Nostalgia & History > Maroon Monday: from Amtrak #4!

Here are a couple of Dutch-door photos at Joliet while riding Amtrak #4 in 1980. I had ridden train #16 past this Rock Island tower about 18 months earlier on a similar trip to the east coast. And it caught me by surprise. So this time I was prepared. Alas, I was shooting a grayish tower on a grayish day. But it was still a Rock Island structure. Good enough for Maroon Monday… :^)

1. & 2. A pair of shots of Rock Island’s old UD Tower at Joliet, IL. Taken from an open Dutch door on Amtrak train #4, the “Southwest Limited” on October 1, 1980.

Thanks for looking to & fro!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

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Well done. The grayish day and gray tower worked well to give good lighting.
Bob

Poor old UD tower looks so forelorn. I was able to sit up in it with a friend I made, Elmer Campbell - tower operator, and watch him work the pistol grip control panel as trains rolled thru.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Good sharp shot!  Were you moving?

Thānks for posting.

Randy Lundgren

Man, the tower really deteriorated in the four years between when I was there, and your shots. Seems when the Rock stopped rolling, it took the tower's soul. Good grabs on the angles though!

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

texchief1 Wrote:  > ...  Were you moving?

caption: 1. & 2. A pair of shots of Rock Island’s old UD Tower at Joliet, IL. Taken from an open Dutch door on Amtrak train #4, the “Southwest Limited” on October 1, 1980.