Simms Collection -- Illinois Miscellany

Many pictures in the Illinois miscellany category have already appeared in the Scalzo collection, so most of those are omitted.

CHICAGO & INTERURBAN

"Chicago & Interurban Traction Co.
at 79th & Halsted St.  Chicago, Ill."

CHICAGO AURORA AND DEKALB

Cars 21 and 22, probably at Bliss's Woods siding

DE KALB  SYCAMORE  & INTERURBAN

EAST ST. LOUIS

ELGIN & BELVIDERE

#201 at Marengo after abandonment

EVANSTON  RAILWAY

"Evanston Ry. Co. #3
At Downtown Evanston, Ill.
Sept, 1935
Photo by Edward Frank, Jr."

"Evanston Ry. Co. #5 & #10
At Central & Bennett Sts.
Evanston, Ill.
Sept, 1935
Photo by Edward Frank, Jr."

"Evanston Rys. #6
Central St. & Crawford Ave."

KEWAUNEE & GALVA

MIDLOTHIAN & BLUE ISLAND R.R.

"Midlothian and Blue Island Railroad

Operated on 1 1/4 mile track along 143rd from Midlothian RR Sta. (CRI&P) to Midlothian Country Club (Cicero Ave.) by the club for convenience of golfers.

Only car, built by Cummings about 1921.  Blue color."

ROCKFORD & FREEPORT RY.

ROCKFORD BELOIT & JANESVILLE RR.

Dave's Depots - Illinois Terminal Depot/Substation - Hamel, Illinois

This is an ongoing series of posts by Hicks Car Works contributor David Wilkins, as he roams the country on business travel, and shares his finds with us.

A couple of weeks ago, when I had to go up to Peoria, I found that I-55 was backed up due to some serious road construction. I decided to "Get my Kicks" by taking old Route 66 as far as Springfield. I did not see Martin Milner or George Maharis though. From Edwardsville north, old Route 66 follows the old Illinois Terminal traction line to just past Hamel. There, the IT splits off in a northeasterly direction, as I took an older alignment of Route 66 to Springfield.

Right in the middle of downtown Hamel sits this depot/substation combination. It is currently used as a tanning salon. I believe the IT literally ran down the middle of the street in Hamel. The building is in good shape.

Dave's Depots - Illinois Terminal, Peoria, IL

Business took me to lovely Peoria, Illinois recently. Since I stayed downtown, I drove over to the former Illinois Terminal station. After the IT abandoned the Illinois River bridge and trackage into the station, it was sold to the city of Peoria. It was used for many years as the central police station for the city. Now it is used by the Peoria County Board of Elections. The building appears to be in good shape and well cared for.

Dave's Depots - Chicago & Alton - Alton, Illinois

This edition of Dave's Depots takes us to Alton, Illinois, just up the Mississippi River from St. Louis. Alton, in its heyday was quite the industrial center, and rated no less than two C&A depots. One depot, Alton Union Station was located in downtown Alton, near the depot used by the Illinois Terminal Alton cars. To access this depot, the C&A and later the GM&O had to navigate in-street trackage just north of the depot, and a rather steep grade as the railroad climbed out of the Mississippi River Valley. Later, the C&A built the "high line" which skirted the east side of town, which eliminated the street trackage and the steep climb. The street trackage was later abandoned. With the high line, came this depot. It is still in very good condition and is used by Amtrak's Lincoln Service and the Texas Eagle.

Dave's Depots -Illinois Central Depot - Belleville, Illinois

This edition of Dave's Depots takes us literally down the street from my office. The Illinois Central depot in Belleville is a large structure. that sits just south of the square and St. Clair County Courthouse. I did not know this building still existed until I passed by it one day on my way to a local BBQ eatery.

This depot is typical of the "county seat" depots the IC and other railroads built in county seats. The L&N depot in Belleville, now long-gone was equally large and impressive. This structure only handled passengers and their baggage. The freight depot was and still is across the street. Now painted, and with an addition, the former freight depot serves a local moving company.

While snapping these photos, the owner came by and opened up the station for me. As you can see, there has been some modification to the inside, mainly the removal of the wall separating the ticket office from the rest of the building. Otherwise, the station had an open floor plan, with wooden benches for passengers.

