HAMPAIGN - True artists try to get inside the skin of their subjects.

So Ben Halpern, 49, was thrilled when the subject of one of his photographs, railroad tower operator Bob Moomaw, gave him permission to pull the levers to trip signals and block switches, enabling a train to progress through the Tuscola intersection.

"Bob was in charge," Halpern recalled. "He told me which levers to pull. He told me to pull one lever, push another lever. There was a sequence he had to follow, to allow the train to proceed across this junction."

The sequence of lever pulling gave the green light for the Union Pacific freight train to continue on to Villa Grove, en route to Chicago, while triggering red lights for all opposing or crossing traffic. In the 1980s, it took physical strength and agility to manipulate the levers of the interlocker, a mechanism that also prevented switching onto the same track.

"If I followed the wrong sequence, it would have shut down the junction and not permitted the train (with the right of way) to enter," Halpern said. "It would have thrown things off in that block (railroad zone), probably causing problems for the whole system."

But the loaded Union Pacific rumbled through without a hitch.

"I breathed a sigh of relief because everything worked," Halpern said.

Halpern photographed Moomaw and other tower operators in the 1980s, shortly before the railroads switched to high-tech systems and demolished all the towers. His exhibit of environmental black and white portraits of the tower operators is on display at the Illinois Terminal building, downtown Champaign, until mid-July or later.

A professional photographer specializing in architectural and engineering subjects, Halpern's work is known to serious railroad buffs for the quality and range of his pictures.

Railroad History, the oldest North American railroad journal, has published Halpern's photographs. Mark Reutter, the journal's former editor, said Halpern's pictures are icons of a time when the towers stood proudly against the ravages of age and neglect.

"Halpern's photos are both matter-of-fact and stunning," Reutter said. "He specializes in photographing a vanishing Midwest of grain silos, barns, brick kilns and, especially, railroad structures. His railroad towers are functional things, built to expedite the flow of traffic when trains were the kings of transportation."

A native of Livingston Manor, a small Catskill Mountain resort town, Halpern fell in love with the railroad when his mother would take him to the abandoned train station, telling him stories about riding the rails. The tracks had been removed the year he was born.

After moving to Illinois to study electrical engineering at the University of Illinois, he hauled his 4-by-5-inch camera to the Champaign yard to take pictures of trains and behind-the-scenes railroad activity.

When Halpern realized that a more sophisticated system was about to replace the towers, which had functioned similarly to air traffic control towers, he began documenting their last days.

Halpern shot pictures in and around towers in Tuscola, Champaign, Gibson City and Springfield.

"All that I have described is not gone," Halpern said. "My memories of the towers, with all their storied operators, live on."

Huey Freeman can be reached at hfreeman@herald-review.com or 421-6985.