Madison, WI: C&NW and IC Depots, IC Freight House and WSOR/C&NW Monona Yard

C&NW: (Satellite, Madison Gas & Electric has reused the building.)

Freight House: (Satellite, "The Depot" has reused the land.)

Railyard: (Satellite)

Roundhouse: (Satellite)

WSOR = Wisconsin & Southern

This town was on the IC Madison Branch, which was abandoned in 1981.

Street View, Jul 2019
[I learned from a post in a private group that it is still standing. That group has a "no copy" policy. A photo shows that a gasometer used to be North of the station.]

Marty Bernard posted four photos with the comment: "These shots of the C&NW Madison, WI depot and station were taken by Rick Burn in June of 1965. The train in the third shot was CNW 510 with E7A 5017B."

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Trent Briggs posted

CNW Depot Interior

Madison, Wisconsin

Jim Kelling shared

C&NW station in Madison Wisconsin (interior)

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IC Depot and Freight House

Dennis DeBruler: Madison Gas & Electric has reused the land.

43°04'36.8"N 89°22'34.6"W

1959 Madison West & 1969 Madison East Quadrangles @ 1:24,000

Larry Foht posted

Illinois Central Railroad Depot

Madison WISCONSIN 

Sorry for the quality of the photo. This is the only image I have of this Depot 

it's extremely hard to find given the size of the city it's in.

This Depot is Madison Wisconsin !!

Larry Foht collection :

Chris Goepel: Oddly, yes, photos of the IC depot in Madison are scarce. This is probably one of three I’ve ever seen.

Larry Foht: ???? Why do you think that is Chris ?

I've found photos of the freight house next to it.

And why is there no name board on the depot ?

Chris Goepel: Larry Foht wish I had an answer. I’m scratching my head, too. Of the three Class I railroads that served Madison, IC was the most obscure - and let’s face it - services to Chicago were better and more robust on the competing C&NW and MILW. There are many more pictures of the IC freight house than the depot, I think. Thankfully, that brick building is still standing.

Scott Lothes: IC passenger service to Madison ended in the 1930s, and the passenger depot was torn down in the 1940s, so it was gone by the time amateur photography was really starting to flourish. There's a nice picture on the Wisconsin Historical Society's site:

 https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM55081

Dennis DeBruler commented on Larry's post

Much of the right-of-way is now the Southwest Commuter Path including a bridge over the Beltline Highway.

 https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0395261,-89.459393,122m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

1959 Madison West Quad @ 24,000

Dennis DeBruler commented on Scott's comment
I presume the passengers had to switch trains in Freeport. I can see why the IC couldn't compete with C&NW and Milwaukee. I had a hard time finding a system map that included the Madison Branch.
 https://www.facebook.com/groups/ILLRRHISTORYBUFFS/posts/4362463247313141/

Dave Martens posted
Former Illinois Central freight depot in Madison WI (very close to the former MILW W. Washington passenger depot). As seen in the photo, the building retains its original character very nicely as a U-Haul office. (Edited for West Washington)

Joe Harnish: Miss the station on the other side of west Washington. At 1 point Madison had 5 stations.

The freight house is now part of one of the largest U-Haul operations I have seen. Is that because Madison is a college town?

Street View, Oct 2021

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WSOR/C&NW Monona Railyard

Brian Allen posted

Monona Yards

Chicago and North Western Railroad 

April 1985

*today,  the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad (WATCO), operate out of the facility 

**Photographed from the Commercial Avenue side in Madison Wisconsin 

Brian Allen photo

Tim Schneider: milwaukee road on the far left. with the connector track veering left from cnw yard

American-Rails.com posted

C&NW H12-44 #1111 at the Monona Yard roundhouse (Madison, WI) in September, 1966.  Rick Burn photo.

https://www.american-rails.com/12L776.html [I thought it looked like a Fairbanks Morse locomotive. The webpage specifies H12.44.]

