New Philidelphia, IL: F-Units and Steel Plate Grain Silos

(Satellite)

Roger Holmes posted
[The last run of the F-Units before the new owner puts them in storage.]

Cuba, IL: F-Units and Steel Plate Grain Silos

(Satellite)

Street View, Aug 2018

Roger Holmes posted
[The last run of the F-Units before the new owner puts them in storage.]

Steven J. Brown
Keokuk Junction GP20u 2003 leads an ABA set of F's eastbound at Cuba, Illinois on the former Toledo, Peoria and Western - June 18, 2018.
Mark Feldmann: Is that a former Santa Fe GP20?
Steven J. Brown: Mark Feldmann Yup
Dennis DeBruler: I also like the antique grain elevator.

East Alton, IL: Wann (WA) Tower: GM&O vs. Big Four + CB&Q

(Satellite, based on the topo map, track diagram and aerial photo below.) 

This tower is where the Big Four joined the GM&O for a joint track operation to St. Louis. [jonroma]

Roger Holmes posted two photos with the comment:

I was working around Alton and Wann and Venice for a few days on the GM&O's extra board as an operator around 1971 during the summer. The two photos, one being an enlargement of the first, shows the engineer about to grab the train orders as the head brakeman grabs a couple of bottles of cold soda pop from the operator. © Roger A. Holmes.

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Linda Copeland posted
No 32 departing Wann tower in Wood River, IL in the early 70s.

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Photo via NorthAmericanInterlockings

This shows that the NYC route was originally Big Foru.

Diagram via NorthAmericanInterlockings

1954/59 Bethalto, 1951/51 Wood River and 1950/50 Alton Quads @ 24,000

1941 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Pekin, IL: GM&O East Yard Tower: GM&O vs. Santa Fe + P&E and Santa Fe East Yard & Roundhouse

Yard: (For a satellite location, see below)

Roundhouse: (Satellite, a remnant of the foundation.)

P&E = Peoria & Eastern

Sante Fe also had a yard closer to the river.

All three routes that went through this junction were probably abandoned relatively soon after the Staggers Act was passed in 1980. To use more informative names, the routes were:
Aban/ICG/GM&O (north/south) vs Aban/Santa Fe + Aban/Conrail/PC/NYC/Big Four/P&E.

(Update: this junction was east of the terminal yard in Pekin for Big4/Peoria & Eastern, Santa Fe, and Rock Island.)

The junction was in the parking lot of J&J Cleaners & Coin Laundry. 

Yellow: GM&O

Orange: Santa Fe

Blue: P&E

Satellite plus Paint

From this photo, the tower was in the northeast quadrant.

John Stell posted
GM&O's East Yard Tower at Pekin on 4-26-69. Tower guarded GM&O, P&E, and AT&SF crossing. PT also delivered to and received from GM&O at this location. John Stell slide.
Mike Martin Phil the foundation for that cantilevered signal bridge is still there alongside Broadway. Somehow it's never been removed... I get a kick out of seeing whenever I go down Broadway. [Street View]
John Stell posted
GM&O's East Yard Tower at Pekin, Il. AT&SF's Pekin district and the P&E crossed the GM&O at this location. John Stell slide on 4/26/69.
Dick Bidwell shared

Note the cantilevered signal on the right side of the John's photo above. This view has that signal in the foreground and the tower in the background.

Dana Skyye commented on Andy's post

On the left is the concrete base for that signal tower.

Street View, Aug 2022

Once again, the property lines defined by the railroads leave some strange property shapes today --- the angle of the east side of Walgreens parking lot, a crack in a parking lot (the soil disturbed by the railroads removal caused sinking or heaving?), and another angled property line and alley.

 

John Woodrow posted
Peoria and Eastern crossing GM&0 east yard, Pekin Illinois no date (Edward Wayne Bridges photo)
Bill Edrington: Has to be in the ‘60s. The second unit has been painted in the simplified black color scheme with white frame stripe; the first car in the consist is an Erie Lackawanna boxcar (1960 merger); and the second car is an NYC “Century green” boxcar with the new “cigar band” emblem (1959-60).
John Windish: Bill Edrington , I believe my grandfather worked that GM+O tower in the 40s and early 50s. Looks like the one by Broadway and 14th St. [And the sign on the tower says East Yard.]
Randy Grindley: The photo had been taken before September 1967 at which time 5620 was renumbered to 5686.

