"Thermal” the Water Tank

Rising above the trees along the MCT Goshen Trail in Edwardsville, not far from Plum Street and Governor’s Parkway, resides a rusty old water tank.

It is squat, non-functioning, and quite rusty. Yet, it stands where it has stood for more than 90 years, now a vestige of a bygone era and reminder of a time when railroads dominated the landscape and powered the growth of commerce and industry in Madison County.

This little water tank was born in 1928 at “Troy Junction,” a short 4.5 miles down the track, where the MCT Goshen Trail meets the MCT Schoolhouse Trail today. In June of 1936, the Illinois Terminal shuttled the young 50,000-gallon steel tank (all in one piece) on a flatbed train car to its present home.

A water tank, like this one, stayed busy, serving thousands of gallons of water to passing steam trains. And because they consumed it so quickly, railroads placed tanks at regular intervals and built them high above the tracks so gravity could add efficiency to the task of filling the boilers.

Edwardsville water began coursing through its pipes around lunchtime on July 1, 1936. In addition to the trains passing through, the little tank offered refreshment to the engines serving the Kettle River creosote plant to the south and the nearby “Thermal Coal Mine.” It’s the mine which offered the little tank its unremarkable but descriptive moniker: “Thermal.”

Illinois Terminal ceased operations of its steam division in 1950 and relieved the little tank of its duties. It was only 22 years old. Despite being a very likely candidate for the scrapyard, the tank stayed put.

When trains shifted to electricity and later to diesel, there it stood. When trains went away completely and the tracks grew up with invasive weeds, there it stood. When the tracks themselves went away and were replaced by asphalt bike trails… there it stood - a witness to history, to great change, and to the passage of time. And that’s where it remains, keeping quiet vigil over the MCT Trails.