Nostalgia & History > Effingham IL depot question

At the tail end of my 24 day railfan swing through the eastern half of our great country I made an overnight stop in Effingham, IL. I was able to shoot an Amtrak train upon my early evening arrival, and another the next morning. The passenger depot(s) were intriguing for me. I assume the depot in current Amtrak use was originally an Illinois Central depot. And I also assume the other depot catty-corner to it was an original Pennsy depot. These 2 depots are sitting in the square NE corner of the 90 degree multi-main crossing. Although I failed to shoot a pic of it, there is another smaller building at a 45 degree angle in between both depots. Can anyone tell what this building was used for. My only guess is that it might have been a building common to both RRs, perhaps an old REA building? TIA for any information…

1. Looking west at the back side of the old IC (?) passenger depot building, now the current Amtrak facility.

2. CSXT 7309 west is passing the old PRR (?) passenger depot, crossing the current CN double main. An older Amtrak-style station sign is still in place, I assume leftover from the “National Limited” days. A corner of the "common" building can be seen on this image.
(2 photos taken in Effingham, IL on March 14, 2017)

Thanks for the info!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/22 04:56 by santafe199.

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Nice shots.
The Effingham sign in the second shot looks to be a Penn Central sign.
Gary

gcm Wrote: > ... The Effingham sign in the second shot looks to be a Penn Central sign ...

Thanks, Gary. I'll stand corrected. With the very rusty blue & white coloring I put it down as Amtrak...

Lance/199

rantoul Wrote: > ...  Effingham Nostalgia returns several posts ...

Thanks for the insight & links. That IC steam shot from Don's collection is priceless!

Lance/199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/17 17:46 by santafe199.

Pretty sure it was Amtrak in the PC depot when I rode the National Ltd. back in 1978.
As I remember, I was originally ticketed from New Orleans to Chicago on the Panama Ltd.,
with a connection to the Lone Star to Topeka, KS.
However, when we got to Memphis, we got put on Greyhound buses to Chicago.  Ugh!
I checked my timetables and decided to bail at Effingham.  Turns out, there was also
an Amtrak ticket agent from New Orleans also on the bus who decided to do the same thing.
Only he was just going to return back to New Orleans on #59.  He got kicked out of his roomette
to ride the bus, and he was really only going to Chicago for the day.  We spent a very pleasant several
hours at the depot.  As I recall, it was a real hot day, and the doors and windows were wide
open!  Great for seeing and hearing all the freights pounding the diamonds.  I sure enjoyed
talking with that gentleman from New Orleans, and regret having forgotten his name.  I had
to have my USA railpass ticket changed, and they actually had an agent there back then.
Here is the ticket from that trip.  You can see it's stamped EFG.  Unfortunately, The National Ltd. had recently
been changed to Amfleet equipment that Summer.  I was so bushed from being up half the night
on that bus and railfanning in Effingham all day, that I fell sound asleep, and the next thing I knew, a carman woke me up
at Kansas City after everybody else had gotten off the train.  LOL!  Thanks for jogging my memory Lance!

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mp51w Wrote: > ...  Pretty sure it was Amtrak in the PC depot when I rode the National Ltd. back in 1978...

In April of 1979 I took my first big extended train trip. From Emporia, KS I rode back east via #16, the Lone Star to Chicago, and  #40(?) the Broadway Limited to Newark, NJ. In October of 1980 I would repeat the Broadway leg as far as Washington DC en route to Spartanburg, SC. As I look back I now regret not taking the chance to ride the National Limited during the 1979 trip. Who knew that train would be a casualty of the October 1979 shake-up debacle for Amtrak's long distance trains. Sigh...

Lance/199

Yeah, and I never got to ride it East of Effingham either.  Darn!