Olney, IL: B&O and IC Depots

B&O: (Satellite)

IC: (Satellite)

Kerry Holtz posted two photos with the comment: "The B&O depot in Olney, Illinois."

Robert Karl Bullard: I question that the bottom photo is the B&O in Olney. Possibly the IC in Olney.

Marty White: Robert Karl Bullard you are correct

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2

The IC did street running on Kitchell Street.

1949/49 Olney Quad @ 62,500

The B&O depot was probably the rectangle north of the tracks and west of Whittle Ave. In this excerpt, North Street is along the top and Fair Street is along the right side. I think the rectangle that was east of Whittle Ave. and west of Fair Street was the freight house.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

I had to include more around the IC depot because the Hurn Lumber Company has changed that area a lot. The track in the city park is a good anchor between then and now. West Street is along the left and Chestnut Street is along the bottom. I think the rectangle in the northeast quadrant of Butler Street and Kitchell Ave. was the IC depot. The buildings that were on the land now occupied by the City Fire Department were probably the grain elevator in the IC depot photo.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Oxford, MS: 1872 Conference Center/IC Depot

(Satellite)

Street View, Jun 2019

Matthew Nichols, Sep 2017

Matthew Nichols, Oct 2017

1943/45 Oxford Quad @ 62,500

Gulfport, MS: History, Model Trains & Plane Museums and Ocean Port

Gulfport Museum of History: (Satellite)

TrainTastic! Train Museum formerly: Mississippi Coast Model Railroad Museum: (Satellite)

Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum: (Satellite)

Ocean Port: (Satellite)

Gulfport Museum of History

Street View, Jun 2022

This looks like it used to be the IC+L&N Union Station.

1954/58 Gulfport North and South Quads @ 24,000

Radios used to be big so they were packaged as fine furniture. It looks like this one has a big speaker.

Stephanie Martin, Jul 2024

This video highlights the railfan action at the museum. This photo is taken from the Amtrak platform along the CSX/L&N track so the train is going south on the CN/IC track. I presume that it is headed to the ocean port.

Facebook Reel

TrainTastic! Train Museum formerly: Mississippi Coast Model Railroad Museum

I found this museum while looking for the museum in the above video. It looks like they have a Lego town in the layout.

Ann Henderson, Jul 2024

This museum has a big building.

Street View, Feb 2016

Judging from the photos and videos on Google Maps, they have a huge normal layout and some smaller layouts. This stuck me as the strangest layout.

Cedar The Dentist, Aug 2022

And they have an opportunity for kids to blow off some steam.

Daniel Hill, Aug 2024

Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum

And just three blocks east of the model train museum is the plane museum.

Street View, May 2022

Curtis Martz, Aug 2022

S M, May 2021

Susan Sanchez-Vargas, Jul 2024

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Ocean Port

The ocean port is still operational and rail served. It looks like it handles at least containers, Dole fruit and grain.

Satellite

This is the grain elevator that is at the end of the dock.

Bottomline Beatz, Sep 2024

I had assumed that the elevator exported grain and loaded ships. But the long conveyor on the left makes me think they unload ships to import grain.

Bottomline Beatz, Sep 2024

When I saw all of these military vehicles, I assumed the port can handle RORO ships. And note that in the above photo there are military vehicles loaded on train cars. And then I spotted the Liberty Peace in the background of this photo, which is a RORO that is 199m long and 32m wide.

Bottomline Beatz, Sep 2024

I wonder if the military vehicles were leaving the country or coming back home.

Bottomline Beatz, Sep 2024

Lotus, IL: Junction: IC vs. Wabash

(Satellite)

The IC branch that this town was on was the former Havana, Rantoul & Eastern.

Andy Zukowski posted

The Wabash & Illinois Central Crossing in Lotus, Illinois

The former Wabash's Chicago to Bement line crossed an Illinois

Central branch that ran east-west between Leroy and Potomac.

This photo was taken 12/31/80, and at the time the Wabash was under N&W ownership and the IC was under the ICG flag. The ICG had just started pulling up this line in the preceding weeks, but the diamond here had yet to be pulled. The view is looking northeast. Photo from the Barry Lennon Collection

Larry Candilas commented on Andy's post
IC line was originally built in 1875 as a narrow-gauge line and was owned by the Wabash for a few years before the IC bought it. MP 17.3 Rantoul District; 1960 aerial
[It looks like the tower was in the northeast quadrant of the crossing.

Sara Anderson Olson commented on Andy's post
Hard to tell. No sign of a cross track.

Thomas Scoville commented on Andy's post
The Lotus depot survives on a farm just west of where the diamond used to be. [I could not find it.]
Richard Fiedler: Thomas Scoville that’s the replacement for the wood tower that was once there. I’m thinking the tower was destroyed in a derailment but I’m not sure. The replacement served as a train order office and a depot agency.

Richard Fiedler commented on Andy's post

Richard Fiedler commented on Andy's post

Richard Fiedler commented on Andy's post

No street view driver has driven close to this town. I don't think the elevator has rail service because NS still owns the route and I can't see a fall protector, but the elevator is rather big.

Satellite

Cropsey, IL: Lost/IC Depot

(Satellite)

Andy Zukowski posted
Illinois Central Railroad Depot in Cropsey, Illinois 1963

Sam Richards: This track is now the Bloomer Line.

Paul Jones: Foundation still exists.

Connor Bounds: Fairbury did a great job killing cropsey. Took their school and bank

Larry Candilas commented on Andy's post
MP 111.5 Bloomington District; early 1900s probably waiting for the "Bloomer Cannonball"

David Kennedy: Larry Candilas look at the difference in the old track by station. It is abandoned in the new photo. Plus the bushes are blocking the operator/agents view.

