GCPBDR Old Wabash Dillo (Traditional Cache) in Illinois, United States created by Team Armadillo

This cache has been archived.

ILReviewer: Since I haven't heard from the owner, and the cache is apparently gone, I'm reluctantly archiving this cache. If the owner wishes to reactivate this cache, please e-mail me at IllinoisGeocacher@yahoo.com and I'll unarchive it as soon as I can.

ILReviewer

GCPBDR ▼

A cache by Team Armadillo Message this owner

Hidden : 6/17/2005

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

Cyber Dillo strikes again. He wanted to go a little easier this time and also highlight one of the really cool spots in Urbana from a 12 year olds point of view.

The Wabash Rail Road used to run through Urbana. If you have done Rail Road Dillo Remnants you got to see part of the old line. Here we bring you to the old Urbana Railroad Station, now a theater.

The Station was built in 1923 as a passenger station for the Big Four Railroad. It was the third station built for the line in Urbana, and the second one built on the site. Travellers boarding at Urbana could ride as far as Indianapolis to the east, and as far as Pekin to the west. Arriving passengers could transfer to the Wabash Railroad, which passed the building on the south side.

Although there is little left to show it, in the early part of this century the Big Four was one of Urbana's major industries, employing over four hundred people at its peak. On the land east of the theatre were a switching yard, a large roundhouse capable of servicing fifteen locomotives simultaneously, and a dozen or so machine shops to support it all. The energy needed to run the complex of shops required a huge power plant with a smokestack 133 & 1/2 feet fall. This smokestack dominated the skyline of Urbana until it was felled in 1959.

The advent of multilane, highspeed highways in the fifties hastened the decline of passenger rail service. The Urbana passenger station was closed in 1956, the same year work began on Interstate 74. The last passenger train stopped here on October 14, 1957.

The cache is a medium sized jar located nearby the station by a section of the old, now gone Wabash rail road line. It contains assorted trade goodies, a log, and a pencil. Good Luck.