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]

Greenville, WI: Lost Feed Mill and 1887 Restaurant/C&NW Depot

Mill: (Satellite)

Grain: (Satellite, it is already torn down.)

Depot: (Satellite)

I wonder why such a new feed mill is being torn down. Has urban sprawl destroyed too much farming in the area to support it?

Street View, Oct 2024

Michael Paltzer posted 15 photos with the comment:

Greenville, Wisconsin 2026

This mill will be torn down before the end of this year [2026].

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United Cooperative has already torn down these two elevators.

Street View, Oct 2024

United Cooperative still has five feed mills in Wisconsin.

unitedcooperative_feed

The railroad was the C&NW.

1969/72 Greenville Quad @ 24,000

CN now owns all of the routes in this area.

National Rail Network Map

The depot doesn't have a typical depot design. It looks like it was a union or joint station, but I checked some maps and there was not a second railroad in this town.

Street View, Oct 2024

Medary, WI: C&NW va. C&NW vs. Milwaukee

(Satellite)

Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted
Rods and linkages of the Medary WI tower.  Photo by Soph Marty 7-5-1975.  32386
[A nice view of signaling pipelines with cranks for 90-degree turns.]

Allan Lesky: I worked there as an operator back in the '70s. You are looking southward to the Northwestern side of the tower.

StevenNatalie James: Allan Lesky so those are the CNW tracks in the foreground? [I'd say yes.]

Marty Jensen: Is this after the tunnel collapsed? That is why it is overgrown?

I included Grand Crossing near the lower-left corner.

1963/64 La Crosse Quad @ 24,000

WIHAP

Wheaton, IL: Metra/C&NW Depots

Old: (Satellite, given the chimneys and location, it is extant, but simplified.)

New: (Satellite)

Andy Zukowski posted
Chicago & North Western Railroad Depot in Wheaton, Illinois 1914

While checking out the Italianate architecture building in the background of the above photo, I discovered that both that building and the depot are extant.

Street View, Sep 2018

Wheaton didn't participate in the race in the suburbs as to who has the fanciest clock tower.

Street View, May 2025

I found the location of the old depot using this photo.

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

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