Rolando Maggi shared

Street View, Oct 2021

The roundhouse has successfully been repurposed. It now has several tenants.

Linda Meza, Jun 2013

Milwaukee, WI: 1889-1968 C&NW Lakefront Depot

(Satellite, the headhouse was just east of Marshall St. along Wisconsin Ave. The Calatrava is built on the land that used to be filled with tracks.)

Ronald Kaminen posted
Brings back memories.!! I worked in this station back in 1954 as a mail and baggage handler. It was fun meeting trains at night loading mail and seeing the 400's during the day.!!
[400's were C&NW trains, but I had to look at a lot of comments before I found that this was the Milwaukee station.]

 

Mark Llanuza posted
Its May 1955 [unknown photographer ] captured this view at CNW Milwaukee Wis station . The engraving date on this kodak slide say may 1955.last week when I posted this slide many member's were saying its the wrong date .This photographer could have taken this photo in 1954 and waited till May of 1955 process it .Remember color slides was expensive back then [photo collection Mark Llanuza ]

Ronald Kaminen: I worked in this depot as a mail handler in 1955. This sure looks like the time with the GP-9's pulling the short trains.!! This train looks like a train to Green Bay.!!

Tyson Park: If there were Studebakers in the photo then I could date it LOL. Look at all of the industry in the background and the Third Ward freight yard.

Marty Bernard posted
This is the last of Rick Burn's CNW "400" slides -- Train 160, The Streamliner 400 at Milwaukee, WI in December 1960.
Marty Bernard shared
Jason Moors: At the time, one had 3 choices on how to get to Chicago--the Milwaukee Road,the C&NW or the CNS&M--was the Streamliner 400 merely a corridor run between Milwaukee and Chicago? Of the roads, which had the most departures to choose from?
Jon Roma: Jason Moors, the North Shore hands down. They had hourly service between Chicago and Milwaukee.

Dennis DeBruler commented on Marty's post

The clock tower is obviously part of the C&NW Depot's headhouse. The headhouse was east of Marshall St. along the south side of Wisconsin Ave. (The layout of the streets in this area was different back then.)

1958 Milwaukee Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

 

Jon Talton posted
Old and new: Steam and diesel powered passenger trains stand side-by-side at the Chicago & Northwestern Railway station in Milwaukee, circa 1950 (photographer unknown).

A different exposure.

Mark Llanuza posted
The year 1950 [Russ Porter photo]  he captured both steam and one of 400 trains [ photo collection mark Llanuza ]

Ronald Kaminen: I was a mail handler in that depot back in 1955.!! It was a fun job meeting all the trains.!!

Since I was low on the seniority list I did work many night shifts.!! But that's when all the mail trains were running. We would load four or five wagons of mail into one RPO.!! Trains were going north to Ashland, Superior,, Ishpeming, and Green Bay.!! We also handled baggage for the 400's in both directions.!!

 

John J Kulidas posted
Lakefront C&NW Station Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1965

Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted
We'll be at Trainfest tomorrow [Oct 30, 2025] with car kits, books, magazines and more!  Come see us at booth 1401 and say Hi!  Accompanying photo of the Milwaukee WI station at night by Joe Follmar.

414 Milwaukee Mil Town posted
The Chicago & North Western Railroad's passenger depot, 915 E. Wisconsin Ave., was built in 1889.  This photograph was taken in1959, The depot was razed in 1968.
Robert Kaun shared
Jack Franklin shared

Bruce Matzek posted four photos with the comment:

Perhaps one of the “Grand-Daddies” of them all. 

The Chicago and Northwestern Railroad Depot on the shore of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

Sadly, this architectural masterpiece met its demise in 1968 due a lack of historic buildings preservation interest and the funding needed to retain it as such that was part of our culture at the time. 

I have many fond memories of this building and the annual train trips to Chicago my folks took me on and blessed me with in celebration of my birthday each year. It was this celebration that gave me a life long interest in all things trains. Thank you Mom and Dad.