Andy Zukowski posted
GM&O East Yard Tower in Pekin, Illinois. View is looking north taken 2/5/67 photo from the Barry Lennon Collection
Richard Fiedler shared

The Santa Fe ran parallel with the P&E (red line) and then separated again at Parkway Drive. The Santa Fe went on the north side of Coal Miner's park and then along Broadway Street. The P&E continued running straight through Pekin.

Satellite

Thanks to the cars parked on some tracks, you can see the GM&O had an interchange on the north side and the Santa Fe had a small yard.

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Update:

Roger Holmes posted
Pekin Tower - I'm looking south, standing on the GM&O with Penn Central's switch engine crossing the diamond. Santa Fe would also cross over here (Pekin branch) and the Rock Island would sometimes come up and make a delivery. I was working for the GM&O at this time, around 1970, and was the only tower I had ever seen or worked that had a bed in it! I was there, third shift and about the only train I would see would be the GM&O coming from the P&PU en route to Bloomington. When I would OS the train the dispatcher would always ask me what my seven o'clock weather was. This would be about 3:30 or so in the morning. Apparently at least one of the other operators would absent themselves after the train left town. Not me! I stuck to my post! But I do have to admit that I did take advantage of the bed and caught a few zzzzzz's! © Roger A. Holmes.
Harold J. Krewer They had separate but parallel tracks from here to downtown Pekin into the late 60s, when Santa Fe got trackage rights on the P&E and pulled up their track.
David JordanGroup Admin Change happened in Spring 1969.

John Woodrow posted
Peoria and Eastern crossing the GM&O at the east yard tower Pekin Illinois 1949 or1950 (Eward Wayne Bridges photo)
Michael Buckley: Track to right by tower is Santa Fe from east yard downtown to Santa Fe Depot and yard.

1960 Marquette Heights and Pekin Quads @ 24,000

After seeing the roundhouse on the topo map, I revisited the aerial photo. And as the topo map shows, P&E also had a yard down here.

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

John Woodrow posted
turntable at Pekin Illinois (Edward Wayne Bridges photo)
David Jordan: This was two days before AT&SF filed to abandon Morton-Pekin and Ancona-Eureka, so the turntable must have lasted until the line was scrapped.
Richard Foster: Where was east yard located at in pekin, I've lived in pekin almost 20 years.

Dennis DeBruler replied to Richard's comment
A lot of that yard is green land today. The roundhouse was just south of today's Jac's Doghouse with the turntable west of the roundhouse.
1960 Marquette Heights and Pekin Quads @ 24,000
 https://goo.gl/maps/tDzS4DjrkUeqcR9H7

John Woodrow posted
picture of turntale in Pekin looking northeast note eagle food now Pekin insurance for the location turntable

Richard Fiedler commented on John's post
From the book “Trackside around Peoria”. Caption is included. Santa Fe round hand turntable in Pekin. I believe it was 5 stalls.

Santa Fe Roundhouse

Mike Nevius posted two images with the comment: "Lived in Pekin most of my life but never new there was a roundhouse.  Was looking at old aerial photos and found it and it's remnants can still be seen today.  1939 and present, thought it was pretty cool."

Josh Jordan: The ring is still nice and round in the grass. The pit, and it's concrete ring are probably still there, just buried.

Dana Skyye: A little history from a lifelong Pekinite; I am 68 years old…these were my childhood stomping grounds.

The turntable belonged to Santa Fe; Pekin was the end of the AT&SF Pekin District. The line’s last day of operation was July 7, 1983. Not verified, but I was told the turntable itself was moved elsewhere rather than cut up for scrap? Originally there was a 4 or 5 stall roundhouse, and you can see it in the 1939 aerial photo here; it burned down when I was very young. There was a Santa Fe wedge plow parked on one of the radial tracks for battling the snow drifts the Pekin district was known for.

The Santa Fe tracks in Pekin, the turntable and pit were removed shortly thereafter the line abandonment in 1983.

The Santa Fe Pekin district main track and two sidings were parallel with Broadway road, and they joined the Peoria & Eastern (P&E) at a spring switch at the intersection of Broadway and Sycamore Streets for the trip downtown to a small yard and depot located between 3rd St and 4th St. The depot was located north of the tracks at Capital St.

The P&E, a subsidiary of the New York Central, had a 7-track yard (East Yard) to the south of the Santa Fe property that stretched from just west of Parkway Drive to Sycamore Street and the Santa Fe spring switch; the P&E Right-of-Way is now a bike trail.

