Nostalgia & History > Rondout, Illinois Tower to be closed March 7.

This was copied and pasted from a Railway & Locomotive Historical Society Discussion Group. It was posted by Bob Brown, who worked there before he retired. The attached photo was taken by me on one of my two visits in the mid 1970s as a sophomore in high school while traveling with dad. I also took some movie footage.

"Former Milw Road Rondout Interlocking Tower To Close

One of the last two remaining open Milwaukee Road Interlocking Towers
is set to close as the interlocker will be remotely operated by the CP
Dispatcher in Minneapolis. The Rondout plant controls the former
EJ&E (now CN) crossing as well as the junction of Metra's Milw
North Line suburban line to Fox Lake, Illinois, its terminal.

Reports are that the Tower will close at the end of the 2nd shift next
Saturday, March 7, 2015. Metra owns the tower and no reports on
the future use of the structure.

There has been an interlocking tower at Rondout at least since the
early 1890's. The current Tower dates to about 1916 or 1917. Is of
composite construction ( brick base & wooden upper story ). Used
armstrong levers until 1963, when it had US&S electric interlocking
board installed.

Rondout seems to have been named after the Hudson River port of
Rondout, New York. First settled as a Dutch fur trading post about
1630. Now part of the city of Kingston, New York.

Rondout was 1 & 1/2 miles from where the famous Rondout Mail Train
robbery occurred in 1924 ( Buckley Road ). Also had a neat Milw Road depot
kitty corner across the EJ&E double diamonds that lasted until about
1965. Second set of diamonds for the EJ&E siding were removed in
1986 by the Soo Line & EJ&E. Rondout was also where the North
Shore's Mundelein branch crossed over the Milw Road mainline &
the EJ&E on a long fill until abandonment in 1963. Rondout was one of
the North Shore's most important freight interchanges, and was where
after burning and being cut up, 3/4 mile east, all the North Shore's
scrapped interurbans were I/C to either the EJ&E or Milw Road for
shipment to the steel mills.

Tower will be certainly missed by its employees, both current &
retired, as well as all the T&E crews that passed by.

Cheers & 73's.
Bob Brown
Retired Control Operator
Rondout Tower"



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/15 15:08 by wabash2800.

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Here is a look across the diamonds at the tower on March 13, 1991. That's Amtrak Train 337 headed for Milwaukee. The cab car is an ex-PRR Metroliner cab car. Amtrak is on the ex-MILW and the crossing track was the EJ&E. The CNS&M bridge over the Milwaukee Road tracks is behind me.

Marty Bernard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/15 12:58 by MartyBernard.

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Ahh, Rondout. I spent my teenage years in nearby Deerfield IL (used to see the Hiawatha's storm through town) and there was a very small bar in the Rondout train area that would serve beer to us 15 yr olds. Later figured out it was an unincorporated area without real government or police jurisdiction. Fond memories .... :-)

I remember reading a fan magazine article about Rondout years ago. One of the last photos was a picture of the tower with the caption "At some point in the future, CP will probably close Rondout tower..."

It was the July 1993 issue of Pacific Railnews. Twenty two years later, "some point" has finally arrived.