Sibley, IL: Wabash Depot and 1910-1965 World's Largest Corn Crib

Richard Fiedler posted in Facebook

(Satellite)

These are two of five pictures that Richard posted in Facebook. Google's 2013 street view shows that the depot still exists but has been "downsized."

Richard Fiedler posted in Facebook

Update:

Richard Fiedler posted
Early photo of the first depot at Sibley IL built by the Chicago and Paducah RR probably around 1875. Photo is from the very early 1880’s as everything in the photo looks new. The WSTL&P completed their new Chicago route through Sibley in 1880 by connecting their Chicago and Strawn RR with their Chicago and Paducah at Risk IL a few miles north of Sibley.  Note the primitive harp switchstand , dirt ballast, and the Nunn train order signal.
Richard Fiedler shared

Derrick Babbs posted

Sibley Depot

Enhanced and Colorized

Richard Fiedler shared

Derrick commented on his post
Before

Mark Skinner: What year was this ?

Richard Fiedler: Mark Skinner pre 1890. This is the original depot built by the Chicago and Paducah RR. The second and current depot was built by the Wabash in 1894 most likely after the original burned.

Bill Molony posted
The Wabash Railroad depot at Sibley, Illinois.

Brandon McShane commented on the above posting
This depot is still there, though moved back from the track.

Richard Fiedler commented on the above posting
Colorized postcard from about 1905-1910. This shows the tricolor scheme implemented at that time. Also note the freight room since removed.

Noah Haggerty posted
The Wabash depot at Sibley, IL around the late 1980's in a green paint. The depot is still standing today along the now Bloomer Line shortline railroad. John & Roger Kujawa Photo, Thomas Dyrek Collection.
Noah Haggerty posted again with the same comment

Marni Bishop posted six photos with the comment: "When I bought this beauty I never thought I would be saying this but The Depot is For Sale!! ❤️ Scripture says there is a time and season for everything and this season is changing.  I feel She (the depot) needs someone to love on her more than I have time for.  Built in 1881, she has so much character.  2023 we replaced all the windows with similar style to not take any of that detail away. Please message me or give me a call if you are interested in purchasing The Depot.  Sibley has great shops that bring in great business.  I can't wait to watch what's next for her, she deserves the best!"

Richard Fiedler shared with the comment: "Sibley IL Wabash depot is for sale."

Gregg Wolfersheim: It was an antique shop in the early '90's.

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safe_image for Largest corn crib in the world
[Is this the 50-horsepower Fairbanks-Morse engine: Satellite?]

 

ILHAP
[The rectangle at the top by the tracks and north of Ohio Street is probably the depot.]

The land the crib was on is now occupied by a regular grain elevator. This remnant of the Wabash Railroad is now owned by The Bloomer Line.

Satellite

And this town still has a traditional old grain elevator. (A corn crib is really old.)

Street View, Jul 2023 (Satellite)

Rochelle, IL: UP/C&NW Depot and Old Gas Station

The gas station has been preserved as part of their Lincoln Highway heritage.

Update:

Rose O'Halloran posted
Big White at the Standard Station in Rochelle Illinois today. If you’re westbound on the Highway note that the right turn sign from Lincoln Highway to Lincoln Way has been purloined. Turn right at this historic gas station! You are less than eighteen miles from the H.I. Lincoln Building at this landmark.

Eric Royburn posted
Passing the CNW Rochelle Depot along the Geneva Sub, CBPRA has three dash 2's in notch 8 for the run up Creston Hill. CNW6903,CNW6858,UP3444. September 5, 1992, Rochelle, Illinois.

StormySky Rail Productions posted
Former Chicago Northwestern now Union Pacific depot in Rochelle, IL.  Photo taken in 2021.

Andy Zukowski posted
Chicago & North Western Railroad Depot in Rochelle, Illinois. C.1910

William Kammer: Very similar to the northwestern / IC depot in Freeport

John Czerwinski shared

Richard Fiedler shared

Dixon, IL: UP/C&NW/G&C Depot and 1850 Freight House

Depot: (Satellite, the depot was removed so that the road could be extended and cross the tracks here.)

Freight House: (Satellite)

Note that this depot has a turret over the bay window of the agent's office. I remember that the DeKalb depot also had a turret, but it was much higher and was functional as a lookout.

Jim Arvites posted
View of a westbound Chicago & North Western Railway passenger train arriving at the Dixon, Illinois depot circa 1900.

Sandy McCann commented on Nancy Grove Mollenkamp's posting 

At the bottom of the posting on the freight house is a Sanborn Map image that shows the depot was east of the still existing freight house. When the depot existed, Depot Ave did not cross the tracks and the depot existed where the road and scrap yard now exist.

