the same year the people in the Township attracted the Clinton, Bloomington, and Northwestern RR and the first train from Kankakee ran 7/4/1880. Anchor, Colfax, and Cooksville were all laid out at the same time because of the RR. The CB&NW soon was absorbed by the Illinois Central RR becoming its “Bloomer Line”. So this would be a depot built by the CB&NWRR.

Thanks to Jimmy Fiedler for info on the depot.

Roger Kujawa shared with the comment: "Anchor, Illinois depot, McLean County."

This topo map accurately marks the location of the depot.

1957/58 Colfax Quad @ 62,500

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Obviously, the grain elevator is rail served.

Street View, May 2025

Jonathan Fischer, Sep 2021

This route is now part of the Bloomer Line.

IlliniRail via Dennis DeBruler

Rockport, KY: Peabody Ken and Homewood Coal Mines

(Satellite, Ken was west of Rochester Rd. and Homewood was east of the road. Both mines stretched between Western Kentucky Pkwy and the Green River.)

The Ken Mine started before Homewood Mine did, and continued operations after Homewood closed. But one hears about Homewood instead because it had the first dragline with a 100 cu. yd. bucket, a repaired Marion 8800.

Michael Davis photo from RockportKY via Dennis DeBruler

"Homestead Mine The first of the Marion 8800 series of draglines and the first to break the 100 cu-yd barrier. Peabody Coal Company started using this one at their Homestead Mine in Western Kentucky in 1961."

Mining Photography Archive posted

Peabody Coal Company Marion 8800 (Homestead Mine)

From the Eric Orlemann Collection

Originally installed at Peabody's Homestead Mine near Echols, Kentucky.  The 8800 was, at the time, the largest dragline in the world.  Sporting a factory equipped 85CY bucket, it was soon upgraded to a 100CY bucket (the first in the world).  A boom failure would lead to prolonged down time shortly after inception at Homestead.  She would return to work in short fashion and would eventually end up working the remainder of her service life at neighboring Ken Mine where she was scrapped in the mid-90's.

A few stats for your records:

Boom Length: 275 feet

Overall Weight: 6,040 tons

Overall Height: 115 feet

Started Work: 1963

A little tidbit of information you may not know, this dragline was installed at the mine the Marion 6360 was originally supposed to go to.

Mining #Shorts posted

The Marion 8800 was a record-breaking dragline.

Introduced in 1961, the big machine went to work at Peabody's Homestead mine in Kentucky, stripping overburden to expose coal seams.

But what made the Marion 8800 so special was its bucket.

In 1961, no dragline had ever broken the 100-cubic-yard mark. The 8800 changed that, becoming the first to cross that line after its original 85-yard bucket was upgraded.

The Marion 8800 was a monster, weighing 6,300 tons and carrying a 275-ft boom.

But in the 1960s, records didn't hold for long. Less than five years after the Marion 8800 entered production, other units such as the 8900 were moving up to 145 cubic yards, crushing old milestones like they never meant anything.

Data from "Giant Earth-Moving Equipment" by Eric C. Orlemann. 

Must read!

RockportKY_homestead, Photographer was probably David Hope's father, a career Peabody Miner.
"A Marion 8800 85-yd. shovel was constructed for the operation of the Homestead Strip Mine. This mine operated for several decades and had a variety of shovels, draglines and other equipment. Pictures and information just seems to be almost non-existent. The picture above is the 8800 sitting on an erection pad in Oct. 1963 at Peabody's Homestead Mine, Beaver Dam, Ky. This machine had a boom failure after a few years of operation and the question of what to do with the broken machine, had one of three choices: 1) Repair and continue operation. 2) Shut down and salvage. 3) Recondition the machine and replace the 85 Yard bucket with a 100 yd. bucket. The decision was to shorten the boom a little, and install a 100 Cubic Yard bucket and continue operation. I think that this was the first of the 100 Yard buckets. When Homestead closed, the 8800 was walked to Ken Mine (Peabody), worked a few years at Ken, and when Ken closed, the Marion 8800 dragline was scrapped."

