United Electric No 9. Cuba mine

East and south east of the small town of Cuba, Illinois in central Fulton County today is now a bunch of farms and old strip mine lates but over forty years ago it was a good sized coal mine that had access to two railroad companies serving them one from the south the other from the north. By the few pictures I have seen of it the mine covered quite a few miles and multiple sections of Putman township.  It wasn't just another small coal mine that came and went but was one of the biggest if not the biggest in Fulton County.  The mine itself in this area operated for many decades from 1923 until 1971.  











When the No. 9 mine opened in 1923, a Curtis Owens was the first man employed to start construction on the railroad into the mine or so I read.  He and five other men using horses and scrappers cleared timber to lay this track which would head from the CB&Q line branched up north on what would be  later Route 97 between Lewistown and Cuba.  Over the years walking  drag lines, shovels and crawlers were manufactured by Bucyrus-Erie and Marion.  The Kolbe wheel was introduced to this mine in 1944,

By what I have seen online it seems both  CB&Q  Railroad and TP&W  served this mine but i'm not sure at different times.  The spur to the TP&W  seems to have been built as early as maybe the 1950's while the CB&Q was around since the mine was constructed yet was still on the maps as late as 1962 and 1966.  The  coal mine closed down in 1971.  This is all I really know about it but I have seen the TP&W spur track right of way off of Cuba Black top.  I also know where to look for the other right of way when I think about it the next time I travel route 97.  I took a picture of what i thought was an old signal box for a crossing at Route 97 and even a friend thought that but I need to go find it in my albums over the years.  I know it's still there because it was the last time i  traveled from Lewistown to Cuba  within the past few weeks.  I can  go back and add to this blog later any future pictures I take.  As of right now this is all i know about the mine.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fulton County, Illinois Ghost towns Part 1

Image
Ghost towns are abandoned villages that since disappeared or are no longer the population they were in their hey day after an economic down fall, disaster or whatever.  For me I consider a ghost town a town that no longer exists but may or may not leave traces behind of it's existence.  Fulton County has a lot of old historical towns like Canton which was founded in 1825 and Lewistown which was founded  years before Canton.  These towns are example of towns that managed to make it despite economic disasters and natural ones. Former towns which have signs marking their location like Civer between Canton and Cuba and Tuscumbia around Bernadotte are examples of towns that didn't make it and ceased to exist and into oblivion of history.  The only thing that is exists is those two signs that mark the location.  It's sad in a way but it is what it is and people who lived in these areas did what they had to for survival of the time period so if they moved to other communities can
Read more

Middle Grove- Rapatee Coal mine

Image
This subject is about the coal mine at Middle Grove and Rapatee areas. I basically just know the years and also what Railroads served them but i did get to photograph the area of this so there is a general idea of this.   The Midland Electric Coal Company has several strip mines within Fulton and Knox Counties from the years 1933-1963 ( Fulton County, strip),1963-1967 (Knox County strip), and Peabody Coal Company which  opened in 1968 and closed around that time or 1969. The mine would open once again and be the Middle Grove-Rapatee mine in 1975 or 1976 under the Midland Coal Company I think.  It ran until 1988 but the last rail shipment was in or around 1986 by the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad.   Another company nearby or in this vicinity would be the Midstate Coal Company  which was a strip mine and operated from 1989-1996.  Over the decades it used the area railroads before 1960 it was the M&STL would would ship their coal and after it was Chicago & Northwestern.  The
Read more

BNSF local chase (Peoria -Galesburg)

Image
Due to a tip off from a friend I managed to catch the BNSF local which would head west on the Peoria sub enroute to the yard in Galesburg,  Illinois. I had quite a day though it was cold and  for a bit rainy in spots. It wasn't just normal rain either freezing rain plus some snow flurries but neither produced but it dictated if i filmed outside or from my car.  I only ended up filming on video in my car at Elmwood as prior to it arriving it  was raining plus it seemed the temp dropped so I was freezing. The joys of a car without heat you rely on a jacket and body fat to keep you warm and I certainly have enough body fat. Ha.  I did manage to knock off a few locations off my bucket list such as Elmwood, Edwards and off Kickapoo Creek road. I've filmed in Yates City before so catching it there wasn't concerned about but I did go to Douglas to take pictures as I never railfanned there or paid that little town any mind. Here are some photographs and  wha
Read more