Home My 1963 Work Schedule My Interlocking Tower Site Van Loon Ivanhoe Griffith

About What Follows This project of documenting my tower experiences is several years in the making. Although I had thought about doing it for years, it wasn't until about four years ago I finally got serious, realizing if I didn't do it soon, it likely would never get done. There are many reasons for doing this project: A few years ago in discussions on trainorders.com and three other railroad discussion groups I mentioned I had worked EJ&E towers and hoped someday to document my experiences. I was encouraged to do so as there seemed to be much interest. So here it is... finally. Sorry it took so long. I hope this is an educational tool, especially for those who are too young to have experienced towers. I very much remember the excitement of visiting a new tower and learning about its operation and railroads. Besides, towers were a great place to watch trains! Since there are so very few towers left, I hope the material I was able to accumulate (much of which has been scanned and displayed here) is of some historic value. Included are hand-drawn tower track diagrams, lists of trains, lists of boats (from my Ship Canal drawbridge job), and World War II documents indicating how the railroads coped with sabotage, train movements, security, incendiary bombs, and employment challenges. It's therapeutic for me as it brings back memories of something I thoroughly enjoyed doing. I started this project by setting up a skeleton web page of how it might be organized. One of my fun computer projects in retirement is webmaster for the Susquehanna Valley Railway Historical Society in Binghamton, NY. I liked the simplicity of that format and decided to use it here. This format allows you the flexibility of easily jumping around to towers of particular interest to you or to follow events sequentially based on My 1963 Work Schedule. Here's a partial list of the EJ&E Operators I worked with. Unfortunately, it is not a complete list. Some of you reading this document may recognize some names. Unfortunately, I suspect many of them are no longer with us. I wish now I could have gotten a copy of the seniority list which was displayed in some towers. I recall there were about 120 agent/operator names on the EJ&E list in 1963. Finally, for those unfamiliar with the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway there is an outstanding site which can tell you just about everything you want to know about the railroad and its history. Please check it out at http://www.ejearchive.com. Next:   Go to Home and select a tower or follow my 1963 work schedule.

Kirk Yard Rock Island Ship Canal Waukegan Bart