Bloomington, IL: Dean Tower: NS/N&W/NKP/LEW+Aban/CR/NYC/Big4/P&E vs. Aban/ICG/IC

(Satellite)

P&E was the Peoria & Eastern, and LEW was the Lake Erie & Western.

Roger Holmes posted
The engineer of an N&W eastbound reaches for his train orders at Dean Tower on the south side of Bloomington, Illinois, taken a year or two after the merger with the Nickel Plate Road. On the head end is a GP30 still painted in NKP colors and is about to hit the diamond with the Illinois Central's Freeport to Centralia line. Note the P&E concrete property marker, the P&E being just out of view to the left of the tower. At one time the interlocker also controlled the Illinois Terminal which followed the IC from Decatur and Clinton. © Roger A. Holmes.
[Note the signalling pipelines.]

In the photo, it looked like the tower was east of the IC tracks. But this aerial photo shows it was west of the IC, south of the NKP, and north of the Big Four. The white line across the top was US 66.

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

The following satellite image is of the same area. The north/south part of Trilakes Road is part of the old IC route.

Satellite

I include a bigger part of the aerial photo to provide some context. If you look southeast of Bloomington on a satellite image, you can easily see the tree line of the P&E route. You have to look further south of Bloomington to see the land scars and treelines of the IC route.

1940 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Update:

Stephen N. Brannon posted
Another classic was Dean Tower on the SE side of Bloomington, Illinois where train orders were copied for IC, NKP, and P&E. Anybody work this one?
Darren Reynolds shared

 

Allen Miller commented on Stephen's post
Here's an order from Dean, copied in 1944. The operator, Monty Powell, was only 15 years of age when he copied this order, hiring out a month or two earlier when he was only 14.

Stephen N. Brannon: Allen Miller Thanks for posting this! I love the railroad photos taken by Monty Powell over the years of his career!

Darren Reynolds shared

Stephen N. Brannon posted
Dean Tower in Bloomington in 1973 at the crossings with the P&E and Nickel Plate lines to Peoria. IC northbound train order board out perhaps for No. 372 the northbound Clinton-Freeport "Long Gruber."
Everett Lueck: It looks a little bit worse for wear from the times that I used to hang out there in the 1960's. It is the Peoria and Eastern on the south side of the tower, the IC Charter line (Gruber Line) on the east side running under the 66 bypass, and the Nickel Plate on the north side of the tower.

Carl Venzke posted
IC No. 908 at Dean Tower in July, 1957, near the end of the use of steam power here. Dean was where the Illinois Central crossed the Nickel Plate and the Peoria & Eastern. Perhaps No. 908 had been sent there to handle transfer traffic between the railroads. Richard Leonard photo.

Matt Smith posted
From the Barringer files, with enhancement: Dean

Thomas Dyrek posted
A westbound Norfolk & Western train crosses the Illinois Central Gulf at Bloomington on an unknown date. John and Roger Kujawa photo, Thomas Dyrek collection.
Craig Ross: As for the date, sometime between 1978 and 1983 based on the U1 dot and the consolidated stencil on the caboose.
Dennis DeBruler shared
Kristopher Isaac Barrington shared

Steven Kakoczki commented on Thomas' post
Did a little work to the photo.......