Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Loose Pulley Junction, Illinois

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. There is no consensus about what, if anything, would be merged. A redirect could be created though there is no consensus here for that (or against it). Barkeep49 (talk) 01:17, 28 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Loose Pulley Junction, Illinois

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No sign of a settlement here; maps show a railroad crossing. The one newspaper article that I could find mentions a "Mayor of Loose Pulley Junction" from the 1970s, but this isn't sufficient to establish notability. –dlthewave ☎ 02:19, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Geography-related deletion discussions. –dlthewave ☎ 02:19, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Illinois-related deletion discussions. –dlthewave ☎ 02:19, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Delete: I wrote the following at the talk page a couple of months ago:
Looking at the Google search, of the 94 non-dup hits, there are just three mentions ([1][2][3]) by human contributors, other than mentions in several copies of two locomotive pics. The rest are all junk (i.e., they exist for any place named anywhere).
The forum I originally cited is the only significant explanation of the name. It's not marked on the IDOT map (current cite #2); it should be just east of Byron.
It's entertaining folklore, but I'm having trouble seeing how this place could be considered notable. Maybe a mention in the Byron or other relevant article?
Pinging Magnolia677, who responded at the talk page. —[AlanM1 (talk)]— 09:17, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
~~Delete~~ - Some blogs state that a railroad engineer once lived here [4][5], though I have not found a reliable source to support this. Magnolia677 (talk) 10:11, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Merge, per Andrew Davidson below. Magnolia677 (talk) 15:18, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Merge into Stillman Valley, Illinois per WP:ATD and WP:GEOLAND, "If a Wikipedia article cannot be developed using known sources, information on the informal place should be included in the more general article on the legally recognized populated place or administrative subdivision that contains it." Andrew🐉(talk) 11:37, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There's not really any content that could be merged, though. The anecdote about the name was sourced entirely to forums. –dlthewave ☎ 12:23, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The newspaper coverage and official map data substantiates the account and I expect that further digging will turn up more. There's no reason to delete and our policies and guidelines indicate that we shouldn't. Wikipedia's functions include its role as a gazetteer and so we should retain such details of placenames. The nominator is now reverting the valid details to the erroneous version which misrepresents the place as a community. It seems best to let readers see for themselves, so I repeat them here.
Loose Pulley Junction is a railroad crossing on the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (MILW) main line near Rock River in Stillman Valley, Ogle County, Illinois, US.

From about 1910 to about 1970, there was a well-respected railroad engineer in the area, named Louie "Loose Pulley" Johnson. He lived in a wooded area along the east bank of Rock River, north of the MILW tracks. Around 1941, as a sign of respect, some fellow engineers painted a standard station sign "LOOSE PULLEY JUNCTION" and hung it along the tracks at about 42°7′34″N 89°13′26″W / 42.12611°N 89.22389°W / 42.12611; -89.22389. Engineers were known to routinely give a whistle salute as they passed the sign.

Perhaps submitted by those who made the signage, or maybe a cartographic surveyor, the location became marked on the USGS maps as of, at latest, 1971 and remains there today. It is also in the USGS GNIS database. The place can even be searched and found on Google maps, Bing Maps, and OpenStreetMap.

My !vote stands. Andrew🐉(talk) 12:58, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Which reliable sources support this narrative? It was sourced to two forum posts, and the newspaper blurb doesn't mention any of it. –dlthewave ☎ 15:34, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Delete The GNIS has over 2 million place names. WP containing features of a gazetteer does not obligate us to retain any part of that created from unreliable message boards because folks at USGS couldn't make their database correctly. This is not a populated place and the quoted segment of Geoland does not apply. Reywas92^Talk 19:36, 20 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Merge to Stillman Valley as the closest community. ~EDDY ^{(talk/contribs)}~ 20:33, 23 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.