Romney, IN: Lost/Monon Depot and Lost/Wood Grain Elevator

Depot: (Satellite)

Monon Railroad Historical-Technical Society posted 19 photos with the comment:

This week’s Monon Monday was Romney 🚂 

Romney was first platted by Josiah Halstead and Major Harvey Aristide of Crawfordsville in 1832. They determined it to be a good place for a stage coach stop and an advantageous trading post with the Indians. 

Originally named Columbia, the town had a tavern and a large barn where the horses for the stage coach were kept and changed. A Blacksmith shop, church and school were built and as more settlers arrived several houses followed. Some of these settlers came from Romney, Virginia (now West Virginia) and out of love for their old home in Virginia they had the name changed from Columbia to Romney in 1846. 

The railroad came to town in 1851-1852 as part of the Crawfordsville and Wabash. 

By 1879 Romney had two Blacksmith shops, a wagon shop, a general store, post office drug store, a grocery store, an Odd Fellows hall, Masonic Lodge, two churches and a cemetery. 

In 1901 a bank was established and was in business at that location until atleast 1932, at the writing of Romney’s Centennial publication. The bank is the same building as the present day post office, which explains the interesting shape of it. 

Romney’s main (and perhaps only?) business on the railroad was grain. Romney had a grain elevator up until atleast 2004. 

Romney is also known for boasting the last pair of operating semaphore signals which came down in December of 2010. 

Hope you enjoy the following pictures of Romney. A few are from our archives, there’s a wonderful Barriger photo and some pictures are borrowed from the Monon bygone page. You will also find a few ads and pictures from the publication in 1932 for Romney’s Centennial. 

1
Romney depot- date unknown

2
The original Romney depot, date unknown

3
Barriger photo of Romney elevator- taken just south of CR 1150 crossing.

4
Jim Smith photo, Cement cars at Romney (could be hauling sand)

5

Elevator at Romney, ca. 1960s

Courtesy Monon bygone page.

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Romney grain elevator, March 2004

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CSXT 2347 heading north for Lafayette yard passing the famous Monon blades in Romney, April 2003, Robby photograph.

8
Kevin Heggi photograph of the signals at Romney, ca. 2004, you are looking south towards Linden.

9
GP 38-2 on the former Monon mainline at Romney, April 2005. Photograph by Rob Schreiner

10
The first two story building in Romney- it had a lodge in the upper floor and a blacksmith and wagon shop below. This building sat just south of the I.O.O.F. Building in Romney (The IOOF building is currently occupied by The Romney Toy Shop)

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View South on Road 43 (present day 231) in Romney, ca. 1932

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The public school in Romney, ca. 1932

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Page showing and an ad for the Loft & Lamb service station and Romney Bank from Romney Centennial publication, 1932

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Pages with ads for The Simison Grain Co, the Romney Service Station, the Allen A Wilkinson lumber company, J.C. Penney, the JW McCabe Barber Shop and Billiard Room, Rapp Co. a “cut price” clothing store, from Romney Centennial publication, 1932

15
Pages with ads for Romney’s Standard Oil Co., Fowler Bank, Thieme & Wangerin Dry Goods Store and Shanklin and King Undertakers from Romney Centennial publication, 1932

16
Pages showing Republican candidates and ads for Loeb & Hene Co and S.S. KRESGE Co (Lafayette) from Romney Centennial publication, 1932

17
Pages showing democratic candidates and an ad for Schnaible drug store, from Romney Centennial publication, 1932

18
Google earth map of railroad crossing at Romney, red arrow marks where the grain elevator track would have diverged from the missing passing siding.

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Google earth map of tracks just north of Romney depot location, the blue line marks where the passing siding would have been. The red arrow marks where they came together.

Barriger's photo (Photo 3) above is looking North and confirms that the depot was in the Northeast quadrant of the tracks and the road.

1961/62 Romney Quad @ 24,000

At first, I thought fertilizer supply was a bigger business than grain storage, but then I noticed the grain elevator a little further west of the tracks.

Satellite

Stirum, ND: Wood Grain Elevator

(Satellite)

The railroad was the Northern Pacific, and it is now the Red River Valley & Western.

Street View, Nov 2021

Street View, Nov 2021

Wesley Peters posted

Grain Elevator Photography Trip 2, North Dakota.

Stirum, Sargent County, ND.

Stirum Grain Co. Built in 1958, Hogenson Construction Co. Bushel capacity unknown.

Photographed on 7/19/2025.

Photo courtesy of Wesley Peters.

This town easily has more bins than houses.

Satellite

Harrisville, WV: Cliff's Museum of Automobile Memorabilia

(Satellite)

Street View, Sep 2023

They had a couple of vehicles for sale in 2025.

Street View, Sep 2025

Danny green nostalgia posted
This car memorabilia museum draws fans from everywhere.

Charlie Wilson: Cliff's Museum of Automobile Memorabilia, known as "The Building," is located at 305 East Main Street in Harrisville, West Virginia.

AtlasOcscura, 1 of several photos
"Located in a former Chevrolet dealership dating back to the 1930s, this 13,000-square-foot, locally owned museum is full of antique automobiles, gas station pumps, store signs, road maps, license plates, and thousands more items of automobile memorabilia. It is said to have the most complete collection of West Virginia licenses."