I could not figure out which smudge that is parallel to the tracks was the depot. Fortunately, Paul's comment above about the foundation allowed me to find its location.

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Thanks to the Bloomer Line, the grain elevator is rail served and has grown a few times.

James Ransom, Oct 2025

James Ransom, Oct 2025

Sublett, IL: Lost/IC Depot

(Satellite, based on the aerial photo below. It was on the east side of the track about halfway between Main and 1st Streets.)

Andy Zukowski posted

Illinois Central Depot, Sublette,

Illinois. The Illinois Central's Amboy sub at the small town of Sublette. Sublette lies about halfway between Amboy and Mendota. View is looking north towards Freeport.

This stretch of the IC was abandoned under the ICG in the mid-80's. Photo from the Barry Lennon Collection 3/13/1966

Larry Candilas commented on Andy's post
MP 800.2 Charter Line - last train Aug 1985

Jim French: Larry Candilas the last train ran in December 1985.

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

The grain elevator has grown since the IC tracks were torn up.

Street View, Jul 2023

Anchor, IL: Lost/IC Depot

(Satellite, based on the aerial photo below.)

Roger Kujawa posted

RPPC Railroad Train Station Depot At Anchor, Illinois. Mclean County

Cropsey IL was laid out in 1880 and in the same year the people in the Township attracted the Clinton, Bloomington, and Northwestern RR and the first train from Kankakee ran 7/4/1880. Anchor, Colfax, and Cooksville were all laid out at the same time because of the RR. The CB&NW soon was absorbed by the Illinois Central RR becoming its “Bloomer Line”. So this would be a depot built by the CB&NWRR.

Thanks to Jimmy Fiedler for info on the depot.

Roger Kujawa shared with the comment: "Anchor, Illinois depot, McLean County."

This topo map accurately marks the location of the depot.

1957/58 Colfax Quad @ 62,500

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Obviously, the grain elevator is rail served.

Street View, May 2025

Jonathan Fischer, Sep 2021

This route is now part of the Bloomer Line.

IlliniRail via Dennis DeBruler

Rockport, KY: Peabody Ken and Homewood Coal Mines

(Satellite, Ken was west of Rochester Rd. and Homewood was east of the road. Both mines stretched between Western Kentucky Pkwy and the Green River.)

The Ken Mine started before Homewood Mine did, and continued operations after Homewood closed. But one hears about Homewood instead because it had the first dragline with a 100 cu. yd. bucket, a repaired Marion 8800.

Michael Davis photo from RockportKY via Dennis DeBruler

"Homestead Mine The first of the Marion 8800 series of draglines and the first to break the 100 cu-yd barrier. Peabody Coal Company started using this one at their Homestead Mine in Western Kentucky in 1961."

Mining Photography Archive posted

Peabody Coal Company Marion 8800 (Homestead Mine)

From the Eric Orlemann Collection

Originally installed at Peabody's Homestead Mine near Echols, Kentucky.  The 8800 was, at the time, the largest dragline in the world.  Sporting a factory equipped 85CY bucket, it was soon upgraded to a 100CY bucket (the first in the world).  A boom failure would lead to prolonged down time shortly after inception at Homestead.  She would return to work in short fashion and would eventually end up working the remainder of her service life at neighboring Ken Mine where she was scrapped in the mid-90's.

A few stats for your records:

Boom Length: 275 feet

Overall Weight: 6,040 tons

Overall Height: 115 feet

Started Work: 1963

A little tidbit of information you may not know, this dragline was installed at the mine the Marion 6360 was originally supposed to go to.

Mining #Shorts posted

The Marion 8800 was a record-breaking dragline.

Introduced in 1961, the big machine went to work at Peabody's Homestead mine in Kentucky, stripping overburden to expose coal seams.

But what made the Marion 8800 so special was its bucket.

In 1961, no dragline had ever broken the 100-cubic-yard mark. The 8800 changed that, becoming the first to cross that line after its original 85-yard bucket was upgraded.

The Marion 8800 was a monster, weighing 6,300 tons and carrying a 275-ft boom.

But in the 1960s, records didn't hold for long. Less than five years after the Marion 8800 entered production, other units such as the 8900 were moving up to 145 cubic yards, crushing old milestones like they never meant anything.

Data from "Giant Earth-Moving Equipment" by Eric C. Orlemann. 

Must read!

RockportKY_homestead, Photographer was probably David Hope's father, a career Peabody Miner.
"A Marion 8800 85-yd. shovel was constructed for the operation of the Homestead Strip Mine. This mine operated for several decades and had a variety of shovels, draglines and other equipment. Pictures and information just seems to be almost non-existent. The picture above is the 8800 sitting on an erection pad in Oct. 1963 at Peabody's Homestead Mine, Beaver Dam, Ky. This machine had a boom failure after a few years of operation and the question of what to do with the broken machine, had one of three choices: 1) Repair and continue operation. 2) Shut down and salvage. 3) Recondition the machine and replace the 85 Yard bucket with a 100 yd. bucket. The decision was to shorten the boom a little, and install a 100 Cubic Yard bucket and continue operation. I think that this was the first of the 100 Yard buckets. When Homestead closed, the 8800 was walked to Ken Mine (Peabody), worked a few years at Ken, and when Ken closed, the Marion 8800 dragline was scrapped."

Both mines had rail tipples. I presume they were on the south ends of the industrial spurs off of the Illinois Central. The Ken Mine later built a loading dock on the Green River. (I have not been able to determine the exact location.) "The first coal was loaded on a barge on June 6, 1956." [RockportKY_ken]

1957/69 Evansville Quad @ 250,000

ebay
1972 Peabody Coal Co Homestead Mine Rockport Ky 8x10 Photo Green River 7491