After the Center for Railroad Photography & Art conference north of Chicago in 2016, my friend George Hiotis and I traveled into western Illinois in search of coaling docks.  Although the Chicago & North Western dieselized in 1956, some of its docks survive, including at Dekalb, 58  miles west of Chicago.  Too expensive and complicated to tear down, the concrete dock spans the two-track main line now operated by Union Pacific and hosting the densest tonnage of any of the railroads coming to Chicago from the west.