Some Apalachian Signal News

We first head to the N&W H-Line where ARCADIA interlocking is the next to get hit by the replacement ax. See my previous report for a more detailed status of H-Line signals. This location seems to be pretty accessible for anyone traveling the I-81 corridor this holiday season.

Next comes news from the CSX Big Sandy Sub in eastern Kentucky, known for its surviving C&O signaling. Due to declines in coal traffic, CSX has been removing or shortening passing sidings in a bid to save costs (and sometimes having to restore the sidings in a bid to set money on fire). Anyway while this didn't matter much on the re-signaled main line, its now affecting the classic signaled Big Sandy so expect interlocking removal/automatic downgrade to follow track removal at locations like SK Cabin in Thelma Kentucky. 

Most worrisome is the fate of the milepost 55.7 two track intermediate signal gantry on the other side of town. Although the situation has persisted for the better part of a year, this absolutely constitutes a railfan emergency.

 Finally in another "whoops I missed it" moment, the often photographed "modern" style C&O bracket masts adjacent to US 23 south of Catlettsburg, KY were replaced sometime in 2023. Likely installed in the CSX era, the replacements are typical color light masts displaying the same C&O signal aspects.

Wish I had some better news, but the wins are few and far between.

PHOTOS: Amtrak CORK Tower

 A while ago I posted the first part of my coverage of the Pennsylvania Railroad's 1929 CORK interlocking tower in Lancaster, PA which covered the tower's history and the layout of the interlocking on the PRR's Main Line. Today we cover the tower itself, heading inside to see how it functioned in both its pre and post re-signaling phases. The exterior photos date from 2005 when the interlocking complex was in the process of being resignaled. 

To recap, CORK interlocking and tower were constructed as part of the 1929 Lancaster station project which moved Lancaster's busy passenger depot away from a downtown alignment with slow speeds, lots of grade crossings and partial street running. The resulting interlocking plant spanned approximately 3.3 miles of main line track, which was an outlier for early 20th century direct wire controlled interlockings in North America. Like the contemporary Lancaster station. CORK was built of a dark brick and featured a prominent bay window sheathed in copper cladding. 

 

 

The tower had one auxiliary building that housed the primary compressed air plant and was situated on the south side of the tracks in line with the extreme west ends of the high level station platforms. The tower had an internal staircase with the shelf type relay room on the first floor. With its brick construction and slate roof, the tower was in excellent physical shape as it entered the 21st century. 

 

Heading inside the tower we find a typical layout with the operator's desk sitting in front of the US&S Model 14 interlocking machine. A defect detector readout and overhead catenary section breaker control panel are to the operator's right with the lockers, clock and old telecom plugboard sitting to the left. One interesting feature is that the room has retained its original 1929 vintage overhead lamp fixtures. 

The operator's space is feels like a more cramped version of HARRIS tower with less space around the interlocking machine on all four sides. The gap between the scoreboard style model board and the rear aligned internal staircase is particularly small. As with other PRR Main Line towers, lever blocking devices are stored on top of the interlocking machine and the bathroom is in the left rear corner. Also note the location of the refrigerator, notice board and train order hoops. 

The sprawling CORK interlocking plant was controlled by a relatively modest 67 lever interlocking machine with 49 active levers in its 1960's configuration consisting of 23 levers for switches, 23 levers for signals, 2 levers for electric switch locks and 1 crossing lever for the Reading's Lancaster Branch diamond crossing. The plant was divided into three timer zones, A, B and C with the A timer handling the Conestoga section, the B timer the central Cork plant and the C timer the Reading crossing. The short run was 1 minute with the long run being about 5 minutes and 30 seconds. The tower also had 4 horns for Conestoga, the tower itself, Lancaster West, Dillersville yard and the Reading crossing (Longs Park).

One interesting feature was the presence of Rusty Rail tabs instead of the more usual placard. Besides that the levers were of the standard US&S crank type.

Although CORK's model board was a standard PRR illuminated type, it had several interesting features features. Grade crossing status lights were located at either end of the board to indicate the activation status of the Irishtown Road (east) or Eby Chiques (west) crossings. There were three low air alarms for East and West Conestoga in addition to the Cork main plant. In the post-1960 era two block indication lamps were added for tracks 1 and 4 eastbound. These had some interaction with PARK tower to the east as well as the intervening temporary block station at LEAMAN with track #1 being lit by the regular 2 lever and track #4 by a button on the operator's desk console. Best I can tell this was some technical method to prevent conflicting movements beyond what would be afforded by train orders and the dispatcher. Finally the most endearing model board feature was a framed photo of CORK tower itself that is also present in photos from c. 1992.

 

More Connecticut River Corridor News

 Although my last update on the Connecticut Valley Corridor was only back in March, I have some additional updates from a follow up trip in October. The most significant are alterations to SPRING interlocking in Springfield, MA. The root cause for altering SPRING is to create an interlocked connection between Boston Line Track 2A and the Amtrak Springfield Line trackage. This route was previously used by the old Vermonter and Inland Route Regionals and required the use of hand throw switches to the east of the station. Without a connection at SPRING, Track 2A is only purpose is to serve as an emergency berth for the daily Lake Shore Limited round trip. The new switch allows Track 2A to be used for both CT Rail Hartford Line trains and Amtrak Springfield Shuttles and also creates additional storage space for increased CT Rail or Regional service. 

