Alvin, IL: C&EI + IC Union Station, Junction Tower and Two Old Grain Elevators

(see below for satellite image)

Mike Sypult posted
Alvin, Illinois Union Station after 1910 when the name was changed from Alvan to Alvin. Must have been after 1917, when the Alvin Power Plant was started. Notice the power poles. The double tracks are the C&EI running north & south. The Illinois Central "Punkin Vine" is running east & west. The Alvin Elevator is behind the depot. The Farmers elevator is up the tracks. To the left is the interlocking tower. The picture was taken from West Railroad Avenue.
Chris Wintering: I wonder what that spot looks like now?

Dennis DeBruler commented on Chris' comment
All traces of the IC are gone except for the connector track, but both grain elevators have grown.
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.3083841,-87.6068431,294a,35y,2.9t/data=!3m1!1e3

Dennis DeBruler commented on Mike's post
1938 Hoopeston Quad @ 62,500

Madison, WI: (MX) Tower: Milwaukee vs. C&NW

(Satellite)

Photo via NorthAmericanInterlockings
[Looking Northeast along the C&NW.]

Dave Martens posted two images with the comment: "This is the location of the former MX tower in Madison Wisconsin - thought to be the only crossing of two railroads (Milwaukee Road and Chicago & Northwestern) in the middle of a lake. Both lines are still active. Additionally, a roadway (John Nolan Drive) has been added as seen in my photo. The RR line paralleling the road is the former CNW line (former CNW depot is nearby) and the RR line crossing it is the former MILW line.  A Don Ross photo of the tower during the steam era is linked here (https://donsdepot.irm.org/dr0001/cnw344.jpg) and Google Maps view is also included."

[Actually, it is the northern part of the John Nolan Drive that parallels C&NW. The sounthern part parallels the Milwaukee.]

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DonsDepot

wihap

1959 Madison West and 1969 Madison East Quads @ 24,000

I include this map to demonstrate that the National Rail Network Map can have a lot of errors. Pink is supposed to mean CPKC, while all of the grey lines that I checked are labeled WSOR. I'm not listing all of the errors, just the ones that caused me the most confusion. The route to the West is labelled WSOR, but it is CPKC. The route to the southeast has the self-contained error of being colored CPKC but having a label of WSOR.

National Rail Network Map

Given the errors in the above map, I went to some primary sources. Note that WSOR has some of the C&NW routes as well as Milwaukee routes.

WATCO via WSOR via Dennis DeBruler

cpkcr

Fassett, PA: Lost/Pennsy Tower for a Siding

(Satellite)

Darren Reynolds posted

A Pennsy Freight passes by Abandoned "Fassett" tower

Photo by: Unknown

Date: Unknown

Drew Guild: On the Elmira Branch.

Dennis DeBruler: The date of the photo is 1957: https://jbritton.pennsyrr.com/index.php/tpm/blogs/latest-articles-blog/488-on-location-8269-fassett

Larry Candilas commented on Darren's post
Unknown date but its in operation here - from the internet

Larry Candilas commented on Darren's post

track chart 1964

OldDepotGallery
"By the fall of 1957, all steam engines were retired on the Pennsy's Elmira Branch as 126-years of steam powered railroading ended on the Pennsylvania Railroad.
"NOW AVAILABLE - a limited number of  13" x 19" Giclée prints signed and numbered by the artist (limited to 250 copies)  The prints are reproduced on 51-lb. heavy weight, Epson paper and printed with archival inks.  Price........$50.00 plus $7.00 Shipping & Handling (US only contact us for S&H cost to locations outside of the United States)"

The photos show that it controlled the siding that was north of town. Today's Sheddens Way Road reuses part of the Pennsy RoW. The aerial photo below shows that it was at the south end of the siding just north of where PA-14 crossed the tracks. 

1954/56 Gillett Quad @ 24,000

PA-14 was moved between this 1952 aerial and the above 1954 topo map. The map is consistent with today's alignment of the road. There are two rectangles parallel to the tracks. The topo map indicates that the tower was the northern rectangle, which was behind this building.

Apr 17, 1952 @ 31,000; AR1UN0000020188

Seymour, IN: Junction (JO) Tower: B&O vs. Pennsy and Chessie/C&O Caboose

Tower: (Satellite, based on Photos 3 and 4 below.)

Caboose: (Satellite)

Darren Reynolds posted four photos with the comment:

B&O/PRR "JO" tower (Seymour)

St Louis Division

Seymour,Indiana

This tower is no longer standing

Tim Shanahan shared

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[Note the Pennsy positional light signals in this and the following photo. Also because of the buildings in the background the Contrail train is heading geographically South. That put the tower in the southeast quadrant.]

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Street View, Jun 2023

1958 Seymour Quadrangle @ 1:24,000 via Dennis DeBruler

Columbus, OH: B&O (GN) (CP Camp) Junction Tower: B&O vs. Pennsy vs. NYC vs. Big Four

(Satellite)

The 2005 SPV Map labels this junction CP Camp.   

