Diabetic Foot Care - Podiatrist in Oak Park, IL
your feet warm. Don't get your feet wet in snow or rain. Don't put your feet on radiators or in front of the fireplace. Don't smoke or ...
White Directory Publishers
PHOTOS: METRA 67TH ST TOWER
NOTE: The photos posted here have been unprocessed so it might take a while for you to download them all.
Last May Metra closed the last interlocking tower on its Electric Division running south out of Chicago. This was the former Illinois Central suburban routes electrified at 1500 vDC in the 1920's. Like many other high density suburban routes the Metra Electric continued to rely on on manned towers well into the CTC to deal with the traffic volume and complexity of operations. However over the last few years Metra has invested in closing the 3 towers on the line, Randolph Street (terminal office with some sort of relay machine), 67th St and Kensington.
Now I had always assumed that Kensington Tower would be the last to go because it was arguably more complex and also involved a crossing at grade of the CNIC freight main line by the South Shore Line , which diverged from the Metra Electric line there. Because of the three separate entities involved I figured a fight over funding and service quality would keep Kensington open. I was also under the impression that 67th St was some sort of more modern type relay based machine and Kensington was an ancient GRS pistol grip frame. This was how each was listed on the large Jon Roma list of towers. Turns out I had it completely backwards. Kensington had been converted to a Relay machine probably back in the 1960's, while 67th St had the GRS machine. Also I thought 67th St was some small office buried somewhere around the junction, while in reality it was a full on tower hiding in plain sight next to the tracks. I just never noticed it.
Anyway, I spotted this Blog piece on the closing of the last of the Metra Electric div towers and along with a good history of the tower (which you should read) there was a very tantalizing interior photo of the GRA Model 5 machine inside. I managed to track down the man who took the photos who was nice enough to send me his whole set on CD with permission...