Stewart, IN: WA Tower: KBS/NYC/CIS+Milw vs Aban/C&EI Branch

(Satellite)

KBS = Kankakee, Beaverville & Southern Railroad

CIS = Chicago, Indiana & Southern

I'm learning that C&EI had quite a few little branches in western Indiana. But they were abandoned so long ago that I can't find any trace of them. The Egyptian Line is owned by KBS to the north and is abandoned to the south.

Eric Berg posted

New York Central's Stewart "WA" tower in the summer of 1917. The tower guarded the crossing of NYC's double-tracked north/south Egyptian Line and the east/west running C&EI Judyville branch that ran from Rossville Jct., Illinois to Judyville, Indiana. There were universal crossovers on the NYC and no interchange tracks. The tower sat in the S/W quadrant of the diamonds. The tower had a Saxby & Farmer machine that was installed in 1906 with 25 working levers and was operated by NYC personnel.

Stewart tower was located at milepost 90 on the Egyptian line, being 109 miles south of Chicago and 19 miles north of Danville, sitting between Handy and Sloan towers. It sat 9 miles east of the C&EI's mainline at Rossville.

Stewart had both northbound and southbound sidings, with the northbound siding good for 109 cars and the southbound siding being good for 94 cars. The speed through here at this time was: 55 for passenger and 40 for freights. The tower was open from 7 am to 7pm, with one shift working 12 hours then after 7 pm the plant was put into automatic.

In 1917, these trains were scheduled to pass by here daily:

0029 AM-Southbound 1st class train #15.
0123 AM-Southbound 2nd class train #97.
0145 AM-Northbound 3rd class train # 84.
0230 AM-Southbound 3rd class train #57 (except Sunday)
0357 AM-Northbound 1st class train #10, southbound 2nd class train #99 & northbound 3rd class train #80 met, with #80 taking the siding and #'s 10 & 99 passing on the mains.
0742 AM-Northbound 1st class train #12.
0825 AM-Northbound 3rd class train #58 (except Sunday).
0911 AM-Northbound 3rd class train #82.
1103 AM-Southbound 1st class train #11.
1515 PM-Northbound 2nd class train #96.
1710 PM-Northbound 3rd class train #86.
1804 PM-Northbound 1st class train #14.
2021 PM-Southbound 1st class train #13.
2109 PM-Northbound 2nd class train #98.
2245 PM-Northbound 3rd class train #88.

Photographer unknown, courtesy of the C&EI Historical Society.