I stumbled upon the old ATSF depot in Moon (Reading), IL a few weeks ago and keep forgetting to post the info I found on it here.

Moon, the land of two houses, is located right across the BNSF mainline from Reading, IL, which is between Streator and Anacona. There was once a grain elevator here that served both communities, which brings us to the depot which was used for storage by the grain company for several decades.

The depot was likely closed in the 1950's but was never demolished or relocated. Instead, the Santa Fe sold it to the grain elevator and they used it for storage. I was shown a picture of the depot after the transition to non-railroad use a couple days before my visit, which was taken in about 1960. (Sorry, I can't post that one due to copyright concerns)

Even back then, the depot was in pretty rough shape. The bay section had all the windows boarded up by the time the old photo was taken, and doors were either removed or destroyed leaving at least some interior portions open to the elements

Now fast-forward to 2010. The depot had been emptied by this point and was sitting vacant covered in trees next to the elevator and hidden from the BNSF tracks, and almost all civilization except for a tiny dirt road that winds its way a few feet behind it. Sometime during 2010 the elevator was demolished. It's pretty shocking that I can't find any news articles, pictures, or any online anything about the demolition considering it was a huge structure. Anyway, the depot was never demolished and by 2012 or so it was merely a shell, similar to Gary Union Station in Gary, IN, but about 30 times smaller.

That's all the info I know about it, and by the looks of it during my recent visit, a heavy Illinois snowstorm this winter could easily be the end of the dalapidated, abandoned, and forgotten Moon depot.

I tried to upload a photo of it that I took when I was there but for some reason it wouldn't let me.

A replacement photo can be found here: http://depotmaps.com/Images/DepotIL/MoonReadingIL.jpg

I had no idea there was one in North Hayden! I have family in Lowell and we drive past the elevator all the time. Thanks for sharing!

This thread was originally in the Classifieds section and was moved here. I originally posted a reply to Trainkid456's post there, stating that I thought it should be moved to the Interchange section. Here is an approximation of the rest of my comments, which should have appeared after the initial thread posting:

Trainkid456 -

Good the hear about this structure there at Moon, Illinois. There is an elevator at a spot called North Hayden in Indiana that has a structure that appears to be an old depot now used for storage. I'm not sure if there ever was a railroad station at North Hayden. The depot may be from Belshaw, about two miles south. The rail line is the old Chicago, Indiana & Southern (later New York Central) that ran from Indiana Harbor, Indiana down to Danville, Illinois.

After I posted this response to the original thread entry, Trainkid456 posted the second entry above stating that he had been through North Hayden and past the elevator in the past.

Sorry for the confusion caused by the move of this thread from Classifieds over here to the Interchange section.

Les

I count 17 houses or building (and multiple tracks) in Moon in 1925:

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/ill ... r-1925.jpg

I grew up around 15 miles west of there on the Santa Fe and had never heard of Moon before. I wonder if it had a mine like a lot of towns in the area. The depot in question may be the last Chicago and St Louis Railroad depot still standing.

I'm going to try to get in contact with the grain company at North Hayden to see if they could shed some light on the history of the depot, though they probably won't know very much considering its been there for a while. By the way, I was able to upload a shot I took of Moon on my visit. Here it is:

I asked my dad if he had ever heard of Moon, and according to him that town was known as Reading, the township name, all his lifetime. My dad has been to a bar in just about every town between the Illinois River and Streator and would know lol, we grew up around 20 miles west of there in Toluca (there is an alcohol culture back there, or was, so he is typical). There is a John Deere dealership that we used for parts and service on our lawnmower along Rt.17 about where the turn is for Reading, and there is a sign indicating Reading to the north right there. Funny thing though, there was and is still a grain elevator chain in the area called Moon Grain, but he says it is based in Long Point.

It turns out that the Santa Fe fans, at least three of them, knew about it:

http://atsf.railfan.net/depots/sfillipo.html

Sorry to get off the topic of Moon again, but here is my very poor shot of the depot at North Hayden taken a couple of weeks ago. I located it on Google Maps and originally planned to get closer to it but when I got there the property had no trespassing signs all over the place, so I took the picture from a nearby parking lot.

By the way, I wonder if any historical societies would have any more information on the Moon depot. I'll see what I can find--perhaps the Livingston County Historical Society might have an old picture or document.