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| Zachary C. Gillihan posted All, I am looking for more information on this board, thinking Chicago area and possibly Lake Forest? Anyone have any photos of it in service? Jon Roma As best as I can tell, the tower was built by the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee interurban when they built their Skokie Valley bypass route circa 1925.This explains the peculiar appearance compared to the typical C&NW interlocking tower. I believe it was built by CNS&M but that C&NW exercised their prerogative as senior railroad to man the tower. The interurban abandoned in 1963, and the plant was simplified accordingly. Incidentally, C&NW parlance was Tower "KO", not "KO" Tower. I do not have a closing date for "KO", but I believe its end came around 1986 after C&NW had dropped timetable and train order operation, replacing it with Direct Traffic Control. |
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| Zachary commented on his posting Looks like a hell of place at one time!! |
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| Russ Fierce commented on the posting Here's a picture I found. Looks like much more recent. |
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| Dennis Stanczak posted Handing up the orders at KO Tower, Lake Forest IL on the C&NW New Line. This was from 1978 or 1979 and remains one of my favorite photos from my youth. |
You can see the tower near the bottom of this aerial.
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| 1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
I worked Tower KO off and on from 1974-1978. It was very busy in those days. KO, Waukegan, Bain, and St. Francis were the only offices open 24 hours, or almost 24 hours--Bain was not--on that portion of the Wisconsin Division, by then. The old North Shore right-of-way was quite evident; it was remarkable to consider what KO was like when it was even *busier*.
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