Albia, IA: Lost/CB&Q Depot

(Satellite)

Alma Ingram posted
Albia, lowa Depot

CB&Q's mainline to Denver is the east/west route. A CB&Q branch to Des Moines goes to the Northwest. And a CB&Q bypass goes along the south side of town. All of these routes still exist. The C&NW/M&StL and Wabash routes also still exist. I wonder why they built the bypass. I studied the contour lines, and I don't think the bypass has better grades than the original route through town.

1929/77 Albia Quad @ 62,500

1902

1954 Des Moines and Centerville Quads @ 250,000

The blue line is UP, so it kept the C&NW/M&StL down to Bridgeport. This map does not specify an owner for the route south of Bridgeport. The Wabash route south of Albia is now owned by Iowa Southern Railway (ISRY)

National Rail Network Map

I wonder when the BNSF route south of Bridgeport down to their mainline was built and why. As recently as 1982, that route did not exist.

1982/82 Oskaloosa Quad @ 100,000

ProgressiveRail

In addition to using a former-Wabash route, ISRY also uses a former Rock Island route.

1954 Des Moines and Centerville Quads @ 250,000

The ISRY was created in 1983, and it hauls mainly plastic resin and grain. [RailwayGazette]

Milligan, NE: Wood Kassik Mills

(Satellite)

Ashton Blobaum posted, cropped

Kassik Mills Miligan NE 2026

Tin elevator still in use with the wood leg inside along with a new one installed through the roof

Bob Summers: This would be a cribbed construction wood elevator with tin on the exterior to make them less vulnerable to fire, often from embers from the coal fired steam locomotives. We usually call them “iron clad” elevators.

Cribbed construction is where 2x6 planks are laid flat and nailed to the layer below. Takes a lot of lumber.

South of Kassik Milling is the Farmers Cooperative.

Street View, May 2025

The main facility is in the left background and the facility on the right is more grain storage capacity and ag chemicals.

Street View, May 2025

It looks like the co-op has a feed mill.

Street View, May 2025

Actually, the above modern feed mill and a lot of the grain storage is part of Kassik Milling.

Street View, May 2025

There must be some sort of joint agreement between Kassik Milling and Farmers Cooperative.

farmersco-operative

The big picture:

Satellite

The railroad that used to serve this town was the CB&Q.

1969/71 Friend SW and 1961/63 Ohiowa Quads @ 24,000

Milligan was on the route that ran through Fairmont, Tobias and Endicott.

1902

Stillwell, IL: Lost/CB&Q Depot

(Satellite)

Patty Peterson posted
Stillwell Depot (1979 Sites and Structures of Hancock County)
Richard Fiedler shared

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

This town was on the north/south route between Burlington and Quincy.

1902

Fulton, IL: Office/CB&Q Depot, Windmill Cultural Center, Old D-X Gas Station and UP/C&NW Railyard

Depot: (Satellite)

Windmill: (Satellite)

Gas: (Satellite)

Railyard: (Satellite)

River Bend School District Office/CB&Q Depot

This would have been the track side because it has the bay window for the agent's desk. I wonder if the railroad or the school district built the addition.

Street View, Jun 2023

Thomas Scoville posted
The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy depot at Fulton, Illinois on April 7, 2026. Thomas Dyrek photo.

Dennis DeBruler: It is now the school district office: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Kvf4HG27q7PW2sY36.

Windmill Cultural Center

The building on the right is what is labelled the Cultural Center.

Street View, Jun 2023

The windmill itself is labelled "De Immigrant Windmill."

Trail View

Michael Carton, Jun 2025

Elizabeth W., Nov 2022

D-X Gas Station

I found this one while "driving" through town trying to find the depot.

Are those gas prices on the left from the 1960s or 70s?

Street View, Jun 2023

Note the "Dutch Days" banner in the upper-left corner.

CAGWYW -Colby- BSYGWYN, Jul 2019

And an old tow truck.

SUB URBAN LIVING LO N SLO, Sep 2017

UP/C&NW Railyard

Fortunately, I had studied this topo map to find CB&Q before I saw the railyard so that I knew that C&NW tracks used to go North and then East.

1894 Clinton Qud @ 62,500

Since 1894, both C&NW and CB&Q built cutoffs that avoided going out of their way to Fulton. By 1958, C&NW had already abandoned their old route except for the yard. And today, the original CB&Q route is just some treelines and an embankment on the north side of town. It looks like that embankment still functions as a levee.