Both mines had rail tipples. I presume they were on the south ends of the industrial spurs off of the Illinois Central. The Ken Mine later built a loading dock on the Green River. (I have not been able to determine the exact location.) "The first coal was loaded on a barge on June 6, 1956." [RockportKY_ken]

1957/69 Evansville Quad @ 250,000

ebay
1972 Peabody Coal Co Homestead Mine Rockport Ky 8x10 Photo Green River 7491

Dearborn, MI: Ford's Garage (A Restaurant)

(Satellite)

Street View, Aug 2025

Street View, Aug 2025

Facebook Reel

Wapella, IL: Lost/IC Depot and Wood & Modern Grain Elevators

Depot: (Satellite)

Wood Elevator: (Satellite)

Andy Zukowski posted

Illinois Central Depot, Wapella, Illinois 1/15/1966

Photo from the Barry Lennon Collection

Larry Candilas: MP 777.9 Charter Line

1941 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

I didn't think that locomotive had a CN livery. But about a day after I saw this photo, I saw an orange, standard-cab locomotive parked south of Otto Tower along the former-IC mainline. And then I remembered that CN bought EJ&E, and EJ&E used to have orange locomotives.

Street View, Aug 2025

This map indicates that CN still owns this route to Heyworth, which also has a large grain elevator.

CN

I happened to catch three locomotives parked in town.

Satellite

Note the yellow fall protector on the right. That implies that this elevator gets rail service. In fact, this elevator, and the one in Heyworth, IL, are probably why this segment of the Charter Line still exists.

Street View, Aug 2013

Street View. May 2023

And spreading chemicals on the fields is also a big business in this town.

Street View, Aug 2013

Clarksville, TN: Lost/L&N Freight House & Railyard and "The Cage" Bridge

Freight House: (Satellite)

Railyard: (Satellite)

The Cage: (Satellite)

Reed Reding posted
An aerial view of the L & N freight depot at Clarksville, Tennessee. Part of the Cumberland River Drawbridge and the L & N's small Clarksville yard are visible. The line crossing over the L & N is the Tennessee Central's Western Division. You can also make out the unique spur track that the L & N used to serve customers near downtown.

The Tennessee Central Bridge still stands at the end of the Upland Trail.

Ralph M, Sep 2025

Timothy T, Nov 2023

This is a view of the Cumberland River Drawbridge from The Cage. Note that the swing span is open.

정리중, Jun 2025

Oak Hill, OH: 1853-1916 Jefferson Blast Furnace provided iron for the USS MONITOR

(Satellite, it is evidently buried under treetops. See map below.)

Abandoned by Sherman Cahal posted

The Jefferson Furnace is an abandoned pig iron furnace located in the Hanging Rock Iron Region near Oak Hill, Ohio. Constructed in 1854 by the Jefferson Furnace Company, it featured a stack 37 feet high with a bosh 11 feet wide. Fueled by charcoal, its cold air blast was powered by a steam engine and had a daily production capacity of 14 tons. It was later converted to a hot air blast, increasing its daily production capacity. The last cast was on December 26, 1916.

The furnace can be spotted at Jackson Lake State Park.

🔖 Read on: https://abandonedonline.net/location/jefferson-furnace/

Abandoned by Sherman Cahal shared

Also nomadikphotographer

ohiodnr

ohiodnr

I was looking for which hill the furnace would have been close to. Instead, I discovered that Jefferson Lake is man made by this dam.

1912/35 Oak Hill Quad @ 62,500

Fairburn, GA: CSX Intermodal Yard

(Satellite)

Facebook Reel
"The CSX team at our Fairburn Intermodal Terminal in #Georgia is delivering strong results. With a 15% increase in #intermodal lifts and expanded track space, Fairburn continues to strengthen its role as a vital gateway connecting key markets across the region. Kudos to the team for their focus, discipline, and teamwork! Ready to grow with us? Learn more: MoveWithCSX.com"
It is the second largest intermodal yard on CSX's network.

This railyard is modern and purpose built for intermodal traffic. It was a greenfield in 1982. The railroad was the Atlanta & West Point.

1982/83 Fairburn Quad @ 24,000

Some of the yard was built by 1999.

1999/2002 Fairburn Quad @ 24,000

Since then, quite a few industries have built along US-29.

Satellite

La Crosse, IL: Lost/TP&W Depot

(Satellite)

This route is now owned by the Keokuk Junction Railway.

Patty Peterson posted
LaCrosse Depot (1979 Historic Sites and Structures of Hancock County)
[Given that the depot was gone by 1938, the date must be 1879 instead of 1979.]
Kam Miller shared
LaCrosse, Illinois, was a spot on the Toldeo, Peoria and Western, about 5 miles southwest of La Harpe, Illinois. At one time, a grain elevator was there, as well as a siding. Now, the siding is there for storage of cars, but everything else is long gone. The tiny general store featured in the photo book about the TP&W at Lacrosse, is also gone, it's roof having collapsed in years ago.