Darren Reynolds posted four images with the comment:

B&Os "GN" tower (Columbus)

West Broad St.,Columbus, Ohio

This tower is no longer standing

Tim Shanahan shared

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A lot of tracks have been removed to make rooom for three highways through this area.

1955/56 West Columbus Quad @ 24,000

The tower was west of the B&O track and just south of McKinley Ave.

Mar 1, 1953 @ 18,000; AR1XM0000010170

The B&O route to the south is now owned by IORY. This map shows the IORY terminating at Sullivant Ave. But a satellite map shows the tracks continue north and now join the NS/Pennsy tracks.

National Rail Network Map

Jim Thorpe, PA: Penn Haven Junction: NS/Penn Haven Junction vs CNJ

(Satellite)

The Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad calls this the Independence Junction. [David Blazejewski]

Keith Nonnemacher posted
Lehigh Valley Railroads Penn Haven Junction now NS M&H Junction
Love the different types of Semaphore signals the Lehigh Valley upper quadrant the CNJ s Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad Lower Quadrant. Plus the tower was out in the middle of nowhere. The old Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company Penn Haven Planes are in the background after they extended their Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad to Easton and connection with the CNJ in Phillipsburg so they could run coal trains to tide water and abandon the incline plane in 1865

Today's trail is on the former-CNJ land.

Trail View, Aug 2021

eBay
Vintage Photo Penn Haven Jct. Central Railroad of NJ Lehigh Valley Railroad 1905

Did the turntable turn helper locomotives?

CulturedCarbonCountry, this webpage has several more photos

1960/62 Christmans Quad @ 24,000

I had trouble finding it. Lehigh Valley had a lot of forking junctions in these mountains. A comment mentioned that both legs of this junction still exist. That narrowed down where to look to just a couple of forking junctions on a contemporary map.

National Rail Network Map

Valley Stream, NY: Junction Tower: Long Island vs. Long Island

(Satellite)

Street View, Oct 2016

Street View, Oct 2021

Bradford G. Phillips posted

LIRR - Valley tower, Valley Stream, LI - January 1971

View looking east with MU's heading to Far Rockaway.

Corey Siegel: My first job as a signal inspector after taking my practical was 2nd shift valley inspector. I came in earlier that day to take my practical at valley interlocking. I got made, they broke my time, then I covered an open job for valley 2nd shift inspector (signal department).

[I don't understand what it means to get made.]

I was on the clock for 23 minutes when my beeper went off and I got my first trouble call. Signal displaying a clear and no code (automatic speed control) earlier that day when I was getting my practical from two supervisors. They not only gave me the same exact scenario as the actual trouble call, but literally the same exact track circuit.

[It sounds like that circuit has a problem and keeps acting up.]

1947/47 Lynbrook Quad @ 24,000

Pekin, IL: Junction Tower: P&PU+Sante Fe+Peoria & Eastern vs. P&PU

(Satellite, the east/west route and the P&PU Bridge are gone.)

Richard Haward posted
Pekin Tower.

Given the curve of the train and the angle of the tower, this must be the junction of the east/west P&PU route that carried Santa Fe and P&E across and the P&PU route that went along the east side of the Illinois River. There is also an industrial spur that went south closer to the river. The industrial spur still exists, but it now joins the north/south P&PU route further north.

1960 Pekin Quad @ 24,000

Lotus, IL: Junction: IC vs. Wabash

(Satellite)

The IC branch that this town was on was the former Havana, Rantoul & Eastern.

Andy Zukowski posted

The Wabash & Illinois Central Crossing in Lotus, Illinois

The former Wabash's Chicago to Bement line crossed an Illinois

Central branch that ran east-west between Leroy and Potomac.

This photo was taken 12/31/80, and at the time the Wabash was under N&W ownership and the IC was under the ICG flag. The ICG had just started pulling up this line in the preceding weeks, but the diamond here had yet to be pulled. The view is looking northeast. Photo from the Barry Lennon Collection

Larry Candilas commented on Andy's post
IC line was originally built in 1875 as a narrow-gauge line and was owned by the Wabash for a few years before the IC bought it. MP 17.3 Rantoul District; 1960 aerial
[It looks like the tower was in the northeast quadrant of the crossing.

Sara Anderson Olson commented on Andy's post
Hard to tell. No sign of a cross track.

Thomas Scoville commented on Andy's post
The Lotus depot survives on a farm just west of where the diamond used to be. [I could not find it.]
Richard Fiedler: Thomas Scoville that’s the replacement for the wood tower that was once there. I’m thinking the tower was destroyed in a derailment but I’m not sure. The replacement served as a train order office and a depot agency.

Richard Fiedler commented on Andy's post

Richard Fiedler commented on Andy's post

Richard Fiedler commented on Andy's post

No street view driver has driven close to this town. I don't think the elevator has rail service because NS still owns the route and I can't see a fall protector, but the elevator is rather big.

Satellite