CB&Q Astoria down to Beardstown branch

Not too far from Beardstown to the northwest lies two Schuyler County towns that  lay where CB&Q once ran trains but the line was abandoned as CB&Q built another line to the west that went to Beardstown to avoid the hill the trains had issues with at Bader, Illinois.  The line was abandoned by the 1960's.  The line  went  to Vermont then onto Astoria then down to Beardstown.
The line at Astoria originally went into the south side of Astoria  itself but the people living around weren't happy with the noise and ran it out of town pretty much so the CB&Q set up track just to the south of town redirecting the mainline at the time there.  This would not be the lines only problem it seems.  Apparently trains had issues going uphill at a hill at Bader so eventually the line was redirected to the new line to the west and Astoria down to  the old line to  Frederick was abandoned.
The town of Bader was created with the coming of the under construction railroad at the time around 1870.  For a time it was a thriving business center but later  became just a residental village when the railroad was abandoned around the 1950's or 1960's.  I seen someone mention 1953 but the line seems to have been abandoned  around 1960 or 1961.  Either way in that time period the line was abandoned and tracks were removed.  After the railroad came  Samuel Fowler who owned the land laid out a town and named it "Osceola".  There was another name in the state with the name so the name wasn't changed until the town needed a post office which came  two years later in 1972.   The name was changed to Baders when the Post office opened on October 8, 1872 then shortened to Bader on Dec 23,1907.  It's been said there was a hill here and trains had a hell of a go getting their tains up the hill.  Why they chose this location to set up a railroad knowing a hill could provide  problems is anyones guess. Haha.   Not far from Bader is a town of Browning which was laid out alot earlier as a town back on April 11,1848 and named in honor of O.H. Browning of Quincy, Illinois.  There is an old CB&Q depot building still here having been preserved and the old right of way can still be seen as well as the bed in spots where it used to run.  I need to go looks for the right of way more near Frederick,Browning, Bader as well as Astoria in the future.  I have seen it mentioned  Bader, Browning and Fredrick the line was abandoned in 1961 or 1962 and the tracks were removed in 1962 so it's been gone for many decades now reguardless of the year.

The Abandonment for the remaining stretch from Astoria to Vermont is listed  as 1981 so assuming the remaining went to the coal mine where a spur went around Astoria then up north then east to a mine southeast of Summon or had some customer still around up to that point.   Other than that do not know much more.  Further down in Beardstown is an old round house for CB&Q that may have been for this line at tome point as well as the other (newer one current).  I'm still  surfing for more information on  any of these areas.  All I have seem to find is bits and pieces here and there.  I visited the Browning depot earlier this year as well as checked out the round house in Beardstown.  The railroad bed can still be seen in spots around Browning and Frederick.  I have yet to go to Bader.  A small section of track lay under pavement in Astoria at a facility there that can still be seen in a small section.  In the coming months will try to explore some of these areas better.






                                                               




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