It is not very often that a 1938 aerial photo is too new to show a depot. But the grain elevator in the photo is still standing in 1938.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

The photo shows that the depot was just west of where the siding joined the mainline, so I think we can still see remnants of the footing.

Satellite

Milford Junction, IN: Junction Tower: CSX/B&O vs. NS/Big Four and Modern Purina Feed Mill

Tower: (Satellite)

Feed Mill: (Satellite)

I did not know that Big Four had a north/south route in northern central Indiana. I determined that NS still owns this route.

Given the IN-15 overpass in the background, which is west of the junction, it appears the tower is in the northwest quadrant.

Gary Hostetter posted
This is a picture of the Milford Junction Tower on the edge of Milford, Indiana near the state road junction of 6 and 15. My Grandfather was a telegraph operator in that tower, and I was lucky enough to visit the tower a number of times. I loved when a steam engine went by. That was back around 1956. I was 4. The massive levers to through the switches, watching Grandpa send a message on this telegraph key that was horizontal, not vertical. I think about those visits, and treasure them. I never saw a NYC train going through the crossing, north to south, but saw a number of B&O locos. Loved it.

Eric Zerkle: The Winona interurban that ran from Peru through Warsaw and to Goshen..

Tim Shanahan shared

Dennis DeBruler commented on Eric's comment
Here is how the Winona Interurban and Big Four ran through Milford. 1951 Milford Quad @ 24,000

Eric Zerkle: Dennis DeBruler The part from Milford jct. to Goshen was gone by the late 1930s

It appears that there are still remnants of the foundation footings.

Satellite

Street View, May 2023

A big part of the Purina operation is a warehouse.

Street View, May 2023

I can't find any feed trucks. Does this plant produce just packaged feed?

Kaskaskia, IL: This Town was isolated when the Mississippi River meandered east

(Satellite, the Illinois border (dotted white line) shows the original course of the Mississippi River.)

USACE, St. Louis District posted three images with the comment:

The original Village of Kaskaskia, Illinois was once a center of trade and culture until later in the 1800s, when the Mississippi River started to migrate towards the Kaskaskia River.
The combination of the heavy snowfall and ice jams on the river from St. Louis, Missouri to Cairo, Illinois in the winter of 1880 and 1881 caused the Mississippi River current to penetrate behind the obstructions.
The Mississippi River ultimately, over the course of several years, swallowed up the Kaskaskia River as well as the original village of Kaskaskia.

Vanessa Byer: Kaskaskia was the first capital of Illinois before they moved it to Vandalia and then to Springfield.

Larry Braun: I read once that cutting all the trees down to fuel the steam boats contributed to this change of course.

Perry Whitaker: Larry Braun - The trees were clear cut on both sides of the river so the river just went wild. It was like meandering on steroids.

Dave Erzfeld: I had coworker that grew up on the island. He had an Illinois drivers license but the address was PO BOX St. Mary, Mo.

He laughed... Try explaining that to a cop when you get pulled over 🙂

Steve Tuba Hoog: Almost unrelated except that it's in the map.."St Marys" is now actually, St Mary. About 20 years ago someone found the original city charter. They had to change all the official stuff to reflect the legal name. But no one seems to know when it changed.

[Some comments claim that the New Madrid Earthquake help change the flow. But others point out that the earthquake was in 1811-12 while this change happened in 1880-81.]

Tommy Burgdorf: shared

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Blake Rabe commented on the above post
Wish i could have seen this back before it was an island!
[Note that the town was gone by 1909.]

Jon Ray Thomas Roche commented on the above post, cropped
My Ancestral Roche family immigrated to Kaskaskia in 1841 from Fermoy Ireland. Having purchased the former State house to live in.

The Immaculate Conception Chapel is about the only thing left.

Street View, Jun 2024

Matthew Range, Jun 2021

Colusa, IL: Lost/CB&Q Depot

(Satellite, based on the aerial photo below.)

Patty Peterson posted
Colusa Depot (Historical Sites and Structures of Hancock County)
Kam Miller shared
Colusa was on the CB&Q line between Carthage and Dallas City, Illinois.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

1902

The town hasn't grown much, but the grain elevator has. In fact, I see that it is owned by Consolidated Grain & Barge. Normally, they require rail and/or barge service. So, I looked around to see what this town was close to. CGB has a barge loading facility in Dallas City, so they are willing to truck the grain a few miles to feed the barges. Since they can go from truck directly to barge, the short drive from this elevator should be economic.

Street View, Aug 2024