Ok...found this one as well. Thanks for post. Looks like he has more rolling stock across the creek as well (based on the aerial photo in Googlemaps). Cool. I'm envious.

If you are including standard gauge collections that do not include operations those of John E. Thompson, Chicago-area business man, are well known.

His commercial vineyard operation south of Monee, IL (along the IC) had a T&NO 4-6-0, two ATSF head end cars, and an IC business car. Also two train stations moved from nearby towns. On some farm property farther north he had about 8 steam locomotives and at least one wood caboose. All standard gauge but from small southern shortlines or industries.

The winery went out of business many years ago. From what I was told when the Thompsons sold the farm property they sold some equipment and part of the deal was that buyer had to move the balance to the former winery. One by one most of the engines were disposed of. The station buildings were repatriated. The IC business car moved only a few miles and sits on private property off its trucks (which are nearby). The original 4-6-0 went to a Georgia operation which bills itself as the Roosevelt Railroad and is a display item.

The last two steamers went to IRM about two years ago. IRM scrapped the two head end cars (baggage/express + RPO combine and a baggage / rider coach combine) on site, retaining whatever was useful.

I'm sure others can expand on this. But here are some photos.

The original setup at the winery:
http://home.earthlink.net/~stevekraus/monee.html

Photos taken at the farm site in November 1982:

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/f ... onee1a.jpg
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/f ... nee1bs.jpg
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/f ... monee3.jpg
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/f ... monee4.jpg
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/f ... monee5.jpg
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/f ... monee6.jpg
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/f ... monee7.jpg
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/f ... monee8.jpg
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/f ... onee9a.jpg
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/f ... onee9b.jpg

Steve

Steve -

A couple of quick corrections:

The Thompson Winery property actually had 3 "small town" train depots. One was located at the entrance to the property and was a C&EI depot from Beecher, Illinois. This depot was, I believe, donated back to Beecher. The local historical society did a terrific job of renovating it very near its orignal site on the C&EI (now UP/CSX) main line. The other two depots, with another smaller building, formed the actual winery operation itself. A few years ago, vandals apparently set fire to the buildings and they burned to the ground. A Rock Island outside braced wooden caboose sitting next to one of the depots was basically destroyed by the fire. A 2-6-0 parked just in front of the caboose suffered some superficial fire damage. I believe both of the depots forming the winery were former IC depots, but I have no idea as to where they came from.

Illinois Central business car number 2 was recently advertised for sale by Ozark Mountain Railcar. It was moved but continues to sit on cribbing, its trucks sitting nearby. This is a wood bodied car that was steel sheathed by the railroad many years ago.

Enough said.

Les