If you are interested, the station is for sale. It comes with a 1.1 acre lot, with parking space for 220 cars. I can put you in touch with the owner.

Dave's Depots - Jacksonville, Illinois - Chicago & Alton

Dave's Depots returns! After a brief hiatus, my work-related travels took me to a town near Jacksonville, Illinois. On the way home, I snagged these photos of the old Chicago & Alton depot, now used as an Italian Restaurant. Jacksonville is on the C&A's old Kansas City to Chicago mainline.

The owners of the depot have preserved the old train order signal, though it is now mounted on the opposite side of the station from it's original location. Also, the original station sign, complete with mileage to Kansas City and Chicago is still in place.

Jacksonville also hosts the former CB&Q coal branch into southern Illinois, though there appears to be no depot.

After checking the map, it appears that the C&A had a plethora of lines in the area, which surprised me. I always thought of the railroad as just the two mainlines, from St. Louis to Chicago and from Kansas City of Chicago. I'll be back in the area in the near future, so I'll have to update you if I find more preserved or surviving depots.

Test Post

Do not be alarmed. This is only a test. If this had been an actual blog posting, I would have come up with a picture of a full-sized trestle.

We're just trying to see how the RSS feed works.

Update: OK, it seems to be working. Tom Gears has put together a bundle here for railway preservation blogs, so you can easily see the latest doings all over the place.

Dave's Depots - Transfer House, Decatur, Illinois

Yesterday, I found myself in Macon Count to appear in court before Judge Weber and argue a motion for summary judgment. It seems that every time I go to Decatur, it is cloudy and dreary. I took a photo of the Transfer House, but it did not come out, so I'm using a public domain photo from the Wikimedia Commons by Douglas Grhone.

Sitting in a park in downtown Decatur is the Decatur Transfer House. This structure used to sit literally in the middle of the intersection of East Main Street and North Main Street. All streetcar lines, and for a time, cars of the Illinois Traction System, passed by the house on their way through town.

The house was encircled by a loop which all car lines fed into.

Later, the IT moved its tracks, and stopped using this portion of the city system. Decatur went to the bus in 1936, but the Transfer House remained in service. Later, the building was moved to a downtown city park, where it sits today in good condition.
This is the last Dave's Depots for a little while. I'm off to Rolla, MO for the weekend, and then off to Kauai, Hawaii for 8 days. For the event in Rolla, Hicks Car Company member Frank needs to brush up on his reading of Genesis, Chapter 2.

Dave's Depots -- Maryville, Illinois

Today's installment of Dave's Depots takes us to Maryville, Illinois. This depot is the standard "Amshack" that Amtrak erected in the 1970s in places like St. Louis, Cincinnati, Bloomington, IL, and other places.

I don't know which railroad owns the mainline that the depot sits on, as there is a lot of varied traffic, from steam, diesel, to even this RTA commuter train from the early 1980s. Railroads of all eras seem to pass by this depot, from modern BNSF unit coal trains, to L&N 2-8-2s and IC 2-10-2s moving manifest freights through town. More recently, I've seen a freight travel through town pulled by one of the Union Pacific Turbines.

Most passengers feel that the depot is a bit small.

Dave's Depots -- Illinois Central Depot -- Murphysboro, Illinois

Just down the street from the previously-featured Mobile & Ohio Railroad depot, sits the Illinois Central Depot. Like the M&O, this secondary mainline of the Illinois Central is long gone. Actually, it appears as if the line through town ran right down the middle of the street.

The depot is large and ornate, almost as large as the Carbondale depot. Though, not on the mainline, Murphysboro is the county seat of Jackson County, and thus deserving of a nice depot.

The depot and adjacent freight house are in excellent condition, used by a local adult rehabilitation center.

Dave's Depots -- Mobile & Ohio R.R. -- Murphysboro, Illinois

Today's installment of Dave's Depots takes us to Murphysboro, Illinois. Murphysboro is the county seat of Jackson County, and as such, has two impressive depots, both of which are along abandoned right of ways.

