Saturday, September 30, 2023

Archive: Quincy, IL: Wabash Depot

James Holzmeier posted
Also in FamilyOldPhotos
Robert Daly posted an uncolored version
This one caught my eye because of its elegance. Then it caught my brain because I think of CB&Q going to Quincy and Wabash going to Hannibal, MO.

It turns out the the Wabash had a branch that left the mainline at Bluffs, IL. The track still exists to the CIPSCO power plant south of Meredosia. But I see the loop of track servicing the power plant has been removed. I doubt that they stock enough coal from barges to last them through the winter. I assume it has either switched to natural gas or closed. But I see a couple of plants south of the power plant that are still rail servered. (There were cuts of cars spotted at the plants.) And there is a yard in Bluffs that would support a local train.

The Wabash branch crossed the Illinois River just a little to the north of the power plant an basically followed IL-99. For example, we see a tree line and land scar north of Hersman. At Mount Sterling it went along the south side and followed the diagonal of US-24. You can then follow the land scar through Timewell (now part of Mound Station?). It then follows the diagonal of US-24 again until US-24 bends but it goes further north and then west. It went through Clayton along Railroad Street. The grain elevator has grown since Norfolk Western abandoned these branches because it covers up a branch that curved north out of Clayton and went northerly to Carthage and then west to join (the old) Toledo, Peoria & Western at Evanston, IL. It used the TP&W route to access Keokuk. But I'm interested in the branch that kept going west until it joined the CB&Q at Center Point. Center Point is the label used by the SPV Map, but it must have been a control point name because Google shows the town as Camp Point, IL.
AdamsCountyHistory
Wabash Depot, built 1857, rail service discontinued 1934. Camp Point.
Wabash used the CB&Q route to access Quincy. For a few years, it used the depot of the CB&Q predecessor Quincy Omaha & Kansas City Ry. In 1903 it left the CB&Q on the north side and ran straight south down the middle 6th Street and then turned west to meet the CB&Q at Wabash Junction at about the latitude of Lock and Dam #21. Their new depot was by State Street. (SPV Map and Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Co. Depots and Towers Illinois and Wisconsin Robert C. Brown, p. 166)

After spending more time than I care to admit looking at 1938 aerial photos trying to find the route, it finally occurred to me to "Google it." The line was abandoned in 1930. And for some reason that I don't understand, the route disappeared very quickly across the land at the north and south parts of town.The depot was on the southeast corner of 6th and York Streets (wabashrhs, search for "quincy"). The depot was designed by Theodore C. Link (RailroadStationHistoricalSociety).

Note the discrepancy in the sources concerning the State vs. York Street location

Sunday, March 20, 2022

Archive of 1902 Bridge over Grand Calumet River in Hammond, IN

These notes were based on the railroad information in Bridge Hunter and Historic Bridges, which was wrong. The original post now has the correct information.



(Bridge HunterHistoric BridgesSatellite)   CC&L= Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville Railroad

Photo courtesy of the Indiana State Department of Natural Resource, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology

Photo courtesy of the Indiana State Department of Natural Resource, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology
Tyler Haack posted four photos with the comment: "Old swing bridge near Sohl Avenue in Hammond, Indiana, which was abandoned by Norfolk Southern in the 1980s. Pictures were taken in April of this year.[2018]"

1
2

3
4
When I read in Tyler's comment that the bridge was abandoned by Norfolk Southern, I assumed it was some sort of industrial branch for either the 4th District of the Wabash or for the Nickle Plate. Both Bridge Hunter and Historic Bridges agree that the original owner was Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville Railroad. The CC&L was formed in 1904 by combining three railroads. It went bankrupt in 1908 and was bought by C&O in 1910 as their C&O of Indiana subsidiary. [jjakucyk] So Historic Bridges ownership of CSX seems to be correct and Tyler and Bridge Hunter claiming it is owned by NS seems to be wrong.

C&O joined the Erie just before Griffith Junction and shared its route and the NKP bridge to get to the C&WI at State Line Junction. The Erie+C&WI route was for passenger trains. Reading the description below, maybe this bridge was used by a route for C&O's freight trains that went north to access the B&OCT tracks that went to the Rockwell Street Yard.
Chicago, Cincinnati and Louisville Railroad chartered 11/1/1866 as
reorganization of Cincinnati, Peru and Chicago Railroad. Built from
Peru to La Porte, and the Indianapolis, La Porte and Michigan City
Railroad continued from La Porte to Michigan City. Plans were to use
the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway from La Porte to Chicago;
not clear if it did. If it used the Pere Marquette it would have
joined in Michigan City. Not sure where it would have joined the Monon
if it ever used that; maybe that was on the later alignment from Hammond.

Cincinnati and Indiana Western Railroad and Cincinnati, Richmond and
Muncie Railroad chartered in Ohio and Indiana to build the line
between Cincinnati and Griffith (the junction with the Erie
southeast of Hammond). Both consolidated with the CC&L 6/1/1903. Once
completed, terminated at Hammond (or Griffith?) for several years.

Hammond Belt Railway chartered 1906 in Illinois and opened 4/6/1907
(?), from the CC&I in Hammond (which crossed the Erie and everything
else at Griffith and ran parallel to the Erie to south of the
Michigan Central Railroad crossing) west and northwest to the Indiana
Harbor Belt Railroad at Louisville Junction. (The 1913 map does a
great job of showing the line; short parts of grading can be seen on
topo maps.) Ran over the IHB to Dolton, then over the CC&I's own track
from just wets of Dolton to the IC just south of Riverdale, then over
the IC to Central Station.

Reorganized 7/6/1910 as Chesapeake and Ohio Railway of Indiana.
12/1/1910 began using the Erie from Hammond to State Line and the C&WI
to Dearborn. 3/1/1925 began using the Nickel Plate from a connecting
track somewhere between the Michigan Central crossing and State Line
to the IC south of Grand Crossing (connecting track shown on
http://70.121.38.224/Chicago%20Division/jpegs/113.jpg ) and the IC to
Central Station.

By 1945, service was cut back to Hammond, with transfers advertised to
the Monon, Erie or South Shore. Later stopped running altogether.

[railroad, search for "/1866"]

Saturday, October 2, 2021

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