Coffee at Pana Tower
A UP caboose hangs out with Pana Tower in downtown Pana, Illinois. Pana Tower guarded the crossing of the Big Four, B&O, and the ICRR, all of which are now gone from this scene, as well as UP's former C&EI/MP Villa Grove Sub which is still active, and is just out of sight to the right and behind the tower. The C&EI utilized the Big Four trackage from here to Lenox Tower near East St. Louis. Once PC/Conrail chose the PRR as the favored route for this end of their St. Louis Line, and downgraded this portion of the Big Four, the western end, was sold to then Mo-Pac.
I still recall being allowed to sit at, and possibly line up signals on the massive CTC machine for the Big Four's line at Desk A in Conrail's Southwest Division Dispatcher's Office in Indianapolis. The CTC machine later went to Mo-Pac with the sale of the line.
For another view, see here:
www.flickr.com/photos/97918773@N08/53235107380/in/album-7...
Coffee at Pana Tower
A UP caboose hangs out with Pana Tower in downtown Pana, Illinois. Pana Tower guarded the crossing of the Big Four, B&O, and the ICRR, all of which are now gone from this scene, as well as UP's former C&EI/MP Villa Grove Sub which is still active, and is just out of sight to the right and behind the tower. The C&EI utilized the Big Four trackage from here to Lenox Tower near East St. Louis. Once PC/Conrail chose the PRR as the favored route for this end of their St. Louis Line, and downgraded this portion of the Big Four, the western end, was sold to then Mo-Pac.
I still recall being allowed to sit at, and possibly line up signals on the massive CTC machine for the Big Four's line at Desk A in Conrail's Southwest Division Dispatcher's Office in Indianapolis. The CTC machine later went to Mo-Pac with the sale of the line.
For another view, see here:
www.flickr.com/photos/97918773@N08/53235107380/in/album-7...