21st Street Towers

There are two towers near the 21st Street Crossing. Most pictures of this crossing don't let you see either of the towers because a train blocks the view. I have collected the few pictures that include a view of a tower in this posting. This is a rewrite of the posting because I finally came across a photo that shows both towers. The little brown building near the bridge would be the tower that controls the Canal Street RR Bridge. The brick building on the right is the tower that controls the 21st Street Crossing.

(Update: the 1944 two story brick interlocking tower shown in these notes replaced an 1893 elevated tower.)

Steven J. Brown posted
Amtrak Ann Rutledge #303 at 21st Street in Chicago - August 30, 1988.

Steven likes this railfan location. I'm glad because it clearly documented both towers: bridge and junction.

Steven J. Brown posted
Conrail SW7 8908 (built 1950 as Peoria & Eastern 8908 to PC 8908, became Brandywine Valley 8203) at 21st Street in Chicago, Illinois - April 12, 1988.

Erick Roman: I imagine this job was based out of the yard at Ashland. And are returning. But where are they coming from? Did they have industry work north of 21st street. Or are they coming from Amtrak?

Cool photo, thanks for sharing this.

Joel Sieracki: Continental Paper Grading Company on Lumber St received lots of box cars until they moved to Hodgkins in 2020.

Steven J. Brown shared

Photo from a posting
Amtrak SW8 750 switching the south end of the Chicago yard at 21st Street - September 12, 1988.

Gordon Leonard posted
It's still Feb. 1976. We're still at The Bridge. Check out the damage at the lower right front. It hit something....!
Bjarne Henderson They ran fast and were a pleasure to work on from a service attendant's perspective. They had access doors near the food service area so you didn't need to schlep all your stuff from one end of the car or the other as you still have to do with Amfleet. Clearly, whoever designed the Turbocafe considered the needs of employees as well as the passengers. Too bad that they wore out too quickly compared to their peers.
[This photo catches the bridge tower. Note the signal heads are missing many positions because only slow speeds are allowed across this bridge.]

Bill Molony posted
Pennsylvania Railroad Baldwin "Sharknose" DR-6-6-2000 #5786 with train #52, the Fort Pitt, on July 4, 1949.
Dennis DeBruler One of the better photos I have seen of the bridge" tower." The junction tower is to the right, out of frame. The controls for the bridge were moved from the cabin above the span to this tower.

John Dziobko Jr. has a 1955 picture that captures most of the junction tower and the bridge control tower. It appears the signal has yet to be converted to a "red eye" head because it is displaying the old horizontal positional aspect for "stop" of three yellow lights.

 
Robert Daly posted two photos with the comment: "Chicago & Western Indiana's 21st Street Tower, October 5 1974. This facility controlled the junction with the PC (PRR), ICG (IC and GM&O) and ATSF. The location was known as AT&SF Junction to the C&WI but Fort Wayne Junction to the PRR. The dwarf (excuse me, vertically challenged) semaphore looks like a Disney Pixar creation."

1

2

Joseph Tuch Santucci posted

21st Street Tower in Chicago. This tower stood on the southeast quadrant where CN’s Illinois Central Freeport Subdivision crossed and connected to the Amtrak Chicago Terminal trackage. Ownership of the line changed from Conrail and later NS to Amtrak on the south side (compass) of the interlocking. Prior to Amtrak this was PRR then PC track. It was sold to Amtrak I believe in the late 70’s or very early 80’s. 

The GM&O and predecessor Chicago & Alton connected here in the northwest quadrant which is out of the photo. The Chicago & Western Indiana also crossed here with their right of way to the immediate west of the Chicago line. They crossed at an angle and their tracks were located at the bottom of this photo. The Santa Fe also crossed the Chicago Line just south of the IC tracks and their coach yard and servicing facilities were behind me. 

In the early 2000’s 21st Street also controlled Amtrak Terminal trackage in New Orleans remotely from here. Yes, New Orleans. 

While it’s still a busy crossing it’s not like it was in the heyday. The tower was closed around 2009 or 2010 I think. Memory isn’t quite certain these days. And the tower is gone. I was in here a couple times back in 1986-87. 

On the IC and CWI it was 21st Street. On the GM&O it was Fort Wayne Jct and on Conrail it was Alton Jct. 

This photo was from 2004 if memory serves correct.

Bob Poortinga: Just to the left and behind 21st tower you can see the shanty that housed the operator at South Branch Bridge. This person was both a block operator for PRR/PC/CR and the bridge operator. I posted that job for a couple of days and got to operate the bridge as part of my training. This was about 1973 or thereabouts.