C&NWHS posted
Here we have the station at Dixon, Illinois located on the east/west main line to Clinton, Iowa in 1908. The photo is from a damaged "real photo" post card in the post card collection held at the archives of the C&NW Historical Society. A young man who later became President of the United States often used this station.

An 1891 Sanborn Map does show that Depot Avenue terminated at a passenger station that was east of the freight house and the road did not cross the tracks. Furthermore, there were tracks on both sides of the freight house.

Sheet 10 of Sanborn Map

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Freight House

When driving a "field trip" to take pictures of the industrial railroad buildings, sometimes getting lost is serendipity. I went through Dixon on a trip from Dekalb's coaling tower, Rochelle's railroad park, and Nelson's coaling tower. While trying to follow some detour signs through Dixon, IL, I drove past an old, long, low building with multiple big doors in the side. Since the name was Freight House Kitchen & Bath, I pulled into the first parking lot I found. As with the IC Freight House in Mattoon, IL, the person working inside was well aware of the historical significance of the building. He said it was built in 1850 as Galena & Chicago Union's freight house and that it had 18-inch walls.

20150913,16 4761, looking West along the north side

He brought out an old photo and pointed out that there used to be tracks close to the building on the south side as well.

Below are a couple of views of the south side. As you can see, just the mainline tracks remain and they are some distance from the freight house.

Jim Arvites posted
View of the old Chicago & North Western Railway's Freight House at Dixon, Illinois circa 1874. The building is still standing today.
(Vintage Dixon, IL)

Chicago & North Western Historical Society posted
An interesting shot of the local switcher assigned to Dixon, Illinois about 1870.  It was built by the Lowell Company in 1853 and is said to have been scrapped in 1874.  The freight house in the background still stands having been built by the Galena and Chicago Union railroad in 1857.  It is the only remaining C&CU/C&NW thing still surviving in town except for the two track heavy rail concrete tied main line which goes through town on the same 1854 right of way.

John Ott: The Lowell locomotive was the Galena & Chicago Union #14, later the first C&NW #14. It was a 4-4-0. This one is C&NW's second #14, built in the company shops in 1874.

Jimmy Fiedler shared

Aerial photo from ILHAP

A 1939 aerial photo also has a road, rather than tracks, south of the freight house. (I included quite a bit of the industrial buildings and the IC tracks because they are interesting. The freight house is the building in the center near the bottom.) The IC tracks on the right where part of the original charter line, and they are now abandoned. 

(Facebooked on timeline 20151028)

Lafayette, IN: Historical Wabash Freight House

Robert Gibson Jr. posted in Facebook

Robert Gibson Jr. posted in Facebook

Judging from a Google Streetview, this building may still be standing.

Fort Wayne, IN: Roundhouses and Coaling Tower

Below are notes on the Pennsy, NKP and NYC roundhouses.

Wabash

Richard Fiedler posted
Wabash roundhouse Fort Wayne. Postcard shows excavation of some sort in the foreground. Turn of the century view.

Page 16 of this 1920? platt maps volume shows Allen County and Page 36 shows Wayne County, but I could not find a page for Fort Wayne.

Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted
Wabash Roundhouse Fort Wayne
Year? More info please?

Dan Baker commented on Tommy's post
It was located between Fairfield Ave and GE’s East Campus on Broadway. The floor of the roundhouse is still partially visible.
Creager Smith Dan Baker has it I believe. The construction in the foreground may have been related to construction of the Wabash railroad elevation; if so the photo date would be circa 1912. With the direction of the photographer looking north across the future elevation.

Dan Baker commented on Tommy's post
Griswold’s birdseye view (ca. 1907)

1951 Aerial Image

This aerial photo does indicate that this roundhouse footprint did serve the Wabash. But this roundhouse is smaller than the one in the historical photo. My theory is, that by 1951, Wabash decided that downtown parking was more valuable than roundhouse stalls and had torn down most of the roundhouse.

The building to the west of the roundhouse was built between the time of the historical photo and 1951. In fact, the excavation work that Richard highlighted was probably for this building. The buildings on the far left of this image where part of the GE campus along Broadway. I assume the building being constructed west of the roundhouse was another expansion of the GE complex. In fact, according to a satellite image, the more recent GE buildings still exist in the 21st Century. (I lived on the northeast side of Fort Wayne and never went down Broadway. I would see some of the other GE plants in town, but not the Broadway complex.)

John Jantz posted
Taken around 1870. Believe it to be at the Wabash rail yard in Fort Wayne. The younger man is my maternal great-grandfather, Adam Joseph Bennett

Pennsylvania

This locomotive service facility was just west of Pennsy's Piqua Yard.