Note the firetruck in the left background.

OnlyInYourState
"Outside, notice the old gas pumps and perhaps an old car or two....More of both can be found inside, along with automobile equipment, oil cans and bottles, car parts, maps, a local West Virginia coca cola bottle collection, motorcycles, auto brand names and advertising, and of course license plates (more than 4,000!)."

Lawrence Johnson, Jul 2025

Atwood, IL: B&O Depot, Grain Elevators and Repurposed Gas Station

(Satellite, the depot was in the northeast quadrant of Main St. and the tracks)

In addition to the grain elevator behind the depot, we can see a leg for another elevator in the background.

1 of 2 photos in SouthernIllinoisRailroads (source)

The depot would have been on the left side of this siding. It looks like an old gas station was repurposed as the police station. The concrete silos in the depot photo are still being used.

Street View, Jun 2012

The street view driver did not get off Main Street.

Street View

This is the B&O route that terminates in Decatur, IL. Every source I checked says CSX still owns it. A street view shows that the crossing is maintained and the rails are shiny. 

Street View

I find it hard to believe that CSX would bother with this route. Sure enough, it allowed a shortline, DREI (Decatur & Eastern Illinois), to have it.

IDOT

WATCO

Gwinner, ND: Wood Grain Elevator and Bobcat Company Headquarters

Elevator: (Satellite)

Bobcat: (Satellite) Bobcat consumes almost as much land as the houses do in this town.

Street View, Aug 2025

Wesley Peters posted two photos with the comment:

Grain Elevator Photography Trip 2, North Dakota.

Gwinner, Sargent County, ND.

Gwinner Farmers Elevator Co. Headhouse built in 1948-1949, Wachtler Construction Co. 65,000-bushel capacity. Annex built in 1958. 116,000-bushel capacity.

One of two known surviving works by the Wachtler Construction Co. that I have come across in my research. The other example of their work is located in Dunnell, MN.

Photographed on 7/19/2025.

Photos courtesy of Wesley Peters.

1

2

The town also has a fertilizer supply facility.

Street View, Aug 2025

I wonder if at least some of these railcars are carrying fertilizer. I could not find a fall protector for either elevator.

Street View, Aug 2025

The former Northern Pacific Railroad is now owned by Red River Valley & Western.

rail.guide

I recognize Bobcat as a pioneer of the skid-steer industry.

Jimmy Lee, Jun 2022

In fact, they were the pioneer in 1960.

bobcat_timeline
"The M400 was adapted from the second self-propelled loader designed by Melroe Manufacturing Company, the M200, by adding a rear axle. The skid-steer loader's unique use of two independent transmissions allowed it to turn within its own length, creating a new way of working. With the introduction of the world’s first true skid-steer loader, the M400 launched the compact equipment industry as we know it today."

They introduced the compact excavator in 1989. 

bobcat_timeline
"At the time and in the 25 years that followed, it was the only compact excavator manufactured in the U.S. Over the next three decades, Bobcat would bring multiple models of compact excavators to market."

Warren, IL: IC+Milw Depot

(Satellite, according to the Sanborn Map below. I could not find it on the aerial photo below.)

This town is on the original IC charter line between Freeport and East Dubuque. Because the Chicago, Madison & Northern route was built by IC to connect Freeport to Chicago, this CN/IC route to the West still exists. The Milwaukee route is abandoned.

Dave Martens posted

Here's a Sanborn map from 1898 showing the shared Milwaukee Road and Illinois Central facilities at Warren, IL. The Mineral Point RR built from Warren, IL to Mineral Point, WI by 1856. Warren was the MPRR's only connection to the outside world at that time. 

The Milwaukee Road purchased the MPRR in 1880 and the MILW then built west from Monroe, WI to Gratiot and Shullsburg. The MILW connection from Monroe to Gratiot rendered the Gratiot-to-Warren connection redundant because the MILW did not want to give traffic to the IC at Warren instead of the MILW keeping the traffic for itself through to Milwaukee or Chicago. The MILW abandoned the Gratiot-to-Warren line around 1923. Part of highway 78, south out of Gratiot, is on the former MILW Gratiot-to-Warren roadbed.

The turntable seen in this map was for turning MPRR/MILW locomotives. The depot at Warren was an IC design but was used by both railroads. Recent research uncovered that the MILW paid the IC about $300/year for use of the IC's facilities in Warren.

1946 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

The topo maps for the area don't have good coverage at the same scale.

1923 South Wayne @ 62,500, 1902 Mineral Point @ 125,000 and 1937 Lena Quad @ 48,000

Havana, ND: Wood Grain Elevator

(Satellite)

Street View, Oct 2024

Wesley Peters posted two photos with the comment:

Grain Elevator Photography Trip 2, North Dakota.

Havana, Sargent County, ND.

Havana Farmers Co-op Grain Co. False-front headhouse built after 1960 (exact year unknown), Hogenson Construction Co. Bushel capacity unknown.

Photographed on 7/19/2025.

Photo courtesy of Wesley Peters.

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2

The railroad was the Great Northern. Today, it is the DMVW.

1956/67 Havana Quad @ 24,000

It is a rather big elevator, but it doesn't seem to be rail served even though it is next to a shortline railroad instead of a Class I railroad.

Street View, Oct 2024

Street View, Oct 2024