A caboose and string of covered hopper cars wait at Jones Switch for the call to be pulled down to a nearby elevator to be filled with grain.
I don’t know who Jones was and why a switch on the old Peoria, Decatur & Evansville was named after him.
I just know that for as long as I can remember there has been a grain elevator southeast of my hometown of Mattoon, Ill., at a place called Jones Switch.
Today Interstate 57 goes practically over the top of Jones Switch. The PD&E, which was acquired by the Illinois Central Railroad early in the 20th century is mostly gone east of Jones switch.
A portion of the PD&E remains in place from the Canadian National yard in Mattoon – what’s left of it anyway – out to the elevator at Jones Switch.
Traffic on this spur probably is sporadic. A week or more might go by without any trains moving over these tracks.
I left in Mattoon since 1983 and don’t get back there much so I don’t know how often that trains operate on this line.
I do know that the last two times that I saw Jones switch there was a string of covered hopper cars parked to the west and an IC caboose wearing the IC “death star” logo was being used as a shoving platform for CN crews backing the hoppers out to the elevator.
As far as I know, the occasional move of covered hoppers is the only traffic still left on this segment of the old PD&E.
There are countless locations such as Jones Switch scattered all over America. A branch line or a portion of a branch line remains in place to serve a particular customer or two that needs rail service.
The distance between the Mattoon yard and Jones Switch is a couple miles or so and the track is not in the best condition.
I have to wonder how much longer that CN will agree to move covered hoppers over this stretch without some track rehabilitation.
Whatever the case, I made it a point to visit Jones Switch last month during a visit back to Mattoon this past August to do some railfanning of the former IC.
The caboose I had seen two years earlier on these tracks was there along with a string of covered hoppers. The elevator owns or leases a geep painted solid blue that has had its markings and numbers removed.
The diesel was silent and I didn’t observe any activity at the grain elevator.
The only sounds came from traffic rushing by on the interstate and the wind rustling the corn plants next to the tracks. Some of that grain might move over these very tracks in a couple more months.
But the corn was still quite green and would need more than a month to mature and be ready for harvest.
So everything waits for its time. The caboose, the covered hoppers and the blue geep will soon enough have work to do.
Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders
Rust is threatening to overcome the IC’s gray paint.
Some of the corn growing next to the tracks may well journey to market over those tracks and maybe even in these cars.
CN train crews are not allowed to go all the way to Jones’ switch.
The heritage of this locomotive is a mystery, what with its markings and numbers having been removed.
What tales could this geep tell of places its been and worked?
The elevator at Jones Switch looms in the background over Interstate 57. These tracks once went all the way to Evansville, Ind.
Need a used tractor? It still has lots of life left in it.
Tags: Canadian National, covered hopper cars, Covered hoppers, early diesel locomotives, grain elevators, IC caboose, ICRR in Mattoon Illinois, Illinois Central caboose, Illinois Central Railroad, Jones Switch, Mattoon Illinois, Railroads of Illinois
akronrrclub.wordpress.com 
October 16, 2014 at 8:05 pm |
From http://www.illinirail.com – MATTOON (JONES) CARGILL
SD7 6009; ex-BN 6009, nee-GN 559 (16108 5/52)
February 21, 2015 at 3:00 pm |
Thank you for the article. I am reading my grandmother’s diary that was given to me after her death. She lived in the house next to the elevator and worked at the scale when she was 13 years old, back in 1928. She drew a detailed map of the elevator surroundings. It is really nice to see the pictures you posted. I also purchased a book the other day about the railroads in Mattoon and Charleston and was happy to see a picture of Jones Switch in the book.
February 6, 2018 at 3:48 pm |
Ryan,
We would like to see the information you have on the elevator if possible. I’ve worked here 2 years and would welcome any history you could provide. All we know is that it was established in 1900 by WD Jones.
February 6, 2018 at 8:41 pm
Hi Philip! Here is a little clip from her Diary. Can you send me your email address to ryanolds1@gmail.com? Do you still work there? I would love to come and see it! I live in Belleville, Illinois now, so it isn’t too far for me. I can send you a couple of sketches that she drew of Jones Switch. I left the spelling as she wrote it, that is why some of the words are misspelled:
“We lived there about 6 months, when my Dad was given the job of running an Elevator on a farm about 5 miles southeast of Mattoon, called Jones Switch.
So we moved there in 1923. My Dad met us at the train station in Mattoon. He bought a big Buick Touring car. 1920. It had what was called a Fat Man’s wheel. All cars or most cars now have them. We moved into the 8 room house. Four rooms down and 4 rooms upstairs.
We had a cow and a sow and a few chickens. We always kept just one cow but later had several pigs and 250-350 chickens, ducks, geese – 2 dogs and about 40 cats. Only one cat at a time was allowed in the house. The rest stayed around the elevator or the barn.
Before moving to Jones Switch at the Elevator, I had gone to school in Mattoon when I was 7 years old. When we moved to Jones Switch my school was a one room school house about ½ mile from home. There was seldom over 8-10 pupils at any one time. I started in the second grade there. I was the only one in the second grade.
My teacher was a famers wife and school teacher. So when I was nine years old, Mrs. Cottingham, my teacher, told me to come down to her house about 1 mile (end of page 4) away and she would teach me fractions, which she did in the 3 weeks that summer.
She jumped me from the 3rd grade to the 5th grade. So that I would be with other pupils. I was in the 5 – 6th grade and then jumped to the 8th grade then I had to take a yearly exams then back to the 7th grade and then another yearly exams before I could receive my diploma from the 8th grade.
The rural school children from all over Coles County had to go to the big University (or Normal as it was called) in Charleston to receive our diploma.
We always had large gardens. It was all fenced in so the chickens couldn’t get in the garden.
When school was out of a summer John, Sam, Fleta and I had to help my Dad in the elevator when he needed help. My sister 13 years at the time weighed the wagon loads of grain, then after the grain was dumped out in the elevator, the empty wagon was weighed. Then a receipt was made out for the farmer for the bushels amount of grain and the farmer would take them to the large grain elevator in Matton & receive his money. And books had to be kept in the scale house, of the elevator, of the transactions. She was paid by the owner.
And after my sister married then I took over the job at 13 yrs old. I usually got a $5 gold piece from the owner Mr. Orndorf, for my work. I not only kept the books and did the weighing but I had to help my Dad in the elevator.
Of a summertime was when the Wheat, Oats, Rye was brought in the Elevator. The corn was brought in in September & October after the corn was shucked.
And as I was a Mamma’s girl even when I was very young I had to stand on a stool my dad fixed for (end of page 5) me so I could get part of the bread dough, biscuit dough, or pie dough. I had a corner of the bread board I used. How my mother stood me, I will never know.
But I learned to cook from her at an early age. By the time I was 11 years old I made all the pies, Pineapple Cream, Pumpkin pie, Mince meat. My mother only made Cherry, apple, berry, peach.”
February 7, 2018 at 7:03 pm |
That is golden. Thank you.