Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Historic Junction Tower B-12 on display in Franklin Park Illinois USA.

Seen here on a cloudy afternoon in May of 2006, is the former Junction Tower, that guarded the crosstracks east of 25th Avenue in downtown Franklin Park Illinois USA. This manual interlocking tower controlled and dispatched freight and passenger train traffic until approximately I'd say....The year 2000. Rather than demolish it, the building was in very good shape, and the railroads and village decided to relocate it further west, and make it a museum piece. It is open to the public, and is just west of the Metra commuter rail station. This tower controlled the traffic and interchanging freight trains from the Indianna Harbor Bdelt Railroad, and the Milwaukee road line as well. This old train traffic control tower makes for a lovely landmark along Franklin Avenue.

2 comments:

Tom Gill said...

It's open to the public? I'll have to stop by and take a tour - I'd love to see the inside of one of these towers.

Eddie said...

Tower preservation has gained a lot of ground in railroad museums and city parks around the nation.
The first "Preserved" manual interlocking tower I had seen (firsthand) was Leaman Place Tower, on display in Strasburg Pennsylvania on the Strasburg Railroad back in August of 1990.
I only wish more of our Chicago area interlocking towers could have been saved. I witnessed the last of these in service back in the 1980's and early 1990's.
The junction tower from Spaulding Illinois (Waukeegan Area) can be seen today at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union Illinois.

Thank You.
Eddie.