Nostalgia & History > NYC/B&O tower pics from Chrisman IL around 1919

The hard copies of these pictures were shown to me by a friend of a family member - from what I understand, his dad was a NYC telegraph operator at Rose tower in Chrisman Illinois. I don’t know many details but these photos are from around 1919 and were taken in Chrisman where the B&O crossed the NYC. From looking at the photos there were three towers there – Rose tower, Hobbs Tower, and MR Tower. Google maps shows that the crossing is still there today operated by CSX though the towers and depots are gone. An online search turned up next to nothing about this location in that time period and any of the towers.

I thought some of you would enjoy seeing these, and feel free to fill in any details if you have them!


1. B&O Depot at Chrisman IL
2. NYC Depot at Chrisman IL
3. I believe this is a NYC Crew

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1. Railroaders having fun...
2. NYC Crew. The man in the middle with the vest is the Rose Tower telegraph operator - the dad of our friend who showed me the pics (he is also shown below).
3. Rose Tower telegraph operator

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1. Hobbs tower - I think its NYC
2. Hobbs - Side view
3. Hobbs - Other side

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1. MR Tower - not sure if this is NYC or B&O
2. Tower interior
3. NYC steamer I think

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1. View from one of the towers
2. NYC?
3. Another view from the tower

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1. Rose Tower
2. When our friends dad brought him to work one day - here are a few. This must have been closer to around 1950.
3. Same as above

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Last one.

I hope you enjoyed them.

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I would place those first two pictures around 1960 rather than 1910. You can see a "mogas" sign in the first picture, and while I forget which company that was, I think that name appeared in the 60s. The second picture somehow just feels like 1960s to me; also, I don't see any of the pipelines for strongarm signal control that are obvious in the older pics.

5462 in photo 12 is indeed a NY Central 2-8-0, Class G-5x, built March 1916.

I have always thought it strange that the Eastern trunk lines so dominated Illinois and Indiana, far from their home offices. Even Northern Michigan after the Pere Marquette was absorbed by the C&O.

It sure does not look like Hobbs Tower had an interlocking plant. Comments?

Wonderful pictures. Thanks for posting.

Marty Bernard

MartyBernard Wrote:
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> It sure does not look like Hobbs Tower had an
> interlocking plant. Comments?


Sure it did. You can see the leadout and pipelines clearly. The bottoms of the levers and the beam supporting the machine are hidden by skirting - look at the floor level at the stair landing vs the level of the bottom of the walls. The machine is Saxby & Farmer - horizontal locking bed behind the machine.

That had to be a seriously cold place to work in winter...unless they kept that coal stove on rock n' roll. I'm remembering Harvey tower (IL) one night where it was 12 below zero inside the tower with the furnace on rock n roll...and there were walls on the bottom floor.

TAW


>
> Wonderful pictures. Thanks for posting.
>
> Marty Bernard

Yes, I too would say the first two photos were taken much later. The patchwork on the depot roof seems to prove that too. Thanks for sharing. The kid photos are cute too! There was a day when railroader dads could bring their kids to work. It was especially fun if your dad was an engineman or trainman, then you could ride the trains!

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/14 14:01 by wabash2800.

I would hazard a guess that Hobbs and Rose towers were
NYC and MR was a B&O facility. I'm not familiar with
the lines that crossed here, and would ask if the NYC
line was a Big Four route or some other NYC subsididary.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

Very informative post.