Installation work on the Illinois Railway Museum's new CTC system continues. One of the newest additions is that of a webcam which shows the CTC signal board, located in Spaulding Tower, IRM's ex-EJ&E interlocking tower. You can now watch the position of trains on IRM's line in real time by going to the IRM webpage at http://www.irm.org and clicking on "CTC Signal Board" under "Site Activities" on the righthand side of the screen. These days the only train operation is on weekends, but when trains are moving this should be pretty interesting to watch - especially in conjunction with the exterior webcams located on the IRM property. Enjoy!

What to the lights on the board stand for? Are these pieces of equipment parked at various places on IRM signaled rail?

Yes, basically - each light on the board represents a block of track, and when lit they signify that the block is occupied. It's hard to figure out at night, without any light to illuminate the track map that's painted on the board, but during the day it's easy to see which blocks are occupied. And when equipment is operating, of course, the occupied blocks will change as the equipment moves back and forth over the line.