NEW LENOX, Ill. — The 118-year-old New Lenox railroad station, most recently used by Metra, will be moved from its longtime location to a farm 5 miles away on Wednesday, Aug. 15.
The move was originally planned for July 10 but had to be rescheduled to complete the complex logistics involved.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the move has to be coordinatred around commuter, emergency, and school traffic, as well as with utilities. Power company ComEd will use four crews to temporarily disconnect and reconnect power lines and street lights along the route, and has notified customers that brief outages will occur.
The move will not be begin until after 8:30 a.m., after Metra’s morning rush on the Rock Island District is complete and and once school buses have completed their morning routes.
The Tribune had previously reported on artifacts found during the preparation for the move, including a cornerstone laid in 1900, a set of plans left in the building’s rafters, and architectural featuers which had been lost in remodeling over the years.
The depot is being moved to make room for a new shopping center. It is being located to the Walt Konow farm in Homer Glen, where it will be restored to its original appearance and used to sell tickets for activities at the farm and for educational purposes.
Konow came forward with an offer to pay for the move when the New Lenox Area Historical Society was engaged in efforts to save the building. Metra agreed to donate the building to the society if it could be moved.
The logical thing would have moving the station to the site for the new station, but who expects government to be logical
The main and most important reason for all this is to have Metra make the stop without blocking Cedar Rd completely and turns on Rt. 30.
George – The Village of New Lenox has a population of about 26,000 people, and currently has eight drug stores: three Walgreens, two CVS, two Osco and one Walmart. Does it really need another drug store? In my opinion, no, it doesn’t.
Yes, the village will be providing the land for the new Metra station, and it will be about 1,000 feet east of the location of the original station. I don’t have exact passenger counts for New Lenox, but ridership there is one of the highest on the entire Metra system.
Couldn’t they at least wait until after the NKP 765 excursion?
William, Who on the village Board holds the franchise for CVS? Sounds like good old fashion politics. There must be another lot in town where the store could have been built. Is the city providing land for the new station? Any passenger counts for the station?
Richard – Last year, the Metra Board of Directors voted to close this ex-Rock Island station in New Lenox, tear it down, and give the land to the Village of New Lenox so that a CVS store could be built on the site.
The New Lenox Area Historical Society stepped in and offered to move the station off-site in order to preserve it and prevent its demolition, and that is what is scheduled to take place on August 15th.
Yes, Metra Rock Island District trains are still stopping at New Lenox, but this station has been replaced with trailer containing a ticket office and a small waiting room. A new permanent Metra station will built in New Lenox sometime in the future, but at the present, no funding for it is in place,
Does Metra not stop there anymore ? Is there a new station ?
I photographed this station on one of my ‘railfan’ trips to Chicagoland in the 1980s.