(no CRJ,
3D Satellite)
NorthAmericanInterlockings:
photo photo photo photo photo
Chicago and Northern Indiana Railroad Interlocking Towers
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David Daruszka posted
A different tower than too!
Most likely there were two towers at Gresham at this time, shortly after elevation. |
According to a comment below by Bob Lalich, the current tower started operation in 1953. The above tower at the north end of the junction would have helped the main tower down where the two branch lines crossed the mainline.
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| 1929 Blue Island Quadrangle @ 1:24,000 |
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Bill Molony posted
This is the Rock Island's tower at 91st Street and Vincennes Avenue as it looked on July 15th, 1989. Photograph by Bob Storozuk. From the Blackhawk collection Derrick James: That’s Mahalia Jackson School in the background, just over the Suburban Line embankment. Tower is at 89th Street.
Gary Knight: GRESHAM Interlocking plant, a English manufactured control machine all by syquence switches..with 56 GRS 110volt DC power switches, derails movable point frogs n double slip switches...all color light signals....mostly on bridges B & O and C & O crossed here as did our freight lines and of course our pristine suburban commuter line n main line services...one heck of a great experience.
Bill Molony shared |
Jason Bird
posted the following three photos with the comment "
Rock Island Gresham tower. Retired."
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| 3 |
The third picture had some comments. To summarize: Left: Chicago, right: Joliet, bottom: Metra's subline (Beverly district), top: South Chicago Branch. The lines up the center was the connection between the two branches. At one time the B&O used the two branches and that connection to go west to
Beverly Hills where they had a track that went north to meet their B&OCT tracks up the
Western Corridor.
Looking at the left side of the third picture, the turnout on the bottom was the "
Wall Track" connector to the BRC.
This 1916 map shows all of the tracks mentioned on the control board at the junction. I added a yellow rectangle to highlight the junction. Today, the connector between the two branches and the yard is gone.
Not only did the connector between the branches exist in 1938, you can see streetcar tracks in Halsted. I added a red rectangle where the pre-1953 tower stood.
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Bob Lalich commented on a post
There are a fair number of photos and other information about the CRIP South Chicago Branch to be found on the internet. Here is a diagram of Gresham Jct taken from an article describing the new interlocking machine installed in 1953. What in particular are you looking for?
Ron Hull I do remember the tracks from the Rock Island/B&O/C&O/Pier Marquette being immediately to the south of the Rock Island suburban line, and even crossing them when driving south on Vincennes. Gresham tower controlled the movements through the junction. Pretty sure the B&O/C&O/PM passenger trains used the station at 63rd and Oakley used this line to gain entry to their home rails on the far east side. There was a North leg of the wye at about 89th street that connected with the Pennsy panhandle. The non-Pennsy passenger trains used the panhandle from about 81st street to the above referenced wye. From the wye they went east until they gained their own main line at 96th Street and the Calumet River bridges.
[I'm going to have to read that about 10 times with a map close by. That is a lot of information.]
Emile John Buteau Back in the late '60s I was on a Rock Island Suburban line at 89th, and we were held while the Capitol Ltd. came thru and when it slowed I waved to Brooks Robinson in the diner car. When I mentioned this once before, everyone said I must've been dreaming. Thanks for your msg. |
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David Daruszka commented on a posting
Gresham on the Sanborn maps |
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David Daruszka commented on a posting
Gresham continued
Drawing highly inaccurate, only 2 tracks across Halsted st., I have worked the Englewood job and the Bridgeworks which used Gresham yard to store cars and switch local industries.
The map is from the early 1900's. |
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Bob Lalich commented on a posting
FWIW, the 1915 smoke abatement book maps show three CRIP tracks crossing Halsted. |
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Richard Mead posted
Gresham Junction where the Beverly Sub meets the mainline.
[The Alco diesel has blacker smoke than the Alco steam engine.]
Dyadya Abdul Diesel locomotives only promised to run cheaper, not cleaner. That's changed these days. |
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Marty Bernard posted
3. CRI&P RS-3 493 in Chicago, IL at 89th and Vincennes on December 31, 1964. This outbound commuter train is turning on to the Beverly Branch from the mainline. Those were the B&OCT tracks in the foreground. |
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Dennis DeBruler commented on Marty's post
The tracks in the foreground were also Rock Island tracks in this Gresham Junction. They used to connect the RI branch to the Rock Island Junction on the east side with the Beverly Hills branch. They have since been removed. The B&O passenger trains used these RI tracks to get from the Rock Island Junction to tracks the B&OCT added to join the RI at Beverly Junction where the Beverly Branch curves south. This 1929 topo excerpt shows not only the east/west crossing tracks in Gresham, it shows the segment that B&OCT built between the RI tracks and its mainline that was further north. That B&OCT segment parallels the Pennsy's Panhandle route.
1953 Blue Island and Calumet Lake Quadrangles @ 1:24,000 |
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Dennis DeBruler commented on Marty's post
David Daruszka has uploaded this Sanborn map that details the tracks in the foreground and part of the connector on which the train is travelling. |
The southwest bound Chicago Surface Lines Street Car Tracks S curved from Vincennes Ave. as they came from under the Rock Island Suburban Line at 89th Street to private right of way that ran alongside the Rock Island Main all the way to 119th Street and crossed the Rock Island connector (used by the B&O and C&O ex Pere Marquette) at grade and was not interlocked. Street car conductor flagged the crossing.
ReplyDeleteHello Jason Bird and William Shapotkin:
ReplyDeleteJason – May I use (and give credit to you) your two Gresham Tower control-panel photos.
William – May I use (and give credit to you) your one Gresham Tower control-panel photo.
Permission is requested only to use the photos on the Facebook “Railroad Interlocking and Signal Towers” Group, with the following story line:
Most of us tower folk in the USA have worked unit lever machines of various types, where there is an individual lever of some type for each signal and each switch. Some of the older interlocking machines had multiple levers for some signals, such as a separate lever for each route and signal head.
Some of us were also able to work Entrance Exit (NX) machines, which came onto the scene in the late 1930s. Typically, you would press the entrance button and then select the exit button, and bingo, the route would align.
Over in Britain, I ran into a few OCS panels where for each signal there was a separate button for each possible route. Push just one of the buttons for a signal, and the selected route (if available) would be automatically aligned.
Wikipedia defines One Control Switch (OCS) (paraphrased slightly by me for American clarity) as follows:
A separate button is provided for every signalled route. There will be as many buttons per signal as there are routes (i.e. signalled destinations) from that signal. To set the desired route, the relevant button is operated. All points (aka switches) within the route are automatically set to the required position.
From J. B. (Jim) Calvert’s writings:
Route-relay interlocking was taken up by the LNER in the 1930's. Rotary thumbswitches were used, and the route set up was shown by white lights on a track diagram. Track circuits detected the presence of trains. This system became the O.C.S. (One Control Switch) system widely used on British Railways.
My point for writing this is because I ran into one such OCS interlocking here in the USA – the Rock Island Gresham Tower near Chicago.
For each signal, there was a “dial” “rotary switch” to select the desired route. My personal photos are very, very poor. There are some excellent photos on the Internet of Gresham Tower and the rather large interlocking machine (and its “dials”). Gresham Tower had a very unusual American interlocking machine.
If anyone has good photos, please put them up with an appropriate comment.
Steve McEvoy
samcevoy@aol.com