Lower Port Road Re-Signaling

Starting in 2009, NS began to re-signal the western (northern) Port Road.  This started with the former COLA tower CTC area and proceeded south to CP-MIDWAY and then north to Enola Yard with Rule 562 going in to replace the ABS 251 between SHOCKS and STELL.  However for some reason instead of applying the same treatment to the line segment between CP-MIDWAY and the Amtrak junction at PERRY, they actually refurbished the existing PRR signals, giving them a fresh coat of paint and replacing the pole lines and power supplies. 

Well it appears that the reprieve is over as new signals have been spotted at CP-TOME in Port Deposit as well as the former MINNICK interlocking, not reduced to an automatic signal location.  Regulatory filing had indicated that NS was going to convert the entire Port Road to Rule 562, but it appears that the Minnick automatic will be retained to give trains approaching Amtrak territory at PERRY if they have a signal pulled up or if they should coast along at a walking pace.

I should also note that CP-TOME, CP-QUARRY, the former CP-MINNICK and Amtrak PERRY interlockings were all back to back, so in theory Rule 261 could be run from from CP-TOME eastward without needing any additional expense.  I guess we'll see what happens.

Queens Boulevard Towers, Still Hanging On

Just a quick status update from the Queens Boulevard Line in NYC.  As I previously reported, the NYCTA was closing towers along the line as part of a general move away from manual interlocking operation on the IND division.  At that time Roosevelt Ave tower has closed with Continental Ave and Union Turnpike close behind. 

Gone without a trace

 Well as of Veterans Day there has been some good news and bad news.  The bad news is that not only have Roosevelt and Continental both closed, but both classic interlocking machines, a GRS Model 5 and US&S Model 14, have both been removed and the spaced converted into employee hangouts.  The good news is that Union Turnpike is still in operation along with the small tower at Northern Boulevard on the local branch of the line.  That small tower operates a single trailing point crossover with a 12-lever GRS Model 5 machine.

In related news, color light dwarf signals continued to appear in the JAY interlocking complex on the LIRR, one even being at the end of a platform.  As mentioned previously they are bare stacks of Safetran clam shells instead of something sensible like an LED searchlight.

DUNTON interlocking is so far unaffected and both VAN and BROOK interlockings are also not exhibiting any changes.   The temporary pedestal automatic signals are still in place at Woodside and I recommend anyone in the area try to get out and photograph them before the new color light signal bridge is activated for the East Side Access project.  One upcoming opportunity will be for this year's Holiday Nostalgia Train, which will be providing runs between 2nd Ave and 95th St on the Second Avenue Subway instead of to Queens Plaza.  I highly recommend it!

DOCK Tower Closes (1937-2017)

Well it looks like the Duke Nukem Forever of re-signaling projects has finally run its course.  While The venerable DOCK tower may have been celebrating its 80's birthday this year, the project to replace it was well into it's second decade.  DOCK was built along with the equally magnificent Newark Penn Station and sat just to the east where it could oversee the operation of three movable bridges over the Passiac River. An impressive structure it sat three levels about the track with the ground floor housing control equipment for the bridges' power supply.

 The last of the main line NEC towers, DOCK had previously run as a trio with UNION to the west and HUDSON to the east all the way into the early 21st century.  Even after HUDSON closed in 2003, the team of DOCK and UNION had remote control of every interlocking between them with trains being "paper" dispatched from the Section B dispatcher in NYC.  Ironically the height of DOCK's power came in the mid 2000's when it was given control over LANE, HAYNES, HUNTER and CLIFF interlockings to the west and REA interlocking to the east.  In fact the tower was staffed by no fewer than 5 people during the peak periods, a Train Director, three levermen and a telegrapher. Together they worked a series of modern unit level panels on either side of a large 155 level US&S Model 14 interlocking machine.

Because of DOCK's importance and traffic density, the re-signaling programme had to proceed very carefully.  Slowly colorized signals replaced the PRR amber ones, electric points replaced the pneumatic ones.  DOCK's extended territory was transferred to the Section B dispatcher and finally on Armistice Day 2017, the whole operation was shut down. 

While I doubt the tower will be demolished, I am not sure of what exactly it's function will be.  C&S hangout or will the bridge tenders still show up from time to time to raise and lower the three lift bridges? 

Site Update / Service Disruption

So I wanted to do a quick post about the state of the blog.  You may have noticed that a lot of the links and photos (at least more than usual) are broken.  This is because over the last 12 months I first lost my backup web hosting due to Chinese web crawlers and then lost my main web hosting due to a thermal event.  Fortunately I had had long since adopted a policy of using Google Photos to host the images presented directly on the pages, but some of my early essays relied entirely on the private server (along with all direct links).

Not a complete dumpster fire, yet...

So while my private web hosting is likely to be out of commission through Christmas or possibly January,  I am using the opportunity to go back through and convert all the major photo essays into using Google Photos.   I'm pretty much starting at 2011 and working back with the PRR Main Line Survey and METRA Tower Survey getting first priority.  I am also using this to fix any other problems with the pages like factual errors or omissions (for example on the Main Line Survey I completely forgot CP-UN).  I am NOT updating the pages to reflect current reality, they will remain creatures of their time.

Thank you for your patience.  I'm sure many long time viewers can remember similar outages in the past. We got through those and I'll get through this one.  Still, I could use another backup host so if anyone has  the ability to give me a free account on a webserver somewhere please send me a message ;-)

Also, if someone needs any particular page fixed sooner, again message me and I'll move it to the front of the line.  Thanks for all your support over the years, I really appreciate it!