Hi,

Just north of Pontiac, IL in the small community of Cayuga is a derelict grain elevator and accompanying scale house. The scale house was most definitely a railroad station at one point in its life, but according to historic photographs, it is not the Chicago and Alton depot. Could this be from the Bloomington Pontiac and Joliet interurban railroad?

Any help with identifying this structure would be greatly appreciated.

Thomas

Thomas -

Well it looks like it COULD have been a railroad depot. Might also have been BUILT as the grain elevators scale house. If not the GM&O (Alton) Cayuga depot, it might have been a depot moved from another line when that station was closed. This was not unheard of, especially if the depot was in good condition at the time. There was an Illinois Central line that ran west from Kempton, Illinois, through Saxony, Griswold, Eylar, Rugby and Swygert before reaching Pontiac. Some of these locations between Kempton and Pontiac might have had depots at one time and are not that far from Cayuga, where a sale and move could have been a possibility. There was also the Wabash Railroad's main line between Chicago and St. Louis that operated east of Cayuga and ran through a couple of locations (such as Emington, Illinois) that might have had depots at one time. And yes, it might have been the Cayuga station of the Bloomington, Pontiac & Joliet Electric Railway which was abandoned in the mid-1920's. Who owns the structure now? Even though the elevator is no longer in business, it appears that the building has an address posted and there are other buildings that appear to be being used. Any chance you could talk to the owners and get a look inside?

Good luck in your search. Keep us posted if you find out anything.

Les

Hi
I was just up on the Railroad Station Historical Society, website, to see if I could find any information dealing with the depot. Basically, the depot is not the original, according to the society.

Pat -

Thanks for the info. I've seen a photo of the Cayuga, Illinois depot taken in the early 1900's, and I agree that it is not the structure currently near the old grain elevator. However, I got to thinking about this a little bit and realized that there IS the chance that it still might be the Cayuga depot! Small frame depots were always subject to destruction, such as by fire or derailment. So if something like that happened, it could be that the Chicago & Alton replaced the original depot with the structure in question, either as new construction or by moving a depot not needed elsewhere to Cayuga. So Thomas....sorry; another possibility!

Les

That entry to RRSHS was submitted by myself a few months ago, but I was told about the possibility of it being a BP&J depot after that was published.

I'm almost certain that it was never an Alton depot. By the looks of the Cayuga structure I can tell you that, if it is a depot, it was built in the late 1800's or early 1900's, and at that time the Alton was using designs for much larger buildings. But there is always a possibility.

Thomas

If that were not a depot, I would be very surprised. I doubt it is the depot from Cayuga, as that has been historically a very small community. It is small and easy to move, so it is an excellent candidate to pick up a take a few miles. Nice to see it relatively well preserved.

My guess would be that it is a Wabash depot from the branch that ran through Pontiac, possibly the Pontiac depot itself. There were hip-roofed depots on the Wabash. Good Luck.

Since there have been statements that the surviving "depot" at Cayuga cannot be the original C&A Cayuga depot, I thought I would try to post a photo of that original station. Unfortunately, the only place I found such a photo was in a website devoted to following the "old Route 66" route. The old Cayuga depot photo is at the very bottom of this entry:

https://www.theroute-66.com/cayuga.html

I can't figure out how to remove the photo from the entire entry, so if interested in seeing the old depot, you'll have to scroll the entry down until you come to it. It's obvious that this depot is NOT the structure currently at Cayuga.

Les

I backtracked the image to the LOC site and downloaded it.

https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/det/4a2 ... 20201v.jpg

Hi gang...
Am I the only one who thinks this depot could very well be the original C&A Cayuga Depot with an addition? To me, the structure to the left of the bay window looks to be exactly the same proportions as the C&A depot in the black and white photo (the left 3/4 of it anyways).
Maybe at some point the depot was either moved and added onto, or just added onto??
Thge roof was obviously modified, and the building was lengthened, but even the brick chimney seems to be in the right location.
If you could get into the attic of the building, it might become apparent if there had been an addition, and if the roof had been modified.....
Other than that, maybe it is a C&A depot from another nearby town?
Smaller details like the door, window trim, siding etc... could all have been changed or altered over the years

Peter.

Trainkid456 - There is a chance that the elevator and building will show on a Sanborn fire insurance map of the city. If that area was covered, the map would show the location and footprint of buildings every 5-10 years from the late 1880s until about 1930. I'm in Alaska and can't access them, but typically the digital images are available on line through your local of state library to residents of the state with a library card.

Maybe supporting a moved and enlarged station, an end view shows that the end door and window are placed similarly.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/thedefini ... 6242331592

The author of this site says the depot was moved to the grain elevator.
https://www.theroute-66.com/cayuga.html#old-depot

It was not uncommon to move or enlarge/rebuild existing stations. This station was originally built for the Mont Alto RR at Mont Alto Furnace, then moved to Mont Alto and finally rebuilt into a larger station there by the Cumberland Valley Railroad in about 1912. Note the rebuilt/enlarged station had a hip roof installed. Photos from Pennsylvania Railroad Stations Database.

Is there any evidence that signalling equipment, such as a train order board, used to be mounted above or in front of the baywindow? Any leftover hardware of that sort would point to it definitely being a former depot.

Drew -

Good point! There does appear to be two circular spots beneath the center window of the bay in Thomas's photo of the structure. This might be where the connection was made to a train order post. A close up photo might reveal a bit more.

Les

Drew and Les,

Yes, there is depot hardware inside. Through a broken window I spotted what appears to be some telegraph equipment, and I saw what would have been the agent's desk built into the center of the bay with the part in the middle where the agent could lean into the desk and look down the tracks.

One of the features that makes me think this isn't a C&A depot is the hole above the bay window for the train order signals. The C&A, to the best of my knowledge, did not connect the signals to the building like other railroads.

Thomas