Harvey Junction: B&OCT+Milwaukee crosses GTW

(no CRJ, Satellite)

Scott Griffith posted
Chicago Heights branch
Gary Golden Still ran Milwaukee road to Faithorn in 1976 handed up orders to south bound trains at North Harvey. (IHB connection) BOCT stopped in Chicago heights, Milwaukee road started in Chicago heights and went south. BOCT dispatched Faithorn to North Harvey(Chicago Heights Sub.) Faithorn Road between I 394 & Crete IL. The Milwaukee yard was just south of Faithorn Rd.

Scott posted again
It was D.W.Davidson

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Please see Flickr photos taken in 1981 and 1979 of the crossing and its tower.

B&OCT had a spur that went south past Thorton Quarry to Chicago Heights. Milwaukee Road had trackage rights on this route to reach their Chicago, Terre Haute & Southern route that it leased in 1924 to gain access to southwestern Indiana coal fields. (AbandonedRail) Even after Milwaukee abandoned the route south of Chicago Heights, it retained its trackage rights on the B&OCT to serve the Ford plant in Chicago Heights and the Thorton Quarry.

The red line is the B&OCT, yellow is GTW, blue is Illinois Central, and the purple box is where the junction tower stood. Note that the IC is elevated so it is not part of the junction. I include it just for completeness. This picture is at full resolution. The picture below is at a lower resolution so that you can orient the location with a current view.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

In the 1991 Google Earth views below, a lot of the industry has disappeared and more connecting tracks have been added. The crossing still exists, but it is now controlled remotely. If you study the current view, you will see the crossing is gone. Since CSX now controls both B&OCT and GTW in Illinois, they merged the two routes south of here and separate them north of here. The IC underpass is still used, but now for a connector with the IC.

1991 Google Earth

1991 Google Earth

Update:
Scott's picture at the top of this posting caused me to study the junction again. The elemination of the redundant routes between B&OCT and GTW was done before CSX got the GTW route from CN. Looking at Historic Aerials, the parallel track and crossing was removed some time between 1999 and 2002.

Scott Griffith posted
Chicago Heights tower ?
Bob Lalich Harvey, IL.  GT train is EB.

Scott Griffith commented on the first posting