Eau Claire Tower was the heart of railroad operations through town from 1896 to 1991. This former Omaha Road (CNW) structure was actually originally built to a Milwaukee Road design. It protected the CNW mainline in the foreground and the Milwaukee Road branch next to the building behind the tower. Soo Line used the Milwaukee trackage to reach their small city yard, and all three roads did switching behind the tower into Uniroyal's tire plant. At midnight, March 1973, the tower still wore CNW's tuscan red, but was repainted in 1975 to their gray scheme. The tower was moved to display in Carson Park in 1992. I spent a number of hours during the night visiting operators during the early 1970s.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)