Bushnell, IL: BNSF/CB&Q and KJRY/TP&W/Northern Cross Depots

(Satellite)

Dave Durham posted
NORTHERN CROSS RR DEPOT\ CB&Q DEPOT BUSHNELL, ILLINOIS. UNKNOWN DATE, PHOTOGRAPHER, WESTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY.
Larry Cummings I guess this is the BNSF 2 main tracks and what is now the TP&W interlock at Bushnell.Dave Durham Wish I could give more details, but all the photo description said was what I posted and an address...Dennis DeBruler The TP&W route through this town is now owned by Keokuk Junction Railway. The TP&W now runs between Peoria and Logansport, IN. http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../keokuk-junction...
Dave Durhamhttp://collections.carli.illinois.edu/.../wiu_digimgc/id/109
Dennis DeBruler I just read Dave's photo reference. The Northern Cross would have been the northwest/southeast route through town. It was obtained by CB&Q in 1865. KJRY/TP&W is the east/west route through town. Of course, the northeast/southwest route was the Q (Quincy) part of the CB&Q.
Larry Cummings Dennis DeBruler 2 mains running through town. Main 1 goes to Quincy and main 2 to Beardstown.
Dennis DeBruler I had noticed that they separate just south of town: https://www.google.com/.../@40.5350519,-90.../data=!3m1!1e3
Dennis DeBruler The one towards Beardstown ended up going all the way to the Ohio River to connect with the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad. BNSF still operates that route to the Ohio River Bridge.
https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../cb-bridge-over...
Larry Cummings Dennis DeBruler I worked on the Beardstown line for years. Around 1975 I came around the curve coming into Bushnell and derailed all 3 locomotives and 17 cars. Scared the bejesus out of me.
Dennis DeBruler What caused the derailment?
Larry Cummings The official determination was the pilot (snow plow) on the second engine came loose and scrapped up rail anchors until the unit derailed. It took every thing with it. Luckily the train was empty coal cars. We thought the cars were going to come over the top of us. They did stack 3 high. Makes a good story, I don't want to do it again. Nothing like riding a SD40 off the rail at 42mph.
Dennis DeBruler Larry Cummings I can't even imagine. Partially because I don't want to :-)
Dennis DeBruler I had read that the CB&Q route to Southern Illinois was built mainly to access coal mines. I didn't realize how much coal was down there until I researched this I-57 overpass that still as the BN logo: https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../abanbncb...

1941 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Dennis DeBruler commented on Dave's posting

CB&Q must have concentrated on their mainline (northeast/southwest) route through town. It appears we are looking at what is now part of the ADM property. My guess is that yellow was CB&Q and red was NC.

Sam Carlson posted
[The comments indicate this was the CB&Q depot.]

Andy Zukowski posted
CB&Q Railroad Depot in Bushnell, Illinois. C.1910

Mitchell, IL: 1924 Lenox Tower goes dark: UP+Amtrak+KCS vs UP+BNSF vs NS vs ALS

(Satellite, some satellite images below)

See also a duplicate.

ALS = Alton & Southern Railroad
The 1928 names are in the title of the duplicate.

William A. Shaffer posted
Lenox Tower. (6.01.15). 
(Photo by William A. Shaffer)
William A. Shaffer posted
Lenox Tower. (6.01.15)
 Mitchell, IL
 (Photo by William A. Shaffer)
 The Tower no longer exists!
[A comment has a 12 second video of the demo.]

The building was constructed in 1924, and UP now is responsible for the junction. Local transportation officials have wanted the tower replaced by more modern controls for a long time. Implementing Positive Train Control has forced UP to upgrade the junction. Mary C. Lamie, executive director of St. Louis Regional Freightway, "believed it was one of only three manual switching systems remaining in the country."  [TheTelegraph, source] Mary was wrong. There are at least that many left in Chicago because of the complexity of commuter operations served by the two west-side train stations. But she is right in that staffed junction towers are getting scarce. For example, even complex junctions such as Dolton Junction, Fostoria F Tower and Joliet UD Tower have been closed rather recently.

Dan Maners from NorthAmericanInterlockings

Photo Curtesy Zach Gillhan from TheTelegraph (source)

Simon Claybrook posted two photos with the comment: "Today was the last day for Lenox tower to be manned by a operator. It will be controlled by the dispatcher in Omaha. Located in Mitchell, Illinois."

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I have avoided the Illinois part of the St. Louis area because it has been a big enough challenge trying to sort out Chicago's railroads. In a way, this area is even more complex than Chicago because so many railroads are concentrated together trying to get the heavy industry and Mississippi River business. This tower is a good example of the complexity. The 2005 SPV Map shows the original owner and the current owner of the routes. Fortunately, the original owners correspond to my 1928 naming convention. So I divided and conquered by creating two images, one for 1928 and another for 2005, which I assume is also for today. For simplicity, I left out the Illinois Terminal/St. Louis & Alton interurban from the 1928 version.

• Blue:  Wabash
• Yellow:  Big4 + C&EI
• Green:  C&A + CB&Q
• Orange:  Big4
• Black:  connectors to Alton & Southern Railroad (ALS)

Satellite plus 1928 Paint

• Green:  The rectangle shows where the tower is
• Blue:  NS
• Yellow from the junction to the Northwest:  BNSF evidently got the Big4 rights and UP of course got the C&EI rights
• Red:  KCS evidently got the rights to Big4 and CB&Q and of course UP got the rights to C&A and C&EI. Then KCS and UP share the two tracks as a joint operation. And Amtrak also shares the red route.
• Black:  Various connectors including the track going south to Alton & Southern's Mitchell Yard.

Satellite plus 2005 Paint

1941 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Mike G Crain posted two photos with the comment: "Now empty Union Pacific Lenox Tower in Mitchell Illinois."
Charlie DeWeese Was on the seniority roster to work Lenox, but never did. Slept on the back of the interlocking machine one night to work days at Cahokia Creek Bridge, a temporary interlocking and manual block station for movement against the current of traffic, between Lenox and Wann. The shanty at Cahokia Creek Bridge was heated with a 150 Watt light bulb. I was released after an hour or so.

Mike G Crain Steve Cvik was the operator when I started with NS 15 years ago, he always worked very well with us when we had track work to do. He is enjoying retirement now.

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With the Sep 2020 version of Facebook, I can't figure out how to access Zachary C. Gillihan's post from Jack Franklin's share. But his comment is: "Got called at 11:30pm 3 days ago asking to help UP save a interlocking machine from Lenox Tower in Mitchell Illinois. Seems all the museums in the area had no interest. Thankfully I have great friends and we made it happen." Zachary posted a link to his Flickr album of the tower's demolition.

Mark Fuller: Nice catch on the FRA safety train, too.

Greg L Winchester: Dang shame. For years we were told the Smithsonian had dibs on the machine. Guess not. 

[I did not determine the destination of the interlocking machine.]

I was surprised that the excavator did not have a "thumb."

Flickr

Then I saw that he has a special attachment for "grabbing" work. And this view is an example of how they will create a rubble pile to reach the next stage of work.

Flickr

Flickr

They brought in a crane to lift the machine out.

Flickr

Flickr

Flickr

He took some detail shots after they put it on the trailer.

Flickr

IDOT posted four photos with the comment:

Today, Governor JB Pritzker announced a $10.1 million project to improve rail operations in the Metro East to reconfigure an outdated network of tracks and signals and updating a century-old switching tower: https://www.illinois.gov/news/press-release.23763.html

Michael Dickerson shared

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Ralph Bell

You can go to the Wabash Valley Railroad Museum in Terre Haute and see a machine like this in Haley Tower still working although controlling only its model board. http://www.wvrrm.org/

Skip Luke

We had over 100 levers at Champaign Tower,, il.

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In the Fall of 2021, I read an article about a $10.1m project to modernize this junction. The funding in thousands of dollars is:

• Federal: 5,100
• State: 1,300
• UP: 2,000
• Amtrak: 1,000
• BNSF: 440
• KCS: 300

The tower was taken down in May 2021. Up to 35 trains pass through the location daily. And the article implies that most, if not all, pass through slowly.

I'm saving a "before" look.

Satellite

Houston, TX: UP/SP Englewood Yard and Towers 68 & 87

(Satellite)

This yard still (2021) has a hump.

Some history and photos of the two towers

Heather TJ Small posted
Union Pacific Englewood Yard
Jason Gore Houston, U.P. has two hump yards next to each other, ex MP/HB&T and ex SP, generally one yard is for east/west traffic and the other is for north/south.
[The comments debate if Settegast Yard is a "mini hump" or flat switched.]
Mike Mitchell At one time it had one of the steepest humps of class yards in the US.
Dale V Rockwell Remember when U.P. closed Englewood? Led to a system-wide meltdown!

Steve Brown posted

With the Class 1's seeming hell bent on ripping out the infrastructure to handle anything but unit trains and intermodal, it was nice to stumble on a busy hump operation at Union Pacific's Englewood Yard. Two sets of three unit vintage power (the middle critter is a slug) were shoving a cut over the hump. When one set finished, it went off to find another cut while the other set started with its cut.

UP SD40N 1753 (built 1976 as UP SD40-2 8049 to UP 3319) PS6B UPY 420 (built 1974 as McCloud SD38-2 39 to UP 2824 to UPY 824, slugified in 2017) and SD40N UPY 320 (?) at Tower 87 in Houston, Texas - May 12, 2021.

Tower 68 is on the west side and Tower 87 is on the east side under the Wayside Viaduct. [RailFanGuides] According to a satellite image, the vacant land south of the tracks and west of Lockwood Drive is now the intermodal yard.

1995 Settegast Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

In fact, the hump not only still exists, UP did a significant upgrade in 2020.

UP via RTandS

 

Roy Luck Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)

Akron, OH: B&O Coal, Water Towers and Roundhouse

(3D Satellite)

It still has the metal staircase. I would have thought CSX would let a scrapper have it to remove an "attractive nuisance" (liability suits). The lowest platform in the image is on an angle. It looks like something has already rusted and broke.

Street View

Charlie Easton posted a view similar to the above street view.

Fred Stuckmann posted
Left behind. See the link for other locations in eastern Ohio. All taken today. http://fredstuckmann.rrpicturearchives.net/archivethumbs.as…

 

Fred Stuckmann posted
It's 5 degrees on this January 2010 evening and I'm trying to figure out how to take a time exposure of the B&O Coal Tower in Akron Ohio on Eastwood Ave. with my brand new Nikon DSLR. This shot was an accidental success.

 

Todd Dillon posted
B&O coal dock Akron OH
Kevin Capurso: This was a B&O yard active until 1980s. Once CSX consolidated the B&O lines they left this yard to the wilderness. It's just East of downtown Akron.
Tim Shanahan shared

 

Ben Shuber posted
Akron, OH. Picture taken sometime in 2023. I haven’t been back down there lately but it appears the top of the tower was repainted yellow by vandals.
Tim Shanahan shared

Raymond Storey posted two photos with the comment: "The B&O....Akron Ohio."
[Note that the roundhouse doesn't have a turntable. Just a bunch of turnouts.]

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Roger Durfee posted
The highs and lows of Western Maryland geeps....on 04-08-1982 in Akron, Ohio. WM 6419 is of course an original WM GP9 unit chopped nosed by the railroad. The 5995 is a hand me down former C&O GP9 that retained it's high short hood. This spot under the old coal tower was where units got the sand boxes refilled. The 6419/6921 pair has finished and is headed back to the engine house area. While that coal tower still stands, all tracks you see here are gone today.

11 of 47 photos posted by Anthony Thomas with the comment: "The Coaling tower at the Akron B&O yard. Two years ago was when I took these pictures. Some pictures show what is remaining of the scalehouse. In 2010, it looked more like a yard instead of a wooded area. If anyone worked at the yard and knows what the foundations were feel free to comment."

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Daniel Nicholas shared some photos by Pete Smakula.