1958/68 Davenport Quad @ 250,000

A Bunge river port is nearby, but given the variety and density of cars in the yard, I think UP is using this as a car storage yard.

Satellite

General

Parts of their downtown have preserved the "river era" Italianate architecture.

Street View, Jun 2023

While looking for the depot, I also noticed this suspension bridge while on the IA-136+IL-136 Bridge. It is the 1956 US-30 Gateway Suspension Bridge.

Street View, Jul 2023

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

La Crosse, WI: 1967-87 345mw Genoa Power Station #3

(Satellite)

Street View, Aug 2012

That coal pile extended a long way to the left.

Street View, Aug 2012

James Way-Burch, Jan 2020

The nuclear power plant was also still standing in 2017.

Bojidar 93, Mar 2017

What is the brown ground all about?

Bojidar 98, Mar 2017

Mining #Shorts posted

Genoa Station #3 was one of Wisconsin’s most recognizable coal-fired power plants, sitting along the Mississippi River in Vernon County, just south of La Crosse.

Owned by Dairyland Power Cooperative, the 345-megawatt unit entered service on July 16, 1969, and became a long-running workhorse for cooperative power customers across the Upper Midwest.

Its location made the site unusual. Genoa had already hosted fuel-oil generation, then the La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor, Wisconsin’s first nuclear power facility, which operated from 1967 to 1987. The coal plant became the site’s longest-serving chapter.

For 52 years, Genoa Station #3 supplied electricity through cold winters, summer demand peaks and decades of changing power markets. But by 2020, Dairyland’s board voted to retire the plant, citing age, operating economics and a broader shift in its generation mix.

The unit stopped generating on April 11, 2021, and was officially retired on June 1, 2021.

Its final act came in March 2024, when crews demolished the 500-foot stack and main building. Contractor Veit removed 13,000 tons of steel from the boiler house and stack during the last phase, along with 42,380 tons of crushed concrete.

For Genoa, it marked the end of more than half a century of coal-fired generation on the Mississippi.

The plant is gone, but its history still reflects an era when big centralized coal units carried rural electric systems for decades.

Mooseheart, IL: Closed/Post Office/CB&Q Depot

(Satellite)

William Shapotkin posted

Received this Email from a friend (Steve Bahnsen) who is a Post Office fan. It regards the closing of the Mooseheart, IL Post Office -- the building of which was originally the CB&Q Mooseheart station. Now that the Post Office no longer uses the facility, wonder what the disposition of the building will be?

"Here are some notes and photos about the recently closed post office in Mooseheart, a rather novel operation. While on a recent Sunday drive along the Fox River 38 miles west of Chicago, I decided to visit Mooseheart to get another picture of their post office.  That never happened because the guard told me their post office was closed in April of 2026!

Mooseheart was developed by the Loyal Order of the Moose fraternity in 1913 for the use of its member's children as a school.  It is in a rural setting between Aurora and Batavia along Illinois Highway 31.  A separate post office was established in 1914.When it was converted to a Classified Branch of the Batavia post office in 1973, Mooseheart was a First Class office. An accompanying picture shows the post office building as it existed for many years. Off hand I cannot identify the white flag that was flying.  Perhaps it was the Bicentennial flag in 1976 or even the Illinois flag for some reason. 

Of interest is the postmark in my collection that used two words "Moose Heart." The office was always named as just one word "Mooseheart".  That is used on all of their street signs yet today. In later years the office was opened four hours daily by a clerk from Batavia.  And since this was a Branch and not an independent post office it could be closed at will with no justification required."

Dennis DeBruler commented on William's post
This is a reminder that the CB&Q used to go up both sides of the Fox River. 1950 Aurora North Quad @ 24,000

Jewett, TX: Nucor Steel Bar Mill (Including Rebar)

(Satellite)

Brian Olson posted two images with the comment: "Irony.  US Steel's American Bridge division supplied the original 50 ton EAFs to Nucor Jewett facility in Texas in 1975."

Jonathan Haynes: They used Fuchs eafs also.

Brian Olson: Jonathan Haynes I they have a completely new high bay now. I'm sure the American Bridge furnaces are all gone and the area is used for some other purpose now. They did their job.

1

2

Satellite

The railroads were CB&Q and MoPac.

1982/83 Jewett Quad @ 24,000