Bill Schreiber, vice-president and treasurer of the tour train enterprise, which jointly with the City of Marion had negotiated a purchase agreement with ICG to acquire the railroad’s property in Marion, estimated replacement of the building and cars would cost $200,000. Schreiber said his company carried fire insurance on the building as part of a lease agreement with ICG under which the tour train has operated the last three years. But he said he was not certain about the provisions of the policy with respect to dollar amount protection of all interests concerned.
“Technically,” he said, “title to the property is still in the hands of Illinois Central.” Although two steel coaches appeared damaged beyond repair, and the tour train’s store of tools was destroyed, Schreiber said the tour train could resume operation anytime with its two steam locomotives and three passenger cars which were not damaged by the fire.
Schreiber first saw the fire about midnight, he said, when his dog began barking in the private car built for railroad executives in the heyday of luxurious railroading where he lives across Van Buren Street 150 feet from the depot platform. He said he saw smoke above the loading dock at the southwest corner of the depot. He went to the depot to telephone a fire alarm and discovered the electricity was off. While he was groping in the dark for a telephone he saw a police car’s lights outside, and when he reached the operator on the telephone he was advised the fire had already been reported. He then got out of the building.
The fire was reported to the fire department by Police Sergeant Jack West who with Dale Almaroad, a private detective, discovered the wooden loading platform on fire. Fire Chief Charles Heyde said that when firemen arrived the blaze was enveloping the wooden loading dock. There was an explosion of an acetylene tank and flames spread over the southwest corner of the building.
Three pumpers fought the flames more than two hours before bringing the fire under control. Johnston City firemen manned the Marion fire station on standby. Water was still being poured on the ruins this morning. Heyde said the fire was reported by Sheriff’s Deputies Clyde Farthing and Jim Yates. Police Sergeant Jack West and Dale Almaroad, a private detective, arrived at the scene, and learned that a railroad employee lived in an apartment in the depot and went inside the building and began pounding on the door of the attic apartment occupied by Dave Siljeseron, 21, a locomotive firemen employed by the tour train.
Siljeseron, who said today, he was awakened by the noise and smelled smoke. He opened the door to find the policemen. Clad only in shorts, he started back into a bedroom to get some clothing, he said, when the officers grabbed him and pulled him down the stairs. All got out of the building safely. Siljeseron, a native of Elgin, was provided with a T-shirt and a pair of tennis shoes by an employee of the railroad. Fire Chief Hyde said two acetylene tanks inside the building did not explode.
Cause of the fire was not immediately determined, but Heyde said it was learned that a fire had occurred during the afternoon on the loading platform where employees were doing some welding. Schreiber said he was unaware of the incident until informed of it after the early morning blaze broke out, but he said he walked across the platform returning to his quarters from a Kiwanis Club meeting about 8 o’clock and saw no fire or smoke. Siljeseron said the men at the scene of the minor blaze in the afternoon doused it with water and that he walked over that part of the dock about 9 pm and didn’t detect any sign of the fire.
Schreiber said a regular meeting of the company’s board of directors had been scheduled for tonight before the fire and he presumed the tour train’s future would be discussed at that meeting. Hugh Crane, president of the company, was on a brief vacation at Kentucky Lake at the time of the fire and he was expected back today.
The brick railway station which occupied most of the block between North Market and North Van Buren Streets was built by the old Illinois Central Railroad Co. in 1914, and housed the company’s passenger ticket office, waiting room and freight depot.
At the peak of the railroad passenger and coal freight traffic, six passenger trains a day stopped at the Marion Station, in addition to trains hauling coal and other freight. In the early 1920s the station also housed headquarters for engineers engaged in design and construction of the Edgewood cutoff line that was constructed through eastern Williamson County as a shorter freight route to Kentucky.
After discontinuance of passenger service many years ago, the depot was rented to Railway Express Co. until that business also withdrew from Marion. For many years most of the building was leased as a supermarket. When Crane, Schreiber and Herb Soberg came to Marion and started the tour train they restored the old station to its original appearance, making it a memento of the heyday of the steam train.
(Extracted from local newspapers and compiled by Harry Boyd, posted at http://www.marionfire.us )