Welcome back NERO CP 500

[LakeATCS]

Yes I say welcome back. Because this is the second control point we have had at this location.

The first one was NERO Tower. Yes there was a manned tower here.

In the NYC days, it's job was the end of the four main tracks into Chicago. It sorted things out when they went on the double track towards and from the east. There were also a couple slow speed crossovers for wrong main operation, a connection to the B&O and a yard lead.

By the time of Conrail, the four mains were gone. All that remained were the crossovers in the middle of D251 territory, and the B&O and yard connections.
See diagram

Nero, now CP 500 stayed in use after CP446/CP501 was in use. Though I imagine this made the crossovers became rusty. Who would use the slow speed mph crossovers when there was a set of limited speed crossovers a mile west.
See map

Even more curiously, When CP 497 was built. Nero tower at CP 500 controlled those too. So you had CP 500 and CP 497 in
But this didn't last long. When everything was remoted to the main dispatcher. CP 500 Nero got the axe, everything was ripped out. This would have been mid 80s.

So now. CP 500. Nero. It's back. Let's hope the name returns as well.