Greensburg, KS: Lost/Rock Island Depot and Old Grain Elevators

Depot: (Satellite, lost)

Wood Grain Elevator: (Satellite, lost)

Concrete Elevators: (Satellite)

Bob Summers posted
Stolen from another group

Bob Summers: can anyone date the automobile?

Jim Merrick: Bob Summers -- We sure can date the locomotives:

Rock Island FTs (3 of them) and a pair of FA-1s. The FT units were built in 1944-'45 and the FA-1s were built in 1948. Given the slight wear / lack of wear we can see on the units, I would date this photo to about the end of the 1940s, maybe close to 1950, but not much later than 1950.

Robert Chitwood commented on Bob's comment

Ag chemical supplies occupy more land than the grain elevator.

Street View, Sep 2021

The wood grain elevator is gone, but the slip-form and jump-form elevators still exist.

Street View, Sep 2021

The railroad is now owned by UP.

rail.guide

Vinton, IA: Extant/Rock Island Depot, Train Order Semaphores and RI Caboose

(Satellite)

Dan Sabin posted
Vinton, IA 1942 Dan Sabin collection

Street View, Oct 2012

See "1898 IANR/Rock Island Arch Bridge" for information about the railroad.

Winston, MO: Rock Island Depot and Train Order Signal

(Satellite)

Street View, Nov 2018

Michael Emerson Avitt posted
Rock Island depot at Winston, Missouri on August 26, 2005.

1924/24 Winston Quad @ 62,500

Alanreed, TX: US-66 Texaco Gas Station

(Satellite)

US-66 Overview

In its day, this would have been a high-capacity station. Normally, a station on a corner would have just one island on a 45-degree angle.

Street View, Jan 2026

The pumps must have been added since the above Jan 2026 view.

Aug 31, 2026: Josh Durall posted, cropped
Kiser "66" Super Service Station, Alanreed Texas. June 2026. I've heard this part of the country described as an "in-between place." From my experience, that's correct. I love being on this stretch with no particular place to be, in no particular hurry. The loneliness and vastness make it beautiful. This service station recently received a clean-up. It looks great. From this vantage, it's hard to believe this stretch of road leads one to Beverly Hills and ultimately, Santa Monica.

John Grant commented on Josh's post
We were there in June of this [2026] year

Did the red thing dispense oil?

Jerry Levy commented on Josh's post
Was there this [2026] summer. Awesome piece of roadside archeology.

Someone had to do a lot of chainsaw work. 

Street View, May 2019

A nous 5 L'Amérique, Jun 2026

The now abandoned railroad was the Rock Island.

1963/67 Alanreed Quad @ 24,000

Reynolds, IL: Lost Rock Island Depot

(Satellite)

Retro Quad Cities posted two images with the comment: "Yes, the railroad did go through Reynolds, Illinois at one time.  This depot served the Rock Island and Mercer County RR, and later the Rock Island Southern Railway Co.  The station's location is indicated by the red arrow on this 1918 map of the Rock Island RR."

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[North is on the bottom side.]

Rotated 180 degrees

The railroad is not on the 1953 map.

1944/58 Milan Quad @ 62,500

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Dows, IA: Museum/Rock Island Depot and Grain Elevator

(Satellite)

Street View, Jun 2025

Seth Wetzel posted
How about Dows, Iowa depot for a change folks!

Fans of Rock Island Lines posted
Dows IA, 9/22/12.  You can see the sand dome just in front of bell, missing its cap. Still making steam, someone is quick on the draw?

As recently as 2013, the grain elevator was railserved.

Street View, Oct 2013

But the siding has been torn up.

Street View, Jul 2021

Iowa Scenic Views By Foot, Aug 2025

While I was looking for a street view that showed the big window in the waiting room, I noticed that the elevator used to have some smaller bins.

Street View, Oct 2013

They put a lot of money into that elevator considering that they lost their rail service. Is there now a nearby ethanol plant that they can haul to?

Street View, Jul 2021

The only RI route left is the one to the west.

1954/68 Waterloo Quad @ 250,000

UP still owns it even though it no longer uses it.

National Rail Network Map

They added three larger bins in 2005-6. And they were obviously getting rail service back then.

Google Earth, Aug 2006

They got rid of the long building by 2015. Note that they still had their own locomotive back then. It is near the bottom edge of this extract. The small bins were gone by the next view, Oct 2019.

Google Earth, Oct 2015

Milan, IL: Rock Island Deopts

(Satellite)

David Sebben posted
I received this photo recently and it says CRI&P depot in Milan, IL.  But the Milan depot doesn't look like this.  Could this one have preceded the existing one?  Photo from 1909.

Thomas Scoville: This is likely an earlier depot. The current Milan depot's architecture matches other Rock Island depots from the 1910-1920 timeframe. The depot in this photo is much older, probably from the mid-1800s.