This roundhouse may have been old enough to have been built by the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad. Pennsylvania assumed operational control of the PFW&C on January 1, 1918. But it stayed separate until it became part of Conrail on April 1, 1976. (I just noticed that Conrail was formed on April Fools day!) Since the Pennsy gained control of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad in 1895 and the GR&I used Pennsy's track through Fort Wayne, I assume their engines were also served by this roundhouse. The aerial image shows that the roundhouse was over 180-degrees. The yard also had a huge coaling tower.

EarthExplorer: Mar 27, 1951 @ 28,400, AR1PJ0000010069

Richard Miranda posted
I thought this was an interesting photo which said: "The relic coal tower at Fort Wayne is soon to be out of service. A Lima-Hamilton LS 25m unit is being serviced. Sept 3, 1955, Ft. Wayne, Indiana." Pinterest Photo
Tim Shanahan shared

By Jun 7, 1973, part of the coaling tower and part of the roundhouse had been removed.

EarthExplorer: Jun 7, 1973 @ 9,200, AR1VDGH00010207

There is still a remnant of the roundhouse foundation with the service pits. (The curved track on the right is a rare addition to USA railroad infrastructure. It is the "Piqua Wye" [fwarailfan-map] and it helped connect NS's NKP mainline to its Triple Crown yard.)

Satellite

Mark Llanuza posted
Its Sept 1976 Conrail is only 7 months old . Steve Smedley and Chris Rummary and Gary Powell asked the crews to pull the classic Erie E-unit out of the Fort Wayne round house and pose it on the turntable something unheard of today railroading. This was a total thrill when they did this for us. Me being only 19 years old and Steve Smedley 18 years old at the time.
Dennis DeBruler Is this the remnants of "the Fort Wayne round house" https://www.google.com/.../@41.0707124,-85.../data=!3m1!1e3 That is, a Pennsy roundhouse.
[no answer]

Mark Llanuza posted again
[Since it was Conrail, it could have also been the NYC roundhouse. But looking at a 1951 aerial, the NYC roundhouse was already gone. (The turntable still existed.) The Pennsy roundhouse was a full 360 in 1951. But it was cut back to the type of arc we see above by 1961. The remnants in the above satellite reference do correspond to the remaining arc of the roundhouse.]

CONRAIL in Indiana & Illinois posted
Date unknown, here we see Penn Central F - 7 # 4360 near the former P.R.R. roundhouse at Fort Wayne, IN. Out of the John Fuller collection.
Christopher Allen Howe Sweet! When I originally saw this shot I thought it looked like the old Winters Street roundhouse.

Donald Brockhaus posted
I believe someone asked about the Pennsylvania Railroad machine shop. I found this photo, which is supposedly circa 1930.
[Notice all of the leather belts in the right background. I'm surprised that line shafts were still being used around 1930.]

A search for PRR roundhouses    this discussion needs more research, it may be listing three of them (visit)

Nickle Plate

1951 Aerial Image

The Nickel Plate "roundhouse" was actually rectangular by using longer leads than normal between the turntable and the building. Furthermore, this turntable that still exists must have been for local switchers that switched the east-end industries.

Frank Olive posted

Nickel Plate Road - 1955 Eastern Yard, Fort Wayne

1951 Aerial Image

On the west side of town I found an almost full-circle  roundhouse that must have been a division point servicing facility for the Nickel Plate mainline.

Satellite

Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana posted
[The comment claimed Pennsy. But other comments indicated it was the Penny Shops for Nickle Plate. ArchFW]
Bill Drotar Jr. What year was this shop torn down? I know the post office sits on that site now.
Anthony Ritchhart There is a sign at the post office, I think it says 1978.

Richard Miranda posted

Traffic World November 17, 1951: "The new Nickel Plate Terminal at Fort Wayne, Indiana, features facilities similar to the new Calumet terminal. In the picture, engine number 761 stands on 110-foot turntable in front of modern roundhouse."

"The facility was built at a cost of over $2,000,000, includes engine facilities, additional yard tracks and car repair facilities."

"Situated on a 50-acre site on the east side of the city where Nickel Plate previously had a 12-track yard, the new terminal was built to permit handling of both east and westbound trains in consolidated yard."

Tim Shanahan shared

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New York Central

1951 Aerial Image

A 1951 aerial photo shows a turntable in the NYC/Lake Shore and Michigan Railroad/Fort Wayne, Jackson & Saginaw yard in Fort Wayne, but I don't see a clear footprint of a roundhouse.

Satellite

I include a current satellite image to note the location of the yard and to show that the land is still vacant. I have not been able to find older topo maps to determine if there was a roundhouse. If the turntable is part of the original 1870 construction, then it was built by the Fort Wayne, Jackson & Saginaw Railroad. If it was built between 1882 and 1914, then it was built by the Lake Shore and Michigan Railroad. After 1914, it would be the NYC.

The building in the northwest corner of Clinton and 4th Street was the freight house.

(Facebooked 20151025.)