Harold J. Krewer: Earl Poulsen, the tower belonged to (and was staffed by) the C&WI, even long after all the C&WI track to Dearborn Station had been abandoned. They sold the interlocking plant and tower to Amtrak in (IIRC) the early 1990s as the C&WI was being dissolved. The four regular operators (first, second, third and relief) also came along with the tower and became Amtrak employees.

21st St was remoted to the Lumber St. Train Director in early 2005. I was one of the Trainmasters assigned to oversee the cutover, which took place overnight on a Friday night/Saturday morning.

[Several of the comments provide details about how the tracks through this crossing changed.]

 

Dave Allenson commented on Joseph's post
A view of the inside of 21st St. from January, 1997.

 

Steven Keen commented on Joseph's post
Is this the same bridge?

Dennis DeBruler: Steven Keen yes, https://maps.app.goo.gl/mFF2Sek9UFtxdghf8. That view used to have a lot of C&WI tracks in it.

Mark Llanuza caught the junction tower:

Mark Llanuza Photo
Penn Central E-8 at Fort Wayne Jct Santa Fe tower 1973

 

Larry Candilas posted
March 1978 - southbound ICG switcher is lost and looking for it's train. A junction of several names, depending on what railroad you worked for - 21st St, Alton Jct, AT&SF Jct.

Mark Hinsdale posted
Filed under "Local things we just don't see anymore..."
What I presume to be a BNSF Cicero (or Eola) to Glenn Yard transfer job curves off Amtrak's South Branch Bridge and onto the Illinois Central Railroad's Joliet District (the ex Gulf, Mobile & Ohio main line), on a beautiful June, 1998 afternoon. A quarter century later, first generation power and inter-yard transfer moves across the city are long gone from BNSF, as is the brick interlocking tower where operators controlled the once complicated junction at Chicago's 21'st Street.
[And you don't see that H1 livery very often anymore.]
Kevin A. Sadowski: Man that scheme really looked good on everything from high hood geeps to -9s
Mark Hinsdale shared
Mark Hinsdale shared
Steve Kraus: Old power and towers, okay. Why don’t they need transfers anymore?
Daniel Evans: Rationalisation of smaller yards into larger ones, usually further from the city, and direct runthroughs of full manifest trains between them, avoiding congested routes in Chicago if possible.
For BNSF-CN, CN have now centralised everything at Kirk, and BNSF rely on Galesburg to sort out a lot of Chicago transfers. The routing is probably Galesburg - Eola - former EJE - Kirk now.
Walt Del Calle: Daniel Evans exactly. Once in a while, the Galesburg crew will have to do a bit of work at Eola. The train will be tied down on the J main, most often at West Bridge Junction, East Bridge Junction, or 111th St. and a CN crew will come for it.
Walt Del Calle: CN brings the westbound L-595 into Eola and ties it down unless the BNSF crew is there already, which happens once in a while.

Jeffrey Schackart posted
i operated this junction at 21 and canal in 1980,...2 story brick building by engine shown...the chicago and western indiana operated this junction point.

This shows another tower that would be further south. Given how old this view is, this building may be a switch tender shanty.

Kevin Leahy posted
PRR K-4 heading out of town. circa 1939.
Eric Reinert Blasting out of town is more like it! At 22nd St. having just crossed the C&WI tracks. First stop: Englewood. Just to the left of the PRR PL signal you can just make out the elevated tower that straddled the complex crossing here until about 1945.

Update:
I put a red rectangle around the tower because I almost missed it. Mark caught the area after the C&WI and Santa Fe tracks had been torn up but before new Chinatown was built.

Mark Llanuza posted
Its 1987 at Chinatown 21st jct
Fred Mohr Hmmm thinking 89 with the CTA orange line completed in the background.Erik Coleman And the 3118 didn't exist until November 1988.

Jim Ripley shared
[Judging from the comments, I'm supposed to get excited about a GM&O Alco PA in Chicago. But I'm more excited about a view of both the junction and bridge towers and the number of diamonds the view includes.]

Bill Molony posted
Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad Alco RS-1 #526, pushing the equipment for Erie Lackawanna train #6 from the C&WI Coach Yard at 47th Street through 21st Street towards Dearborn Station - 1967.

Bill Molony shared

Steven J. Brown posted
Viewed from 18th Street in Chicago, The Amtrak City of New Orleans waits for the Capitol Limited to clear 21st Street/Alton Jct before taking the left and then shoving into Union Station - January 24, 1990. CTA Orange line is under construction.
[The tower is on the right in front of the lead Amtrak locomotive.]

Bob Lalich Flickr

21st UP business car 12-89

I happened to catch this unusual move at 21st St. I have no idea what the circumstances were but I'd sure like to know.

Another view that has both towers because the photographer is above the train so that the train does not "skunk" the towers.