Cairo, MO: Lost/Wabash Depot

(Satellite, based on the aerial photo below.)

Berry Canote posted
I finally found a decent photo of the Cairo Wabash station!

This map doesn't show some of the streets north Martin Street as slanted. That is an unusual mistake for a topo map.

1910/10 Macon Quad @ 62,500

Jan 27, 1950 @ 17,000; AR1IY0000030014

I learned about another Wabash branch west of the Mississippi River. This town was on the route between Des Moines and Moberly. As expected, this route is now abandoned.

1 of 8 images posted by Kevin Piper via Dennis DeBruler

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]

Mound Station, IL: + Timewell, IL: Dilapidated/Wabash Depot

(Satellite)

The town has two names: Timewell and Mound Station.    

Street View, Aug 2024

Thomas Scoville posted
The Meredosia Branch depot at Timewell, Illinois on February 4, 2023. Thomas Dyrek photo.

Fred Hilgenberg: "The Meredosia Branch depot at Timewell, Illinois" Who's branch? Where is Timewell? It doesn't show on current maps (Google search brought me to Mounds, IL for some reason.

Richard Fiedler: Fred Hilgenberg west central Illinois on Wabash’s branch that ran from Bluffs IL to Quincy and Keokuk IA. Mounds Station and Timewell are one and the same. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mound_Station,_Illinois

Fred Hilgenberg commented on Richard's comment
Found it on a 1954 timetable

Dennis DeBruler commented on Richard's comment
It was between Clayton and Mt. Sterling on this 1888 map excerpt. So it was on the branch that needed to use a steam locomotive because diesels were too heavy to use the bridge across the Illinois River. The full map is available on https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2015/12/wabash-railroad.html.

Richard Fiedler: Dennis DeBruler yes, we’re writing about the same line. The ancient iron bridge at Meridosia couldn’t handle even an SW diesel so they kept the moguls alive until the Wabash leased a GE 44 tonner from the Pennsylvania.

1949/49 Augusta Quad @ 62,500

The depot used to look even worse.

Street View, May 2012

The town's grain elevator is rather typical for a Midwest town that lost its rail service a long time ago.

Street View, Aug 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

St. Joe, IN: Junction Tower: NS/N&W/Wabash vs CSX/B&O

(Satellite, according to Matthew's description below, the tower was in the southwest quadrant.)

We can see a few signalling pipelines in the top photo along with a color position signal.

Matthew Ditton posted
A before and after of where the B&O and N&W crossed near St. Joe. In the before photo provided by Craig Berndt, Paul Willer took a photo in the Summer of 1966 looking east on the B&O when they were single tracking this portion of the line. The tower was still standing at this time and you can see the N&W crossing in the distance just beyond the tower. I took the current photo on 5/10/26. This is now the CSX Garrett Sub which was double tracked again in the late 90s and the other track is now the Norfolk Southern Huntington District. I think the connecting track on the left was put in around the same time of the double tracking but am not positive. The road crossing in the distance was county road 58 and that crossing was eliminated several years ago. The house on the right still stands today but the trees in the current photo obscure it. For me, it's one of the rare comparison shots I've done where there's more track in the current photo than the before one.

Michael Schwiebert: The transfer track was put in for the SDI mill between St. Joe & Butler, so they could (at the time) have 3 railroad access. Both this and the siding that was put in from St. Joe to Concord (on the south side of the main track) were put in back when I still lived in Fort Wayne. I lived there from 1993-96, and want to say it was 1995? I always thought it interesting that they did grading on the south side for the siding instead of using the existing grade on the north side. Did CSX have plans for restoring the double track even then? I don’t know.

Tim Shanahan shared

I was aware of a Wabash route that went from New Haven to Toledo, but NS doesn't own that route. So I learned that Wabash also had a route from New Haven to Detroit, and that is the one that NS still owns.

Kevin Piper posted via Dennis DeBruler

NS

Harristown, IL: Lost/Wabash and Illinois Terminal Depots

Wabash: (Satellite)

IT: (Satellite)

Mark Barnett posted two photos with the comment: "Illinois Terminal Harristown depot.Top one taken in 1953 and bottom one in 1951. Photographers unknown, from my collection."

Christopher P Allen: Great pic Mark Barnett

I literally just drove by it🤣

I know the owner, he’s trying to sell…

Tough market/niche

Michael Massa: was that the wabash railroad across from it?

1

2

Dennis DeBruler commented on Michael's question
Yes. And it looks like Mark caught the Wabash depot in the first photo. 1954 Niantic Quad @ 62,500

Street View, Jul 2013

Lagro, IN: Lost/Wabash Depot

(Satellite, a guess based on the topo map and aerial photo below.)

David L White posted
Lagro did not get a prefab depot, my picture in 1976.

This is what the prefab depots looked like.

David L White posted via Dennis DeBruler

1950/58 Lagro Quad @ 24,000

Dec 8, 1950 @ 24,800; AR1VYB000020127

Hammond, IL: Lost B&O and Wabash Depots

B&O: (Satellite, south of the B&O tracks and just west of Don Ryan Street.)

Wabash: (Satellite, east of the Wabash and just south of the B&O Depot.)

According to the 2005 SPV Map, CSX still owns the B&O branch to Decatur, and the Wabash route was abandoned by Wabash. In other words, the Wabash route was abandoned before N&W took control.

Richard Fiedler posted two photos with the comment: "Hammond Illinois depots."

Richard Fiedler shared

1
Wabash depot Hammond Illinois. This is an original Chicago and Paducah depot.

2
B&O depot Hammond Illinois.

The B&O route went east/west and the Wabash went north/southish.

1955/73 Bement Quad @ 62,500

Photo 2 above shows that the B&O depot was at the junction. And I think the bright white lines in the southeast quadrant of the crossing are the platforms and show that the Wabash depot was just south of the B&O depot.

1940 Aerial Photo from IHLAP

Tilton, IL: NS/Wabash Railyard and Roundhouse

Railyard: (Satellite)

Turntable: (Satellite)

This photo was taken a few months before NS terminated the Triple Crown RoadRailer service. Also, did the  BNSF locomotive runthrough from Kansas City? And is it headed to Toledo and/or Detroit or to points further East?

David Rockwell, Mar 2024

There is enough local freight traffic to justify keeping at least one locomotive here.

Street View, May 2023

According to a satellite map, the yard still has all of its long and classification tracks. A lot of the tracks have hopper cars. I presume they are for Bunge. When I looked at the satellite map, I saw a turntable. So I got this map to see where the roundhouse was. But it is gone already. The next oldest map is 1900, and it doesn't even have the yard.

1949/60 Danville SW Quad @ 24,000

So I got an aerial photo. The roundhouse was gone by 1940, but we can see the remnants of the foundation. It was at least a quarter circle.

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Cornell, IL: Lost/Wabash Depot

(Satellite)

Andy Zukowski posted
Wabash Railroad Depot in Cornell, Illinois. 1955

Larry Canilas commented on Andy's post
MP 26.3 Streator Branch; a few years earlier when it was real busy

As Larry said, it is on the Streator branch.

Bill Molony posted via Dennis DeBruler

This is another small Illinois town in which the grain elevator has thrived even though it lost rail service a long time ago.    

Street View, Jun 2025

The grain elevator has reused most of the railroad property.

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

I could not decide which smudge along the tracks was the depot in the above photo, so I got a photo from a different flight line. This makes it clear that it was probably a little north of Main Street between 4th Street and the tracks. 

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP