Champaign, IL: Junction Tower: IC vs. Big Four and Wabash+IT

(Satellite, the tower was in the southeast quadrant)

Bill Kalkman posted
Champaign Tower. 12:30PM on 11/8/80 in Champaign, IL.
Mike Heiligstedt Has a lot of the same characteristics as Kensington tower in Chicago.

Bill commented on his post
Jon Roma In both shots, you're looking southward. Tracks between you and the tower are ICG's southbound main, northbound main, runaround, and inbound lead to Champaign Yard. The second motor is just going over the Peoria & Eastern main; it looks as if the Wabash-Illinois Terminal main farther south was already gone.

Champaign Tower was a 104-lever pistol grip machine. It closed in May 1993. I have a couple track diagrams, including the one that hung over the interlocking machine.
[Note the Iron Man on near the right side of the photo for train orders.]

Jon Roma commented on  Bill's post
Dick Stair was a friend of mine. Here's a picture of him inside Champaign Tower, his workplace for many years.

This great image was captured by the late Bruce Meyer in 1959.John Springer what a great shot interesting all the levers seem be in the same position love the ice box.Jon Roma The levers are all in the same (normal) position because the rules prescribed that they be restored to normal other than when immediately required for a train move.John Springer Very interesting Jon. Thank you.

Jon Roma commented on  Bill's post
Dick died 15 years ago this weekend [2016]; I still miss him and Champaign Tower very much. Dick was a long-time volunteer at the Monticello Railway Museum, and we recently built an interlocking tower and named it in memory of him.

James Holzmeier posted
John LaRochelle The January 1st, 1969 N&W Decatur Division Seniority List of Telegraphers shows Blundy, E.H., seniority date September 26th,1942, as Agent Telegrapher (Exclusive) Champaign as the only N&W employee in the Champaign area.

Satellite

The SPV Map shows the Big Four as abandoned east of this crossing. But the satellite image shows that it goes east until North Smith Road in Urbana.

Satellite

In fact a remnant of the Wabash still goes south to serve the Solo Cup factory. (This factory was a Magnavox plant until 1971. [aerial, (source), closed]) This remnant used to go further south to join the Wabash branch that used to enter Urbana from the southeast. That branch had stations in Champaign and Urbana and connected with the mainline in Sidney, IL. You can easily see where the RoW ran through town except where Schnucks and other buildings to the west were built on the RoW. The RoW used to run just south of the Big Four until it crossed the CN/IC/ICG/IC. The Illinois Terminal used to share this route between the two towns. (The IT used to go west to Monticello and Decatur and other towns in central Illinois.)

Satellite

Note that there is still a remnant of a yard north of the Big Four route that has 7 tank cars stored at the top of the satellite image to the left and four covered hopper cars in the image to the right.

Once again, it is easier to see the shadow of the tower than the tower itself. It is on the right side about a third of the way down.

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Update:

Steven J. Brown posted
Illinois Central Gulf SW14 1504 (built 1952 as IC SW9 9332) at Champaign, Illinois - August 10, 1987.
[Note the tower in the background.]

Robert Daly posted four photos with the comment:

Champaign Tower February 10 1976. This structure controlled the crossing of the IC main line with the Illinois Terminal, N&W, Wabash, and Peoria & Eastern. The semaphore governed the east approach of the N&W and IT.

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