Originally, Santa Fe had its own track parallel with the P&E to the downtown yard . It was eliminated when Broadway road was widened to 5 lanes.

Just beyond the Broadway Rd crossing, P&E and Santa Fe crossed the north-south Chicago & Alton’s (later GM&O, then ICG P&N line) diamond at East Yard tower.

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Daniel Johannsson commented on Mike's post
The roundhouse in the aerial photo is on the Santa Fe. Before that one was built there was an earlier roundhouse closer to the depot. That earlier roundhouse was located between Market St, Caroline St, 5th, and 6th, roughly where Flynn’s automotive is today. See the included Sanborn map from 1909 showing that earlier roundhouse.
[I need to add this to the other yard notes.]

James Brown commented on Mike's post
This is a photo I took of engineering drawings found at the ATSF company archives now housed at the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka. The original roundhouse (5-stall) located near Market St (see other post in this thread with Sanborn map) was listed in poor condition in the 1916 ATSF building records. A note on the 57-ft turntable indicated it was "too small for some locomotives." This original roundhouse may have been inherited from the Chicago & St Louis (one of its several names), the so-called "Hinckley Road" that the ATSF purchased when it was extending its line from Kansas City to Chicago. Not sure of the date of the engineering drawing--I'd have to check some other notes I have buried away. This "new" roundhouse lasted to at least 1965, or so I was told by a former ATSF brakeman hired on in 1964 and worked the Pekin branch in 1965. The roundhouse was gone by 1970.

John Woodrow commented on Mike's post
no roundhouse but hear pictue of the turntable looking at broadway and parkway nov 27 1982 (Edward Wayne Bridges photo)

Dana Skyee commented on his comment
Santa Fe U23B 6308 on the turntable lead.

Dana Skyee commented on his comment
The P&E/Santa Fe spring switch at the intersection of Broadway and Sycamore streets.

Dana Skyee commented on his comment
The P&E East Yard. The line of boxcars in the left background are on the Santa Fe property.

Wilbern, IL: Abandoned Pipeline Steam Pumping Station and Santa Fe Depot

Pump Station: (Satellite)

Depot: (Satellite, the trees are new, there used to be a house track there.)

Roger Holmes posted
I love shooting photos with a late afternoon sun. It casts a golden glow on subjects such as this BNSF eastbound going past the old pumping station for the Standard Oil pipeline at Wilburn (or is it Wilbern? I've seen it spelled both ways) Illinois on November 27, 2009. © Roger A. Holmes.

Note that for some of these towns, these pumping stations were the only industry. You can tell they were a source of pride because they have not removed the tall smokestacks.

1907 Post Card of Wilburn Illinois from GenealogyTrails
Donated by Sharon Kopina
This is a view looking down into the village of Wilburn.  Behind the photographer are hills and cliffs with the creek running in front of the hills.  You can see the oil pumping station in the distance. Beyond the station is the creek  and the Santa Fe Railroad. -- Nancy Piper

Roger Holmes posted
An eastbound BNSF freight with the old Standard Oil Pipeline pumping station at Wilburn, IL on February 22, 2008. © Roger A. Holmes.

Howard Keil posted
Wilburn IL Abandoned Pipeline Pumping Statioin

Postcard from GenealogyTrails
Standard Oil Pumping Station

During the early 1900's an oil pumping station was built in Wilburn which was used until at least until the 1930's.  

"Not far from the track of the railroad the Standard Oil Company has laid a pipe line the past year, to carry oil from the Kansas oil fields to their refineries in Whiting, Indiana.  They have also established a pumping station in the township and are erecting buildings and installing machinery to the amount of forty or fifty thousand dollars so that the taxes assessed against it will materially lesson the taxation of the farmers".  --Past and Present of Marshall and Putnam County, Illinois, 1907, Page 51-52

Josh Clark posted
A nice pair of Santa Fe lineage units are seen pulling the delayed yesterday's Streator Flip job past the old Santa Fe pump station in Wilbern this morning.

