Reading Reveals Mysteries
I recently had been going through my archives looking for some other photos when I stumbled upon some previously unedited images that I had set aside to edit. So I did a few quick edits and will hopefully be presenting these images over the next several days. This is another of those photos.
On one of my few trips to the BNSF Chillicothe Sub in the final months of the famous Santa Fe-era signal bridges and cantilevers with searchlights, we happened to be exploring the line between Mazon & Ancona. We were on the way back from Ancona when we noticed an oncoming train in the east. We cut a beeline to the nearest crossing, which just happened to be a small cluster of houses south of Streator. The train turned out to be (if I remember correctly) NSIGAL, the train that comes off the Norfolk Southern Kankakee Sub on the south side of Streator. We had seen this train holding for orders or new crew earlier when we had been exploring around Streator.
Anyway, after the train passed, we noticed an odd little gravel drive that went through a cluster of trees next to the tracks. What we could not see from the road we would soon discover. Inside the trees we discovered this abandoned building. At first glance, we thought it was an abandoned farm building of some sort, you could see old hay through the collapsing walls.
But the more I looked at it, the more I thought it might be an old long-forgotten depot. This building's proximity to the railroad tracks seemed too suspicious to me, and the windows and door seen in the image did not seem like they belonged were original features, while the dual sliding doors also seen in this image clearly were not (and may have done more to compromise the stability of this building than anything else). The only way for us to know for sure was to find the tell-tale feature of almost every railroad depot, the bay window that the station agents used for seeing oncoming trains.
I should add, it had been raining all day this day, a very hard and steady rain that will soak you to the bone in minutes, and only with proper rain gear is it tolerable. Also, the grass here was knee-high and covered in poison ivy. Even though it meant soaked pants, socks, & shoes, and potentially getting poison ivy, we walked around to the trackside of the building. And just as I had predicted, there it was, the bay window! Granted, it was worse for wear, but still plain as day. So not only was this building a depot, we soon discovered that it was not listed in my friends listings of known depots!
With no idea of this place, a peek inside revealed this depot's life after retirement. Sometime after it was disused as a depot, it was converted to farm use of some sort. Either a second floor was added or the existing ceiling was lowered, with the new upper story used to store hay. This second floor had largely collapsed over time, but old rotten hay could still be seen matted to the floor like a pile of wet sheep's wool. The double doors were likely added about the same time and no doubt housed some sort of farm machinery.
Almost convinced we stumbled upon a mystery nearly lost to time, we called it quits and finally headed for home. Later that night, some research and Google Maps revealed what we had found. It turns out we were in the tiny blip of a town named Reading that sits between Streator and Ancona, and this was indeed the old Santa Fe Reading depot. It had never been moved and was indeed in its as-built location. My friend never did find it in is depot resources, and we could only speculate that its use as a farm building may have masked its life when that list of depots was compiled (I want to say his version dated from 2006 or so). About a year later, however, when we learned of DepotMaps.com, we were able to confirm our reasearch.
Sorry, I know this is long, so I'll sum up this way. We found this in October 2017. I have no idea if this thing still survives today, much less whether it's standing. But as of this writing, a look on Google satellite view shows what might be building walls or the outline of a foundation. It's just too hard to tell. And with no street views out in rural Reading, the only way to know is to drive by it.
Reading Reveals Mysteries
I recently had been going through my archives looking for some other photos when I stumbled upon some previously unedited images that I had set aside to edit. So I did a few quick edits and will hopefully be presenting these images over the next several days. This is another of those photos.
On one of my few trips to the BNSF Chillicothe Sub in the final months of the famous Santa Fe-era signal bridges and cantilevers with searchlights, we happened to be exploring the line between Mazon & Ancona. We were on the way back from Ancona when we noticed an oncoming train in the east. We cut a beeline to the nearest crossing, which just happened to be a small cluster of houses south of Streator. The train turned out to be (if I remember correctly) NSIGAL, the train that comes off the Norfolk Southern Kankakee Sub on the south side of Streator. We had seen this train holding for orders or new crew earlier when we had been exploring around Streator.
Anyway, after the train passed, we noticed an odd little gravel drive that went through a cluster of trees next to the tracks. What we could not see from the road we would soon discover. Inside the trees we discovered this abandoned building. At first glance, we thought it was an abandoned farm building of some sort, you could see old hay through the collapsing walls.
But the more I looked at it, the more I thought it might be an old long-forgotten depot. This building's proximity to the railroad tracks seemed too suspicious to me, and the windows and door seen in the image did not seem like they belonged were original features, while the dual sliding doors also seen in this image clearly were not (and may have done more to compromise the stability of this building than anything else). The only way for us to know for sure was to find the tell-tale feature of almost every railroad depot, the bay window that the station agents used for seeing oncoming trains.
I should add, it had been raining all day this day, a very hard and steady rain that will soak you to the bone in minutes, and only with proper rain gear is it tolerable. Also, the grass here was knee-high and covered in poison ivy. Even though it meant soaked pants, socks, & shoes, and potentially getting poison ivy, we walked around to the trackside of the building. And just as I had predicted, there it was, the bay window! Granted, it was worse for wear, but still plain as day. So not only was this building a depot, we soon discovered that it was not listed in my friends listings of known depots!
With no idea of this place, a peek inside revealed this depot's life after retirement. Sometime after it was disused as a depot, it was converted to farm use of some sort. Either a second floor was added or the existing ceiling was lowered, with the new upper story used to store hay. This second floor had largely collapsed over time, but old rotten hay could still be seen matted to the floor like a pile of wet sheep's wool. The double doors were likely added about the same time and no doubt housed some sort of farm machinery.
Almost convinced we stumbled upon a mystery nearly lost to time, we called it quits and finally headed for home. Later that night, some research and Google Maps revealed what we had found. It turns out we were in the tiny blip of a town named Reading that sits between Streator and Ancona, and this was indeed the old Santa Fe Reading depot. It had never been moved and was indeed in its as-built location. My friend never did find it in is depot resources, and we could only speculate that its use as a farm building may have masked its life when that list of depots was compiled (I want to say his version dated from 2006 or so). About a year later, however, when we learned of DepotMaps.com, we were able to confirm our reasearch.
Sorry, I know this is long, so I'll sum up this way. We found this in October 2017. I have no idea if this thing still survives today, much less whether it's standing. But as of this writing, a look on Google satellite view shows what might be building walls or the outline of a foundation. It's just too hard to tell. And with no street views out in rural Reading, the only way to know is to drive by it.