Nostalgia & History > MoPac, two for Tuesday

Here are a couple of Missouri Pacific shots from my early days of train watching.  Image 1 was taken at Tuscola, Illinois September 1986   This westbound freight is about to hammer the Chessie and Illinois Central Diamonds.  The tower was in full operation and the show was exhilarating to watch and hear.  The second shot was taken April 1986.  This train was heading compass south at Dolton, Illinois.  I don't recall if this was a transfer to/from yard center or an actual road freight. Dolton was a real hot spot of activity. Conrail, Chessie, MoPac, Indiana Harbor Belt and probably others that I don't remember, all made appearances that day.  Plus the non-stop action of the "bottle trains" on Conrail.  

Enjoy

Dave

---

---

That is one interesting crossing! Job security for the guys that maintained it!

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

Bill,  A few years after the pic was taken, there was a major reconfiguration of the crossing.  I would imagine it was done concurrently with the demise of the tower operations and as a cost saving measure.  The tower was closed 10/23/1992.  I attached a screen shot of the crossing from Google Earth as it looks now.

Dave

---

Thanks for sharing the Google photo of what the crossing looks like now.   That was a rediculously complicated original track layout that must have been extremely difficult to maintain.  

Great photos, thanks for sharing!