May 1, 2005 – Blast From The Past – BNSF 2819 heads past the old interlocking tower at Shattuc, Illinois on BNSF’s Beardstown Subdivision as it crosses over the Illinois Subdivision.
From what I gather from the web, CSX closed the Illinois Subdivision through here at one point and used it for car storage, but then I find references to the line being used now by The Prairie Line, a shortline out of O’Fallon, IL (I’m now told the shortline hasn’t materialized yet). BNSF still owns and uses the Bardstown Sub. I’m also told that the diamond was removed in 2019, at least temporarily.
In the past this tower controlled the movements of trains on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad along with the B&O Railroad. It was closed sometime in the 1980’s and from what I can find on the web it was torn down in late 2014. I’ve also found reports where it was bought by a collector and moved. Whichever is correct, this picture isn’t to be replicated again today since the tower is now gone.
If you’d like to read a great piece on the tower, check out this article on The Trackside Photographer by Tom Gatermann, who visited the tower the same year as me.
http://thetracksidephotographer.com/tag/shattuc-tower/
Photograph the towers when and where you can as they continue to disappear from the railroad landscape.