From WR Tower (MP 274.9), the DT, TWC, ABS, 30 mph, former Chicago & Alton line is one of several lines (the others being the former Big Four and the former Wabash; both are now NS and this have been rationalized down to a single track) heading northeast. There were once several steel mills alongside the lines through Granite City, but all seem now to have vanished, as the speed limit on the former Alton Route rises to 79-40, past housing area on both sides, a grade crossing, a road bridge overhead, three grade crossings, housing on the southeast side, fields to the northwest, a grade crossing, housing and then fields to the northwest, a divided street beyond the NS line to the southeast, NS MP 47.6, a grade crossing, dual I-270 bridges overhead, bridge piers from the former Illinois Terminal over-crossing, Nemoki (MP 272.6), detectors at MP 272.1, Mitchell (MP 270.0), and a grade crossing, and then falls to 30 mph for the junctions at Lenox Tower (MP 269.7), located on the east side of the line, in the vee of the intersection with the Alton & Southern trailing in from the south, where the line turns north, paired with a former Big Four line, with the former route of the Illinois Terminal to the west, a former Big Four and C&EI line heads north-northeast, and a former Wabash line heads northeast.