Galesburg, IL (GBB)

Ticket Revenue

FY 2012

$5,664,256

Station Ridership

FY 2012

106,491

Note: Fiscal year is from
October through September.

The modern Galesburg station, easily recognizable by the steeply pitched gabled roof on its entrance portico and traditional flanking wings with hipped roofs, was built in 1984 with funding from the city of Galesburg, Amtrak and the Illinois Department of Transportation. The land was donated by the BNSF Railway and landscaping assistance provided by a local bank. The cost of the new station project was less than $300,000. The original wooden pews were salvaged from the predecessor Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q) Railroad station and installed in the new facility, along with a historically-styled natural-wood interior paneling, ceiling fans and lamps.

As part of the monies distributed to Amtrak under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the platforms at Galesburg will receive new tactile edges that are compliant with the regulations of the Americans with Disabilities Act; the estimated cost for this project is $75,000. Currently, the city maintains the station’s exterior while Amtrak maintains its interior.

In 2011, the city is developing specifications toward hiring an architect for a depot expansion project. The expansion would provide a ticket counter and office space for Burlington Trailways along with other needed improvements. Funding for this expansion has not yet been identified.

Knox county, of which Galesburg became the seat, was founded in 1825, its first settlers arriving within the next year. The town of Galesburg originated with the ambitions of George W. Gale, a Presbyterian minister from Oneida County, New York, who intended to establish a collegiate institution providing religious education in the Mississippi Valley. In early November 1835, his scouts found a suitable spot for their colony and purchased thirty-six square miles of land. Their intent was to sell town plots around a nucleus that would become the college to fund the endeavor and populate the settlement, and over the course of a year, Knox’s small colony made their journey to Illinois. Once in their new home, they moved immediately to form a group of trustees and founded Knox Manual Labor College in 1837; the name was shortened to Knox College in 1857. There is some uncertainty as to whether the college was named for the Calvinist leader, John Knox, or the U.S. Secretary of War and Revolutionary War hero Henry Knox—perhaps both. The college, which opened its doors in 1841, spurred the growth of the town, and its Old Main building hosted one of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, held in 1858.

It’s no coincidence that the Galesburg station and railroad museum are adjacent to the downtown Knox College campus, as the railroad has also played a major part in Galesburg’s life since the CB& Q arrived in 1854. The CB&Q (succeeded by BNSF) established a major rail yard in Galesburg, with car-shops, round house, locomotive maintenance department, bridge department and stockyards. This still-active rail yard was the first to use hump sorting. With seven main rail lines going in and out of the city, Galesburg is still a transportation center.

The three successive CB&Q stations built in Galesburg certainly fit the town’s aspirations as a commercial center. The first was destroyed by fire in 1881 and was replaced in 1884 with a sturdy red-brick Victorian structure. The 1884 station featured three floors on two wings with a tall, square tower capped with a high pyramidal roof, embellished in pale stone. This structure burned as well in April of 1911, and a new depot was constructed in 1912 to replace it. This last was an Italianate brick station with five arched bays per wing flanking a blocky, projecting portico, the whole giving an impression of solidity and purpose. All three of these stations stood upon the approximate location of the current facility. The third structure was razed in 1983, and replaced with the current facility.

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (AT&SF) Railroad built through Galesburg in 1887 on its way to Chicago at the invitation of the city, opening large east-west markets for the community. The ATSF rail line followed Cedar Creek which provided the lowest elevations through the middle of the town. In 1887, the residents celebrated the completion of the line through town with a small event on the east side of the city near the tile works. ATSF opened a red sandstone depot with a central octagonal tower in 1888; this station was served by passenger trains until July, 1996, when Amtrak moved all of its Galesburg service to the site of the current station, after Burlington Northern (successor to CB&Q) merged with the ATSF to form BNSF.

One of Galesburg’s major products that the ATSF transported was durable and handsome paving bricks, especially Purington Pavers, which have been used world-wide in such far-flung locales as Paris and Bombay, India. Although the brick and tile factories are closed, these historic bricks are still much sought after for restoration and new construction both.

Galesburg has been known for its Railroad Days since 1974, when the BNSF first opened its rail yards for a public tour. The museum, adjacent to the station, was started from rail yard employees’ memorabilia and treasures displayed during the tours. It is now home to a historic Pullman club car, a CB&Q Way Car, a railway post office car, the CB&Q steam locomotive #3006 and a growing collection of railroad-themed artifacts. The nearby Discovery Depot children’s museum provides a family destination year-round.

The popular rail museum stands just north of the station and is the hub of events during the annual Railroad Days festivities. In 1970, CB&Q merged to form Burlington Northern (BN), and in 1974, to thank the community for its continuing support, the railroad and its employees held an open house in the rail yard, allowing the public to visit for the first time. So popular were these annual tours that employees took to bringing memorabilia to display at the station while people waited for their tours. By 1981, BN donated a retired Pullman Parlor car, the Meath, to the fledgling museum. Locomotive engine 3006 had been given to the city by the CB&Q and this joined the Meath at the new museum lot on the north side of the station. BN gave them the CB&Q Waycar 13501 in 1984. The museum building opened in time for the anniversary of the CB&Q’s arrival in Galesburg, on December 7, 2004.

The city’s public schools have hosted an annual rubber duck race each September since 1996. The revenue generated from this re"duck"ulously family friendly fundraising event goes toward monetary grants to schools in the district.

Galesburg is noted as the birthplace of poet and Pulitzer-prize-winning writer Carl Sandburg, whose father worked for the railroad there; as well as being home to Carl Sandburg College. Sandburg is renowned for the inspirational Americana of his prose and poetry. His connection to the community was recognized in 2006 by the naming of one of the IDOT-supported trains the Carl Sandburg.

The Galesburg station, which has a waiting room and is staffed by Amtrak employees, is served by eight daily trains. The intrastate trains are financed primarily through funds made available by the Illinois Department of Transportation.