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Rupert, this is an interesting find. Thanks for sharing. Having grown up in East Galesburg in the 70's and 80's and having spent many hours hiking through the old brickyards, I can comment on the track diagram and locations.
In the diagram, north is up and east is to the right. The road running diagonally top to bottom along the left is Country Rd 9 from East Galesburg to Knoxville, also known as East Galesburg's State St. The creek is Court Creek -- the brick yards, clay pits and trackage lying in the Court Creek valley. There were a total of 4 brickyards that existed here at one time. Referencing the track diagram, the newest factory was built in 1952 and was located adjacent to yard 2 (just south and east). This plant featured a continuous tunnel dryer and tunnel kiln that was about the combined length of a football field and was the only tunnel kiln built in the valley, the other kilns all being periodic kilns. Even though this factory was shut down in 1974 and abandoned with broken windows, the buildings still stood and power was still connected to the machinery. Imagine my surprise in 1977 when I mindlessly pushed a power switch and the brick cutting machine roared to life! Another yard was located just to the west between State St and Craig School Rd. And yet another yard was west of Gale Lake -- a single solitary smokestack still stands here in the middle of an overgrown pasture, the virtual last trace (along with silted-in clay pits) of the brick factories that once crowded this valley. The track at the very top is the Santa Fe transcon. Note the spur coming down from the elevated Santa Fe mainlne, across Court Creek and into the brickyards. This spur was long gone by the 70's and only the remains of the bridge across the creek and an old old Santa Fe outside braced boxcar used for a storage shed was all that was left. The 2nd track from the top is the CB&Q East Galesburg branch that served the brick yards. This track was in place and still active until about 1979 or 1980. Even though the brick yards had been shut down for some time by the 70's, boxcars of bricks would still be hauled in to be distributed locally. The flange squeal of the NW2 switcher on this old and poorly maintained branch could be heard reverberating up and down the valley. Right around 1980 an NW2 became stranded due to a broken rail and was parked for a couple of days at Gale Lake until a work gang could fix the problem and get the engine out. That may have been the last run on the branch. Speaking of Gale Lake, this lake was built by the "Q" for locomotive water and became a park called Highland Park. The crumbling factories were still visible until the 1990's and 2000's. Skeletal remains of a body were found in the tunnel kiln in May of 1996 (the body of a woman still has not been identified). Within the next 10 years, the crumbling structures were removed save for the smokestack still standing at the west end of the brickyards complex. The Google coordinates to the smokestack is 40.944492, -90.323518. Rick Woods __._,_.___ Posted by: rwoods613@gmail.com __,_._,___ |