Miles W. Rich: Additionally, the original Milan Depot was built by the Rock Island & Peoria Rwy, which also owned the Rock Island & Mercer County RR which both used the Milan Depot before the CRI&P acquired both of those roads around 1900. I have a book on the RI&P. I will check the photos.

Retro Quad Cities posted

Everyone thinks that the little depot in Milan is the original one.  Guess again!  Here is the original Milan depot in this 1909 photo.  It served the Rock Island and Mercer County Railroad.

Miles W. Rich: It served the Rock Island & Peoria Railway also, which built it.

The CRI&P purchased the Rock Island & Peoria which ran from Rock Island to Milan thru Coal Valley, Orion, Cambridge, & Toulon to Peoria. Owned by the same interests, the Cable Family and their mining interests, the Rock Island and Mercer County RR was built from the Milan Depot of the RI&P to Sherrard and Cable. The two railroads were merged and sold to the CRI&P in 1903. The CRI&P then granted trackage rights to the RIS to use the former railroads tracks from Southern Junction to Rock Island. In the 1920s, when the coal ran out in the Cable and Sherrard areas, the CRI&P leased the track from Milan through Taylor Ridge to Southern Junction including the branch to Cable and Sherrard to the RIS. In 1952, when the RIS is shut down, the CRI&P formally abandoned the trackage south of Andalusia Road. The CRI&P abandoned the RI&P in stages. The trackage from Milan to Orion in 1940, after obtaining traffic rights from the CB&Q from Colona to Orion. The trackage from Toulon to Peoria in the early 1960s, and the trackage south of Orion with the shutdown in 1980. The portion of the RI&P from Rock Island to Milan, and the trackage of the RI&MC used by the RIS from The Milan depot to the industrial users along Andalusia Road in Milan & Rock Island is still in use by the IAIS.

Google Maps now (2026) labels it as an ice cream & more shop.

Street  View, Aug 2019

I knew the Rock Island was down here by the I&M Canal and Rock River because of the RI bridges over the Rock River and the bridges over the Hennepin Canal. Now I understand that the purpose of those bridges was to connect the mainline on the north side of Rock Island, IL, to the railroads that it bought south of Milan.

1912/12 Milan Quad @ 62,500

I knew the Rock Island followed the Hennepin Canal further east of here. To see how the RI got from the canal up to Silvis and the Mississippi River, I got a bigger picture.

1958/68 Davenport @ 250,000

Ponca City, OK: Santa Fe & Rock Island Depots, Abandoned Robin Hood Mill and Phillips 66 Refinery

Santa Fe Depot: (Satellite, I'm guessing that this was a depot.)

Rock Island Depot: (Satellite?)

Mill: (Satellite)

Refinery: (Satellite)

BNSF Railyard: (Satellite, it still has most of its tracks.)

Ken Madison posted four photos with the comment:

6/21/26, Sunday, Ponca City, OK 

Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Depot (CRIP).

This depot was at the northeast end of Ponca City branch line that was built from North Enid, OK to Billings, OK in 1899, to Tonkawa in 1926 and to Ponca City in 1927.

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Dennis DeBruler commented on Ken's post
The RI came in from the south. Where is this depot? I think I found the Santa Fe Depot, https://maps.app.goo.gl/XyKypZdeoMDSMESH6. 1968/70 Ponca City Quad @ 24,000

An abandoned mill is on the left and a building that looks like a depot is on the right.

Street View, Jun 2024

This confirms that the sign painted on the silos is "Robin Hood Flour." So, this was a flour mill.

Street View, Jun 2013

This looks like a depot, but not the one in Ken's photos.

Street View, Jun 2013

This shows the mill and the Santa Fe depot, but my reason for capturing this image is the two locomotives in the lower-left corner. Does BNSF have local business other than the refinery to justify a couple of locomotives and a rather big railyard?

Satellite

The Phillips 66 oil refinery:

Street View, Dec 2025

Allerton, IA: Lost/Rock Island Depot and Railroad Microwave Tower

Depot: (Satellite)

Tower: (Satellite, the house track is extant.)

Seth Wetzel posted
Allerton, Iowa depot looks pretty good for sure! Bill Reibe photo!

John Hope: Where the line to the Twin Cities and Chicago split

Since railroads installed fiber optic cables when they installed Positive Train Control (PTC), I'm surprised that UP still has a microwave tower.

Street View, Apr 2023

The thin white line between the southern rectangle and the mainline was the platform. The platform verifies that the depot was the building between the mainline and the house track.

Nov 9, 1962 @ 18,000; AR1VANE00010039

The location of the depot is accurately noted by the black rectangle by the mainline on this map.

1064/66 Allerton Quad @ 24,000

The route to the East is now abandoned, but the north/south route is now owned by UP.

1954/67 Centerville Quad @ 250,000

National Rail Network Map