John Carson: Josh, This was a Standard Oil Pipeline pumping station at Wilbern. It was not property of the AT&SF. It was built in 1909 to bring oil from Oklahoma to the Whiting Ind. oil refinery. The reason they built these pumping stations along the railroad was that the boilers powering the steam driven pumps were coal fired. The AT&SF delivered the coal to these plants. Plus it was a relative straight line from Iowa to Whiting Ind. There are still remnants of these pumping stations in Ft. Madison, Ponemah (Warren County) Dahinda (Knox Co.) Wilbern, and Kernan Il. Due to technology, they had to have a pumping station every 30 to 40 miles. ALSO: in 1914, Harry Sinclair of the Sinclair Oil Company built a pipeline along this same route. This pipeline used distillate engines and centifugal pumps, so the stations could be farther apart. There were pumping stations for this pipeline in Ft. Madison, (now gone) Ormonde Il. Warren County, now demolished) Princeville (gone) , LaRose (building still there) and Ransom (building still there.) After completing the pipeline, Standard Oil bought a 40% share in it. In the late 40s, Standard bought the Sinclair Pipeline and merged all their pipelines under the Stanolind Pipeline banner. In the early 60s, Standard Oil built a new higher pressure pipeline along this same route. It exists today under BP. Just some information for you sir, and I really like that Photo! JCC

.

Depot

Andy Zukowski posted
Santa Fe Depot in Wilbern, Illinois. 1954
Dennis DeBruler: Note the smokestack just to the right of the sign. That is the smokestack for the oil pipeline steam pumping station that is still standing. Standard Oil built the pipeline in 1909 to bring oil from the west to their Whiting, IN, refinery. That pipeline was replaced by a higher pressure pipeline that was built in the early 1960s.
Richard Fiedler shared

Zach Malcolm shared

Pete Zimmermann: Any clue exactly where this was located because I was there a week ago and I can't figure the spot.

Dennis DeBruler: Pete Zimmermann Edit: I agree with Patrick Cooney's comment in the base post: it was probably on this slab https://maps.app.goo.gl/r9axgASqepDwoA946.

Steve Rippeteau: It was on the west side of the road crossing, about 100 feet or more on the south side of the mainline. The photo was taken looking East.

Is the switch and spur still there? If not just follow the steep declining spur track road bed down and where the switchback was located for the pipeline pumping station is about where the concrete pad should be. You can see where the spur switchback is in the far lower right side of this photo. I’m fairly certain that this station shed was gone by 1970. Since then the ATSF/BNSF has been dumping tons of ballast on the mainline that might have covered part of the concrete pad. Or the BNSF might have removed the concrete pad?

Last time I worked there was when I was conductor on a high priority work train with several side air dump gondola car loads of large rip-rap boulders and more ballast about 2005. The creek was starting to erode away the north side of the roadbed East of the crossing after a big rain storm. If you are careful to avoid getting hit by a fast train on the mainline you can see our work dumping the large boulders. I retired in 2007 and now live in Oregon. Otherwise I’d meet you in Wilbern. I lived in Chillicothe until 1992 when ATSF moved our home terminal to Ft. Madison, IA.

Thanks for sharing this photo! And a request: A good friend is doing a slide show on depots on the ATSF Illinois Division in KC in November. Can we have your permission to use this photo?

To find the depot's location, I got this aerial photo. Note that the north oil storage tank is extant as of 2024.

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Eureka, IL: TP&W Depot and Hooping Up Orders

(Satellite, it was north of the tracks and just west of Main Street.)

Andy Zukowski posted

Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway

 Depot in Eureka, Illinois. 1908

Andy Zukowski posted

Richard Fiedler: Actually I believe it’s a Santa Fe train at the TP&W depot in Eureka. The Santa Fe ran on trackage rights on the TP&W between Eureka and Washington on its way to Pekin.

Roger Holmes posted
The TP&W agent at Eureka, IL hands up orders to a crew member on the Santa Fe's local freight en route to Pekin, IL on an afternoon around 1970. ATSF's Pekin branch came off the main at Ancona with trackage rights over the TP&W from Eureka to Washington and then on their own rails into Morton and then into Pekin. © Roger A. Holmes.
Harold J. Krewer We had this discussion a while back, but for the newer members the TP&W had a short stretch of "station signaling" (similar to ABS) from the AT&SF connection at Streator Jct. east of Eureka to west of the Eureka depot.
John Stell pointed out this was to allow Santa Fe trains to open the switch and enter the TP&W on signal indication at Streator Jct. and advance to Eureka where they would pick up their TP&W orders and clearance, which is likely what you're seeing in the photo.
Harold J. Krewer Eastbound the operator at Washington (later Eureka after Washington closed) would drive to Pekin Jct. (at the east edge of Washington) to deliver the orders to the Santa Fe train out of Pekin, so it wasn't necessary to have signaling all the way west to Pekin Jct. as it was at Streator Jct.
John Stell Washington agent used a motor car to take orders to Pekin Jct
[It is interesting that the agent is not using the ironman holders.]

