Nostalgia & History > Southern Illinois Scenes 1988

In the mid to late 1980s, NS acquired the Mt Carmel – Cairo IL line (about 135 Mi) from Conrail. Before Conrail, the line had belonged to PC and previously NYC. Acquisition of this line was not one of NS’ better ventures.
On May 27, 1988, DocJohn and I made an outing down through southern Illinois to check out this line. As expected, there was not much activity. However, there were several interesting depots remaining on the line.
Photo 1 – NS-SOU Local tied down at Eldorado due to hours of service law.
Photo 2 – Ex NYC Depot at Stonefort then owned by Blackman HDW. & LBR. CO.
Photo 3 – Ex IC Depot at Mound City serving as the City Library.
ALLEN



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/22 23:49 by krm152.

A lot of interesting history in that area.  Eldorado was a completely different name, according to legend, and the railroad sign painter simplified it to Eldorado and the name stuck.  It was also a sundown town, so today, it is something like 98 percent white.  There was a sign on the edge of town advising people as much - legend has it that towns as far north as Pekin had signs like that into the 1970s.  Mound City is near Cairo and the story of Cairo is about as rough as it gets.  It's still pretty much a ghost town when you visit there.  Mound City was an important brown water naval town during the civil war, with military boats and everything.  The depot is still there at Stonefort - that's also closer to Marion and Crab Orchard.  There's the Crab Orchard and Egyptian and their steam power that they ran up until the mid 80s.  That line is still in business and is owned by Progressive Rail as of 2012. 

I've included a contemporary shot of the Stonefort depot today (stock Panoramio image).  

 

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aaronhanson Wrote:
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> A lot of interesting history in that area.....

Thanks very much for the interesting information and photo that you posted.
ALLEN