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

Saturday, November 24, 2018

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."

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.

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

They brought in a crane to lift the machine out.

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

2
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.

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

Dale Forguson posted three photos with the comment: "Lenox tower Mitchell IL. constructed in 1924 contained 80 pistol grip levers. Demolished in 2021 after being replaced by automation."

Doug Meigs: Hope someone saved part of it.

Jim Kelling shared

LENOX tower in Mitchell Illinois (gone).