Amboy Depot Museum
Amboy has a population of about 2,000, but the Depot is larger than many in cities of 25,000 to 50,000. The explanation for the two story building is that once Amboy was headquarters for the Northern Division of the Illinois Central between Centralia and East Dubuque, IL. The building erected in 1876 originally housed the division superintendent and his force.
The first floor of the Depot was divided into ten rooms, with separate waiting rooms for the ladies and men and offices for the trainmen, baggage man, conductors and ticket agent, a fireproof vault and a room for the batteries which furnished power to the telegraph. Access to the second floor was by a wide, curved stairway with walnut spindles and rail. Rooms were provided there for the superintendent and engineer for the northern division, the trainmaster, another steel vault, a storeroom and the telegraph room.
In 1939, passenger train service was discontinued and by 1967, all activity had ceased with the closing of the Depot.
From 1967 till the fall of 1973 the Depot was left neglected, most of the windows had been broken out by vandals and the roof was in need of repairs.
Thru the work of the “Save the Depot” committee the Amboy Depot was saved from neglect and transformed into a Railroad Museum. By June, 1974, five rooms had been renovated and the Depot Museum was opened to the public each weekend through the summer.
Only one piece of track now stands at the Depot in Amboy and it is only there for the Steam locomotive display, but there were as many as eleven tracks passing the west side of the station at one time.
the Depot still stands today as a window to railroadings yesterday