Here is the Wabash depot in Streator. Streator was a real active railroad town in the 1950s, with five railroads (AT&SF, CB&Q, GM&O, NYC and Wabash) operating into or through town, with significant interchange taking place. Streator also had two large glassmaking plants and several other heavy manufacturing businesses feeding traffic to the various railroads.

On Eric’s layout, four of the five railroads in Streator (AT&SF, CB&Q, GM&O, and Wabash) are represented by “live” interchanges, and the NYC is a passive interchange but their main track is operational if so desired. The Wabash is perhaps the most extensive “foreign-road” operation, stretching from downtown southeast to the Smith-Douglass fertilizer plant. This exquisite model was built by one of his local modeler friends.

Streator features a full-time CB&Q switch job, currently held down by an 0-6-0, the only regular Q steam operation on the layout. Another operator is kept busy here operating trains into/out of Streator from staging on the “IV&N” (the Q’s Streator-LaSalle-Zearing line) and switching and making the interchange runs from the AT&SF (who jointly switches the Owens-Illinois glass plant with the Q), GM&O and Wabash.

Another close-up view of the Wabash depot in Streator, showing the fully-detailed interior. The prototype depot in Streator stood until it burned down in the mid-1980s, long after Norfolk & Western (Wabash’s successor) abandoned the line. The office/warehouse building of Smith-Douglass in Streator is built along the front edge of the benchwork to show a fully-detailed interior toward the aisle.

Eric was kind enough to provide this photo from when the Wabash was in town (Photo courtesy Eric Mumper)

One of the runs the second Streator operator handles during the session is the “IV&N”, named for the original company that built the Streator-LaSalle-Zearing-Walnut line. Here the 267 brings the IV&N job out of staging with cars for
interchange at Streator.

Here is the elevator in Grand Ridge, IL north of Streator. Doesn’t it look nice? It’s just a few photographs of a wood elevator printed out and laminated to foam-core board. Pretty darn good for a “stand-in” buildings! Several similar "photo-core” structures are in process, including a model of the CB&Q Ottawa depot.