David Daruszka shared

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Scott Rohlffs commented on Bruce's post
My grandfather, Bruno Rohlffs, did a pencil drawing of the depot. I have this hanging in my living room.

Gerard Madritsch commented on Bruce's post
The interior entrance...

Andy Zukowski posted
The Chicago and North Western Train Depot (aka Lake Front Depot) served as many as 98 trains per day between its completion in 1890 and its demolition in 1968.

Patricia W. Wilson posted

1890: Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The gorgeous clocktower rises high into the sky at the Chicago and North Western Railway station in Milwaukee.

GLASSHOUSE IMAGES.

Alexius Nemo commented on Patricia's post
At the end of Wisconsin Ave….roughly where the Calatrava is today.

Raymond Storey posted three images with the comment: "MILWAUKEE."

Jim Kelling: Chicago & North Western station (gone)

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safe_image for A look at the demolition of downtown Milwaukee's lakefront train depot in 1968
"Photo essay about the demolition of the Milwaukee Depot"
[After I added this to my Milwaukee depot notes, I looked at the photos and saw that it is about the C&NW depot. So I moved it here.]

jsonline, Milwaukee Journal Staff Photo
"The Chicago & North Western Train Depot at 915 E. Wisconsin Ave., in downtown Milwaukee, is shown in this 1950 photo. Seen in the background: Maitland Field, the air field that is now the Summerfest grounds."

safe_image for When Milwaukee's lakefront train depot and its landmark clock tower came down

Esmond, IL: CGW Depot and Grain Elevator

(Satellite)

Marty Bernard posted
1. CGW F3A 103-A built October 1947, at Esmond, IL, December 1964. Rick Burn photo
Marty Bernard shared

Marty Bernard posted
Yes Rick Burn and I climbed up on a boxcar that snowy day. I showed you Rick's slide a few days ago. Here is mine.About 70 miles west of, and headed for Chicago, it was snowing in earnest during Christmas break from College, Dec. 28, 1964 at Esmond, IL. The lead unit was CGW F3A 103A, built Oct. 1947.
Andy Graham: Nice photo! I never laid eyes on a CGW train but I heard them all the time until 1968..I was 10 years old.
Dennis DeBruler shared

Tom Lichty posted

A snowy day in Esmond, Illinois. DeKalb County. 

Approximately 1960.

Dennis DeBruler shared

It was south of the tracks and west of Esmond Road.

1978 Fairdale Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Street View
Dennis DeBruler commented on his share
It was snowing hard. Otherwise we would be able to see a wood and/or concrete grain elevator in the background. It was just a couple of hundred feet away.
42°01'56.4"N 88°56'04.4"W

This is another town in which the grain elevator has not only survived the railroad's abandonment, it has become rather large. 

Satellite

At first, I had a hard time finding the dump pit on a satellite image. Then I realized it was inside the concrete elevator. These street views confirm the dump pit is in the elevator. I guess the probe and scale is in there as well.

Street View

Street View

Marty Bernard posted
2. CGW agency station at Esmond, Illinois on the Chicago, District on April 6, 1963.
[Photo by Roger Puta.]

Sycamore, IL: Lost Wood Grain Elevators

(Satellite, the red-roofed building was built on the CGW right-of-way)

Marty Bernard shared
2. CGW NW2 24 built May 1948, at Sycamore, IL, July 1962. Rick Burn photo
Dennis DeBruler: And once again, a railfan has caught some grain elevator history.

Because the above elevator is oriented east/west and the below elevator is oriented north/south, the wood structure and its concrete silos must have replaced the above elevator.

Street View, Aug 2007

As I went further West along Page Street, the wood structure suddenly disappeared.

Street View, Sep 2013

The red-roofed building appears in the Sep 2013 street view trip, but not the Aug 2007 trip. So the lack of rail service doesn't seem to have affected the grain elevator. It is still actively growing.

Street View, Sep 2013

Street View, Jun 2019