Of course there always has to be a downside and unfortunately the changes at SPRING will also cause the elimination of what is arguably the last vintage signal on the Amtrak Springfield Line.  Station track #8 is still governed by a US&S N-2 dwarf, possibly dating back to the New Haven era.  Moreover station track #6 is governed by an uncommon US&S modular dwarf stack that was installed in the early-2000's to replace an H-5 searchlight.  Both will be replaced by Safetran modular cube dwarfs that infected the Springfield line back in 2004.

The bad news doesn't stop there as the New Englande Central re-signaling project continues unabated. It currently appears that new standard sized ABS blocks are in service between Walpole and Claremont, replacing the old B&M large block CTC. This also implies that the new signaling at Claremont has been activated. New interlocking huts have been dropped at both the south end of the Walpole siding and the Bellows Falls diamond. At the north end of the Walpole siding the new interlocking retained the southbound searchlight mast, so it remains to be see if there are any searchlit survivors in the Bellows Falls area. I unfortunately neglected to inspect the controlled point south of Bellows Falls, but it is on my list for a visit in the Spring.

A Video Guide to French "Poste d'Aiguillage"

Getting information on interlocking tower / signalboxes outside the anglosphere can be a bit difficult not only due to the language barrier, but also cultural difference about railfanning and content creation.  While I found a comprehensive site on German towers many years ago, similar resources for French signaling had yet to pop up on my radar. This is rather unfortunate as I believe that France has a strong tradition of staffed towers and electro-mechanical era power interlocking machines.It also doesn't hurt that the standard SNCF model board design gives off strong PRR vibes.

Anyway, when doing a quick Youtube search on "Poste d'Aiguillage" I found a somewhat recent public information film detailing the many styles of French interlocking machine, running the gammut from mechanical lever frames to VDU area interlockings. It even gives a shout out to a North American pattern Taylor (GRS) machine. You can watch the whole thing for yourself below.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

There Unitl it Wasn't: Nova's VN Tower

In the early years of my "keep track of towers" hobby, one Class 1 tower stood out for the sheer improbability of its survival. For well over a decade, a wooden tower in absolutely deplorable condition, standing along side a main line in an accessible area with no discernable railroad use managed to not only avoid demolition, but also the all too common risk of fire. I am talking about VN tower in Nova, Ohio on the CSX New Castle Sub. When it was finally demolished in 2013, VN Tower had outlived Amtrak's Three Rivers passenger service that operated on the same line by 8 years.

The story of VN and its longevity is wrapped up in the story of CSX's somewhat neglected B&O Main Line between Washington and Chicago. VN tower was the first significant town east of the Big Four junction in Greenwich, OH and served as an ABS crossover point with control over some adjacent sidings. Similar in style to other wooden B&O towers and painted in B&O beige, VN tower itself closed in the 1980's with the crossovers also being retired leaving just the tower and a pair of B&P CPL ABS signals. (The lack of crossover capacity on the New Castle Sub would in part doom Amtrak's Three Rivers as it frequently wound up stuck behind slow moving freight trains).

Until 1999, the CSX east-west route to Chicago had played a distant second to Conrail's Chicago and Fort Wayne Lines. While the Conrail split turbocharged the western end of this service lane with new signals and a second track, the eastern end of the route had significant numbers of staffed interlocking towers and single direction Rule D-251 track. The line segment between New Castle, PA and Greenwich, OH was no different with a few CTC islands and a staffed tower in Newton Falls. With investment and eyeballs fixed elsewhere for most of this period VN tower just managed to avoid the wreckers ball.

Through 2000's, the decaying tower with its intact lever frame became a local railfan landmark with photos frequently appearing on the major photo archives. VN stayed in this state for so long that people began to speculate that it still had some use, the tower was privately owned or that some local manager was protecting it. In 2011 CSX finished re-signaling the New Castle Sub, banishing the CPL signals and pole line, still VN hung om, now exhibiting a pronounced lean. With other towers, such as HN, being demolished, VN's popularity increased as a photo location due to the well lit east-west orientation of the track.

VN was demolished on November 22, 2013 and the Nova, OH crossing where it had been located went from a must-see for area railfans to a complete afterthought. With all traces of the tower removed and without anything else of note nearby, there weren't many "here's the pile of rubble that used to be VN" photos. VN's demolition over Thanksgiving also made it less salient than other tower demolitions that year so it escaped my notice and coverage. Today I hope to rectify that situation, although the Akron Railroad Club has had a memorial page for VN tower up for the better part of a decade. That site reports that the lever frame and related components were sent to a museum in Utah for some sort of tower related exhibit.

