Forest Park Towers: (CSX+CN)/(B&OCT+WC) vs Aban/C&NW/CGW vs Aban/CA&E

(New Tower Flickr; Satellite According to Global Earth images: In 2000, the tower was east of the billboard. In 2002, there was just a concrete slab.)
NorthAmericanInterlockings:  new tower (old tower photos are below)
Chicago and Northern Indiana Railroad Interlocking Towers (click the marker for more information)

Great Western Junction was another name for this junction.

William Shapotkin posted two photos with the comment:

Great Western Junction -- located at Beloit Ave in Forest Park, IL, is where the CGW mainline began (trains operated over the B&OCT east of that point). Here are two pix of that tower BEFORE construction of the Congress (now Eisenhower) Expressway obliterated everything.
1. This view (looking west) shows an E/B CA&E train x/o the B&OCT. The CGW branches off to the left -- the B&OCT (WC) to the right.
2. This view (looking east) shows a W/B CA&E train arriving Des Plaines Ave station. The tower is at left.

Dennis DeBruler Using the second photo, I can conclude that the tower is the taller building on the right of the first photo.

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Great Western Junction -- located at Beloit Ave in Forest Park, IL, is where the CGW mainline began (trains operated over the B&OCT east of that point). Here are two pix of that tower BEFORE construction of the Congress (now Eisenhower) Expressway obliterated everything.

This view (looking west) shows an E/B CA&E train x/o the B&OCT. The CGW branches off to the left -- the B&OCT (WC) to the right.
Thomas Kaufman I have seen this photo before. I never noticed the East platform of the Des Plaines Av station behind the upper left of the CA&E car. Since this was a single car and there was a third rail gap because of the interlocking the motorman really had to work up a huge rate of speed to cross the gap and not get stuck. I think I remember there was a stinger pole they could use to get moving again if stuck that energized the single car trains to get them moving. DOuble car trains connected together crossed the gap easily. ,
William Shapotkin You are correct Thomas Kaufman -- the Des Plaines Ave station platform is visible at left. Have other pix at this location (including a CGW motor car train x/o the CA&E) -- but (as that (and other) pix have not yet been scanned), am unable to show them at this time. All my photo work is on slide film (NO, I do NOT trust electronic storage) and, after amassing a collection of over 200,000 slide images, am not about to start scanning all that stuff (hey -- if I had that much time available to me, I'd be out taking more pix, not scanning the stuff I already have).

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Great Western Junction -- located at Beloit Ave in Forest Park, IL, is where the CGW mainline began (trains operated over the B&OCT east of that point). Here are two pix of that tower BEFORE construction of the Congress (now Eisenhower) Expressway obliterated everything.
This view (looking east) shows a W/B CA&E train arriving Des Plaines Ave station. The tower is at left.

Some details concerning the CA&E, WC, and CGW before I discuss a 1938 aerial photo.


CA&E is the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin interurban. It joined the Metropolitan West Side "L" at Bellwood for access to Wells Street Terminal.

1938 Map from DeBruler

Northern Pacific helped finance Wisconsin Central building into downtown Chicago and building Grand Central Station. Because this was one of the later railroads built into Chicago, they had to buy a lot of expensive land downtown. WC went bankrupt soon after and B&O bought the assets, including the station, out to Madison Street in Forest Park as an addition to B&OCT. Today CSX owns the B&OCT route and CN owns the WC route. But the segment east of the BRC tracks is now out-of-service. (The official reason I read is that the bridges are too low to clear autoracks and double-stacks. The unofficial reason I read is that the developers along the route complained to a Daily about train noise.) And CN bought EJ&E so they quit using the WC route through Forest Park. So now the only segment used is between BRC and the Ferrara Pan Candy Company.

The Chicago & Great Western was also a later railroad built to Chicago. It arrived in 1887. By this time the city realized that railroads cut up the city and were disruptive. (This is a couple of decades before the city forced all of the railroads to elevate their tracks.) So it required new railroads to cooperate and build a single shared route into the city. In this case, the CGW joined the WC at Forest Park (Forest Home in 1880s) per William's first photo.


The red rectangle highlights the tower. The WC crossed the CA&E and then the CGW.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Building I-290 in the 1950s required a new tower. Photos: Davidson and Allen. The CGW was not abandoned until after 1968. Looking at a 1962 aerial photo, the CTA terminal was smaller and the CGW route (red) had its own overpass over Des Plaines Ave. The CA&E route (yellow line in the lower-left corner) is now just a couple of stub tracks. I wonder why the new tower was built on the east side of the I-290 overpass since the actual junction was on the west side.

Satellite plus Paint

Screenshot from a video of CA&E action   (source)