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

The topo map accurately marked the location of the depot.

1932 Mackinaw Quad @ 62,500

Varna, IL: GM&O/Chicago & Alton Depot

(Satellite)

Roger Holmes posted
On February 7th, 1972 Gulf, Mobile & Ohio RS1 #50 was in charge of the Dwight to Washington local but ran into problems just west of Streator. RS1's were not much good at bucking snow...at least the 50 wasn't. The snow got up on top of the traction motors, melting causing ground relay problems. Two days later the local had an F3 on the point which would do very well in hitting some high drifts further down the tracks. This is where I first caught the plow, er F, at Varna. The train, the 885A, box car, dead RS1, a covered hopper and ex-M&O wooden caboose, would take the curve, the track to my right. The other line went to Lacon. I apologize for the fact that this photo could have been, or should have been of much better quality, especially in composition! I think that I might have chosen this spot to show the station with the bay window which was farthest away from the tracks. Didn't do it! Had I moved to my right I would have accomplished that and the lighting would have been much better and I would have not gotten the shadow of the tree on the nose of the F. But what do expect from a college kid shooting with an Argus C3! © Roger A. Holmes.
Phil McCall The station was in town, on the east-west portion of the line, and was torn down around 1985.

The east/west route left the C&A mainline at Dwight, IL and went west through Streator and Varna and terminated at the river in Lacon. C&A had another branch that went north from Washington and terminated at the turnout the F-unit is taking. That branch had trackage rights on the TP&W to get into East Peoria.

Noah Haggerty posted
The former Chicago & Alton depot at Varna, Illinois circa 1980, along the Washington to Dwight branch abandoned in September 1979 by the ICG getting ready for dismantling. Around this time, the short-lived Washington, Metamora & Streator railroad tried to acquire the line, but was denied. John & Roger Kujawa Photo, Thomas Dyrek Collection.
Noah Haggerty posted again with the same comment.

Pete Zimmermann: And on this line you also had the Lacon Branch too.

Ken Morrison: Pete Zimmermann and that depot is still standing...

Noah Haggerty posted again with the same comment.

Noah Haggerty posted again with the same comment.

Sonny Ketcham: Still standing?

Noah Haggerty: Sonny Ketcham Lasted until the 1980’s.

Bill Edrington: Varna was the junction with the short branch that ran straight west to Lacon.

Noah Haggerty posted again with the same comment.

David Jordan: Noah Haggerty Richard Howard's Washington, Metamora & Streator never had a chance to purchase a portion of the Dwight Branch. The Illinois Central Gulf received permission from the Interstate Commerce Commission to abandon the line in September 1979. If it desired to purchase the line, WM&S would have to pay more than scrap value, which it could not. What you see in 1980 is a line already legally abandoned, awaiting removal.

Noah Haggerty: David Jordan Thanks once again. Where did the WMS operate? I know I’ve seen pictures in Washington and maybe Peoria, some running.

David Jordan: Noah Haggerty WMS didn't operate. It purchased equipment and stored it in Washington with hopes to purchase part of the ICG Dwight Branch.

Noah Haggerty posted again with the same comment.

[Some comments have more information on the Washington, Metamora & Streator Railroad.]

 

Andy Zukowski posted
Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Depot in Varna, Illinois. 1969
Steven Hooker shared
Richard Fiedler shared
Steven Hooker shared
John Czerwinski shared

Andy Zukowski posted
The GM&O Railroad passing the Depot in Varna, Illinois in 1973. Photo by Joe Petric
Richard Fiedler shared

Andy Zukowski posted

Former GM&O Dwight branch in ICG Day

The former GM&O Depot is still standing at Varna, IL, this is where the Dwight branch split to run west to Lacon and south to Washington. ICG GP, 7702, is the power for the branch on Sept. 1, 1979. Photo by Lloyd Rinehart

Trenton Dominy: Look at how overgrown the tracks are.

Willis Fyke II: Trenton Dominy that's the 70s for you.

Bill Edrington: Nice photo. This was taken immediately before the end of operations on the branch.

Joe Turner posted
A slightly older picture, from a slightly different perspective - ICG 8442 on former GM&O at Varna, IL (1976). I believe that's Chester French coming out of the cab of the engine. Where is the depot located in Varna?

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP