Now owned by CN.
Double track line with single direction ABS between Portage and East Cabin, shared with Burlington Route. In 1994 shared segment acquired by Burlington Route successor BNSF, and quickly equipped with CTC.
WEST JCT. (Freeport)
Remote interlocking installed 1962, controlled from yard office
Former junction with Illinois Central Madison District, abandoned 1984.
GALENA
Mechanical interlocking installed 1900
Closed 1944
Information is vague regarding this interlocking, other than that it also involved a drawbridge over the Galena River, and the Burlington Route. Burlington operated a spur into Galena. In its final years was a non interlocked crossing, with gates set against the Burlington Route. The Burlington spur was abandoned in 1961.
PORTAGE
Mechanical interlocking installed 1904
Junction with Burlington C&I main line, which had trackage rights via Illinois Central west to East Dubuque.
EAST CABIN (East Dubuque)
Mechanical interlocking installed 1940
Electric interlocking installed 1946
Closed 1994
Junction with Burlington C&I main line, which had trackage rights via Illinois Central east to Portage. Northwest of there, Burlington line paralleled Mississippi River. While Illinois Central line proceeded away from river into a tunnel, curved west, and crossed the Burlington line and the Mississippi River.
EAST DUBUQUE
Mechanical interlocking installed 1899
Closed 1946, remotely controlled from East Cabin
Crossing of Illinois Central line and Burlington C&I main line. Burlington line paralleled the Mississippi River, while Illinois Central line proceeded through a tunnel and crossed the Burlington line and the Mississippi River via a drawbridge.
Freeport-Portage/Dubuque-Waterloo
Installed 1967, control machine in dispatcher's office in Waterloo
Completed 1970's
Incorporated an earlier CTC installation from 1962 between Freeport and Lena, which possibly had been controlled from the yard office in Freeport.
Between 1968 and 1970, Illinois Central consolidated its dispatching systemwide to one office in Chicago. Illinois Central was the second major US railroad to achieve such consolidation, the first being St. Louis San Francisco in 1965.