Hidden Gems - Cleveland Line PRR ABS Signals

The whirlwind of PTC motivated re-signaling has wiped out vintage ABS and CTC systems all across the country including most of the main line PRR position lights. However in one tiny corner of Pennsylvania not only exists a remnant population of PRR position lights, but position lights in a single direction ABS configuration. The Cleveland Line between CP-ROCHESTER (Conway Yard) and Alliance, Ohio serves as a backup route for the far more popular Fort Wayne Line. Due to the low traffic volumes is it PTC exempt, which explains how the PRR era signals have hung on. All together there are 6 PL signal locations on the dual track ABS segment between Rochester, PA and Yellow Creek, OH and today I will cover them all in an eastbound direction using photos that were taken over three trips in 2021, 2022 and 2023. 

The first location is at milepost 22 at the east end of Wellsville, OH. It consists of one eastbound PL mast and a new westbound Darth Vader mast that was installed in the late 2010s when CP-YELLOW CREEK was re-signaled. It is located just outside the flood wall and is lit full time with PL signal 221 displaying clear by default and signal 222 Approach.

The next location is at milepost 19 right behind the football stadium of Westgate Middle School in the town of East Liverpool, OH. It consists of two single head PL masts, both continuously lit with a Clear signal indication.

The location is also notable for the presence of 1940's vintage Carnegie steel rail and a somewhat ad hoc run of signal wire between the cabinet and rails.

In the East End section of East Liverpool at the site of the closed Virginia Ave railroad crossing we find the milepost 16 location with another pair of PL masts. This time signal 164 displays Approach by default due to a pair of interlockings, VEZ and MIDLAND, at either end of a single track section a few miles to the east to the east. Because the track #1 does not encounter a diverging route at VEZ interlocking the corresponding PL mast needed no modification and was therefore not replaced. The short single track section seems to have been installed due to the risk of RoW erosion by the Ohio River, but also acts as a "Conrail Crossover". The eastbound 164 signal is also significantly taller than the opposite 165 mast.

The relay cabinets associated with the signals display both US&S and Wabco logos.

Seeing as VEZ and MIDLAND took out the following two ABS locations, the next automatic signal location is across the PA border, just east of te town of Midland and directly adjacent to state route 68 at milepost 8.6. It consists of an eastbound position light and westbound Darth Vader which are lit full time with Clear the default indication eastbound and Approach the default westbound. They are co-located with the Midland hotbox, dragging equipment and high car detector.

The Mystery of the Zombie Route

This came up as I was recently out along the New Englande Central near Bellows Falls, VT when I noticed something strange at the north end of the Walpole siding.

The southbound searchlight mast was displaying an Approach Medium and my first assumption was that the signal at the Bellows Falls diamond crossing was still at Stop and due to the short distance between the south end of the siding and said diamond crossing, the signal at the south end of the siding would be displaying Approach. This is a pretty common technique to deal with a short block without using a flashing Advance Approach indication.

Well, you can imagine my surprise when I traveled back to the south end of the siding to discover a Medium Clear indication for the normal route over the single trailing point switch. The signal for the Bellows Falls diamond, about 1500 feet to the south, was also displaying clear. So, what is going on here?  My first thought was that this was some kind of zombie route. The New Englande Central flipped the orientation of the turnout to create a zombie route, but didn't have the wherewithal to alter the signaling. These sorts of double track passing points where trains enter a short stretch of double track ABS on a normal route and exit on a diverging route, were that uncommon in the early CTC era. The north end of the siding even looked a little suspicious with a bracket-dwarf arrangement that could have once been a normal mast and center mounted dwarf.

The other hypothesis is that this is due to speed control over the Bellows Falls bridge. Using signaling to encourage speed control, typically involving slow speed signals, wasn't unheard of in the pre-PTC world. Although Approach Medium to a Medium Clear over a straight route is quite out of the ordinary, The train approaching the interlocking will be traveling at medium speed per rule with the Medium Clear further acting as a reminder. After the 2016 Amtrak Frankford Jct derailment the FRA leaned heavily on various passenger railroads to use signals less favorable than Clear to help prevent accidents at significant speed restrictions. Since the Bellows Falls Bridge is 10mph compared with 50-60mph approach speeds, this seems like  the sort of remedy the FRA would require on a PTC exempt rail line.

So which is the more likely scenario? Well, the answer would come from YouTube of all places. If you remember back to that interlocked diamond crossing at the Bellows Falls passenger station, the northbound signal is at the end of the platform and likely visible in rider's videos. A Clear signal on the northbound mast would imply the zombie route, while something other than clear would imply speed control. Well after some searching I found an answer.



So the northbound mast is displaying Approach Medium, which I said implies speed control, however the date of the video is the most important clue. 2013 was well before the FRA freakout over speed restrictions implying that the South End Walpole was displaying a Medium Clear over a normal route in the northbound direction as well. The situation is still not 100% clear cut and there could be alternate explanations that don't involve a passing point type layout, for example the siding being changed from the west to east side of the main line. Still, its a unique situation that lead me down a rabbit hole. It will be interesting to see what if any changes the re-signaling project brings.