On a trip to Springfield, Illinois on 26 April 1992, I ran across Avenue Tower quite by accident, while driving around the town.
There was no operator on duty, but I did manage to photograph the tower together with Illinois Central, a GP38-2 built for the Illinois Central Gulf in 1974.
Avenue Tower was at one time a complicated interlocking, guarding the crossing of the Chicago & Illinois Midland, the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, Baltimore & Ohio, and Illinois Central. By this time many of the tracks had been pulled, and the tower was no longer open 24 hours a day. The tower closed on 12 November 1992, and the building was demolished in May 1993.
1958 track diagram of the Avenue Tower area
2014 view of the Avenue Tower site (Google Streetview)
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