Today's depot is the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Depot. This depot is about 4 blocks west of the Jackson County Courthouse, along Illinois Route 13. The structure is in very good condition, but it appears as if the last business in this building, "The Depot" eatery, is no more.

Sources indicate the depot was built in 1888. Also, the M&O maintained a large shop complex adjacent to the depot, until a tornado struck the facility in 1925. This depot is along the same M&O line as the previously-featured Sparta, Illinois depot.

The structure is on the national register of historic places.

Dave's Depots -- In the Heat of the Night Edition -- Sparta, Illinois

This edition of Dave’s Depots takes us to Sparta, Illinois. Sparta is a town in Randolph County, Illinois. The depot sits along the old Gulf Mobile and Ohio line south from St. Louis. The line active through Sparta, no longer as a mainline, but as a branch to a coal power plant north of town on the Kaskaskia River. The line north of the power plant to St. Louis is abandoned, and part of the right of way was reused as a new path for Illinois Route 3.

Many of you may recognize the Sparta depot, and the entire town, as the setting for the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night. The movie starred Rod Steiger, Sidney Poitier, and Lee Grant. Sparta became “Sparta, Mississippi” for the movie, and many local buildings were used. The movie is actually a pretty good one, winning four Academy Awards that year. The Sparta depot is featured in several scenes. In the opening, Poitier disembarks the train in Sparta, to await a connection. At the end of the movie, Poitier boards the train again to leave town.

The movie also featured trains of the Missouri Pacific. Early in the movie, an escaped convict is running from the police and the requisite hound dogs, when he crosses the MoPac tracks near the Mississippi River and then attempts to flee to "Arkansas" over the river on a highway bridge. This part was filmed in nearby Chester, Illinois. You can still drive across the bridge today.

Ironically enough, in the movie, Poitier is supposed to be heading back north when he boards the train at the end of the movie. In real life, he’s heading south.

Today, the depot is in good shape, used as a local art gallery.

Dave's Depots - Marion, Illinois - Chicago & Eastern Illinois

This installment of "Dave's Depots" takes us to Marion, Illinois. Marion is the county seat of Williamson County. Marion is also home to this former C&EI depot. The depot, which is built mainly of brick, is probably a C&EI "county seat" depot. Its construction is much more substantial than the depot at West Frankfort, Illinois, also along the C&EI. Just imagine for youself the CE&I's crack limited "The Egyptian Flyer" calling at this depot, with its 4-4-2 and passenger cars!

Now used by the local Lions Club, the building seems to be relatively intact, save for the elimination of some windows and doorways.

Monticello Railroad Museum

On Saturday I got a chance to visit Monticello again. The most important news is that the restoration of Southern 401 is still on schedule, and they hope to fire it up later this year. As mentioned before, it has a brand new boiler, and everything else has been rebuilt. The backhead (R) appears pretty complete.

Here is the rebuilt cross-compound air pump waiting to be installed.

And one of the cylinders, with a string lined up to guide the boring process. Thanks to Paul Taylor who took some time to show me through the engine shop and talk about the project.





The revenue service train consisted of this IC combine (L), a Rock Island commuter car like the ones we all know and love....



a flat car converted into an open-air excursion car (note the lack of benches)




and this Wabash caboose. Everything is nicely painted.

Dave's Depots - Lincoln Depot, Springfield, Illinois

Work recently took me to Springfield, Illinois to appear before the Circuit Court of Sangamon County. Of course, Springfield is where Abraham Lincoln made his home as an adult and practiced law. Springfield has a host of Lincoln-related sites, from the Lincoln Library and Museum, to the Lincoln Home.

One of the interesting Lincoln sites sits next to the Sangamon County Courts building. It is the Great Western Railroad Station. This is where Lincoln left Springfield on February 11, 1861 to head to his inauguration in Washington. On the rear platform of his train, Lincoln gave an improvised farewell speech to the assembled crowd:

"My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell."

The depot remains, and in good shape. The building is owned by the local newspaper, who maintains it.

Springfield also has several other depots, to be covered later, including an Illinois Central Depot, a Chicago & Alton Depot and the Illinois Terminal facility. I only wish I could have taken "the traction" back to St. Louis, to avoid the drive.