Our Work in Practice
Earlier this month, MRS proudly assisted Metra with the successful cutover of all new, microprocessor-based signal hardware at Chicago’s historic 16th Street Tower. In continuous operation since 1901, the tower was decommissioned after 124 years of service.
“The handover from the tower to the CCF marked the end of operation of a structure that had been in service for more than half of the history of American railroading,” said Tom Hunter, Chief Signal Engineer at MRS.
Until this closure, the 16th Street Tower held the distinction of being the last operational Taylor Electromechanical interlocking machine in the United States.
When originally constructed, 16th Street Tower managed the shared movements of numerous major railroads, including the New York Central, Chicago Rock Island and Pacific, Illinois Central, and the Saint Charles Air Line. Today, operations continue under Metra, which runs the former Rock Island line, and Canadian National (CN), which manages the former Illinois Central. Amtrak also utilizes the CN tracks for several daily passenger services, maintaining the tower’s legacy as a critical operational hub.
MRS played a central role in this critical infrastructure upgrade by providing design, logic programming, and materials for this intricate location. Metra’s signal crews, using MRS plans, completed the installation and wiring of four ElectroLogIXS interlockings, each with full backup systems, as well as a tie junction case for CN’s shared portion of the operation. With assistance from CN signal crews and technical support from MRS, all installation and field testing was completed ahead of schedule.
The 16th Street interlocking is now fully controlled from Metra’s state-of-the-art Consolidated Control Facility (CCF), located just over 3,000 feet away at 15th and Canal Streets across the Chicago River. This modernization is part of a much larger series of signal and track relocations that are planned for this area, with MRS providing Metra with further support.
Following this transition, only three interlocking towers remain in operation on the Metra network, making this moment not only a leap forward in safety and efficiency but also a close to a storied chapter in American rail history.