News photos: UP Lenox Tower demolished

News photos: UP Lenox Tower demolished

By David Lassen | May 18, 2021

Structure, closed since 2018, makes way for track realignment

Freight train crosses tracks near building being demolished
Union Pacific train MASBN passes as the Lenox tower is demolished. (Randy Allard)
Heavy equipment tearing down brick buidling
The tower had been closed since 2018. It is being removed to allow track realignment (Randy Allard).

Demolition work began Monday on Union Pacific’s Lenox Tower in Mitchell, Ill., about 20 miles north of St. Louis. The tower is being razed to streamline the interlocking and remove a troublesome puzzle switch as part of a realignment project that will allow increased speeds for Amtrak Lincoln Service trains between Chicago and St. Louis. The tower closed in November 2018, according to an Alton Telegraph article, when operations were shifted to UP’s Omaha-based dispatchers.

 

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