Railroad Forums 

Discussion related to commuter rail and rapid transit operations in the Chicago area including the South Shore Line, Metra Rail, and Chicago Transit Authority.

Moderators: metraRI, JamesT4

 #1319824  by wilmette2008
 
Word has come around that Roundout tower will close on Saturday and operations will be cut over to the CP C&M dispatcher. RIP CP Roundout.
 #1319950  by lstone19
 
JLJ061 wrote:Unless I'm mistaken this will make UD Tower in Joliet the last operational tower in the Chicagoland area.
A-2? Pretty sure that's still locally staffed.
 #1319986  by doepack
 
And don't forget JB Tower on the CN (ex EJ&E) in West Chicago...
 #1320026  by Tom Tancula
 
A-5 and B-17 are still open, yes?

Rondout is where I worked on a section gang. I remember washing up in the first floor area and the well water smelled like chicken fat! And after work we spent time at the Sports Mans Clug across the J tracks drinking PBR's!

TNT
 #1320050  by lstone19
 
Tom Tancula wrote:A-5 and B-17 are still open, yes?
A Metra engineer told me last week that the next (and I think final) phase of the signal cutovers at A-5 were to occur last weekend. That would be replacing the east entrance and exit signals with new entrance and no exit signals. A-5 has already been subdivided into A-5, A-6, and B-6. A-5 is now just the west and north line junction along with the crossovers at the east end and the now stub spur in the south east quadrant (used to lead to the Bloomingdale Branch but it's gone now). A-6 is the crossovers on the west end of the the north line plus the north east quadrant stub spur and the north west quadrant connector to the west line. B-6 is the crossovers on the west end of the west line plus its end of the northwest quadrant connector to the north line. Westbound exit signals at the west ends went away when A-6 and B-6 were created. No idea if this is controlled from the old A-5 tower or cutover to a new location but I believe the plan is for it to be controlled from the Metra control center.
 #1496398  by Backshophoss
 
Most likely a signal maintainer at work, there might be "maintainer boards" where the old controls were.
"Maintainer boards" allow for local control of remote controlled interlockings in case of emergency or network failure.