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Photos at Railroad Days Tell Story of the Past
Gerald Peterson is documenting history.

Peterson, of Abingdon, got an idea to photograph all the train depots in the state of Illinois and more.

Peterson tells WGIL he first got the idea in the 70's from an artist's book called "Vanishing Depots."

"It was a book that had a lot of the pictures of that he sat down as an artist and painted," Peterson said. "That got me to thinking that the depots at that time were disappearing. So, just as a hobby on Sundays, we would pack our lunch as a family, and we'd take off and travel the State of Illinois looking for depot pictures."

Through buying, copying and just be given photos, Peterson now has more than 1,600 pictures of railroad buildings, and that's just in Illinois. He has hundreds more from various other states.

Peterson put his collection on display during Railroad Days. He says he enjoys talking with people about the memories they have from using trains as a main route of transportation.
06 27 10 by Newsroom
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