The Last Days of COLA Tower

I just stumbled upon a Youtube video from 2015 showing video shot inside COLA tower in Columbia, PA about two months before and then again on the day of its closure on March 15, 1987.  What makes the video amazing is that it can be compared to the interior photos I took in 2020 to see the state the tower was left in and how things changed over the intervening 20 years.

Just to recap COLA was one of a few 1930's PRR electrification associated CTC projects.   The tower was open between 1938 and 1987 and then the original hardware was run via remote control until 2012.  The remote interlockings under COLA's control could have that re-routed to the Conrail dispatch office in Mt. Holly, NJ.  From the video we can see that COLA interlocking itself had a new local control panel placed in the operator's room.  I am unsure when the CTC console was removed, but from the video it appears that it was not going to remain "wired up" and by the end only the western end of the territory (JEB, SHOCKS, Etc) was still active.

Other things that vanished include the defect detector readouts, all manner of random electronics and the 1930's vintage hanging overhead lamp.  What stayed behind?  The chairs and, the vintage Kelvinator refrigerator! It's also hard to tell if the PC green lockers were there in 1987 or brought in later to support a maintainers base. The wall behind the operator's with all the pasted up articles was obscured by a shelving unit with electronics on it, possibly in preparation for the re-signaling. In the Jan 13th video it also appears that the tower was a two person job, although there could be a number of reasons for an extra person to be on hand.

Anyway, despite frequent tower searches, Youtube still has the capacity to surprise.  It was really cool seeing how COLA's sibling tower,THORN, compares with COLA after THORN wound up with Amtrak instead of Conrail.

PHOTOS: Reading DARBY CREEK DRAWBRIDGE

The Reading Darby Creek Drawbridge is located on a bit of industrial track that served industry along the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Chester, PA. Directly paralleled by a competing PRR line, much of the Reading branch and along the the Darby Creek bridge, were abandoned shortly after the formation of Conrail in 1976.



Nevertheless, movable bridges are substantial pieces of kit with non-trivial removal costs so for the last 45 years the remains of the Reading Darby Creek Bridge have sat in the weeds next to the PRR bridge, permanently open. 

It's easy to forget that movable bridges are almost all railroad interlockings, even on otherwise un-signaled territory. Moreover, this means that before CTC the person on hand to work the bridge would also need to work an interlocking machine and both Darby Creek bridges operated in this manner with the tender/operator managing both train movements and marine traffic.

In the case pf the Reading bridge, the interlocking was controlled through a US&S Electro-Mechanical machine with 2 active mechanical levers on a 4 lever frame and 5 active crank style levers on a 7 lever electric frame.



The combination of being manned for bridge openings, no need to associate with CTC territory and flying under the radar in remote locations has allowed for movable bridges to survive as active interlocking towers well beyond even their busiest main line peers. While the PRR bridge ultimately had its interlocking and bridge control hardware replaced in 2005, the Reading bridge, in a strange turn of fortune, unwittingly became a time capsule as Conrail literally turned out the lights on the old bridge in 1976 and walked away leaving the old interlocking cabin and interlocking machine mostly intact.

Placed in service some time around 1923, the Union Switch and Signal Electro + Mechanical interlocking machine used a combination of electric Model 14 style crank levers for electric based components such as the signals, and long mechanical "Armstrong" style levers for the mechanical components such as the bridge locks.

The mechanical levers, 5, 9 and 13, had only 5 and 9 functioning when the diagram was drawn in 1955 to operate the mechanical bridge locks with 5 operating the north lock and 9 the south.

As US&S had taken over the Saxby and Farmer style interlocking machine from the UK, this small frame still used the S&F style rocker action to interface the levers with the logic.

The electric portion of the machine has room for 7 crank style levers with 6 levers originally installed ad one of those being a spare. Three downward oriented levers, 4, 8 and 12, operated a total of 5 smashboard signals, while the upward oriented levers confirmed the position of the bridge locks (#6), worked the master bridge unlock (#10) and served as a spare (#2).

The rear of the machine exposes typical US&S style interlocking technology including magnetic coils for the quadrant style lever locks and electric contact spindles to interface the mechanical components with the various electric circuits.

P&LE Tower Update - CP-3Y Demolished

 A couple years ago I posted a piece on how to use Google Street View to check on the status of surviving interlocking towers.  At the time I determined that the former PRR tower BECK and the former P&LE tower CP-3 had both been demolished, while the P&LE tower CP-3Y was still standing. At the time I was using the latest Street View image from July 2016, which showed the existence of CP-3Y.

However what i did not know that was a new set of images from August 2018 were still in the pipeline and would have revealed that CP-3Y had indeed been demolished in the intervening time period. I believe this would eliminate the last standing classic style P&LE interlocking tower.

Just goes to show that time doesn't stand still and just because a tower is here today or on streetview today does not mean it will be there tomorrow so stay alert and remember to check back on a regular basis. 

PHOTOS: Inside SEPTA's Last Towers

Over the last 20 years North America has seen the virtual extinction of "Paper Dispatching", the practice of railroad dispatchers being totally reliant on field tower operators as their eyes and ears. Operators report movements to dispatchers, dispatchers mark down train progress and inform the operators of any necessary changes. Depending on the railroad the dispatchers and operators may have more or less authority and in others the while two level hierarchy may not exist at all. Anyway, in this time period there has only been one rail system that I am aware of that went from Tower controlled to Dispatcher controlled in one fell swoop and that would be Philadelphia's commuter railroad SEPTA. 

Founded as an umbrella funding organization in the 1960's, for its first decade and a half SEPTA contracted with the legacy carriers Penn Central and Reading and later the government supported Conrail that emerged from the bankruptcies of both predecessors, to provide service on the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroad's vintage electrified suburban districts. The PRR side of the house was generally worked on the interlocking tower system with single towers controlling one or a few adjacent interlockings. The Reading on the other hand developed a taste for CTC schemes controlled by panels within existing towers. In the mid-1980's a series of events would combine to create SEPTA's unique tower culture. First, Conrail was forced to pull out of contract suburban operation in favor of direct operation by SEPTA. Second, SEPTA completed construction of the Center City Commuter Tunnel that linked the PRR and Reading networks, eliminating the stub terminals and third, SEPTA built the brand new Airport Line along with a number of "state of good repair" projects like the rebuilding of the Reading trunk line and improvements to the West Chester and Chestnut Hill West lines.

The result was that all of SEPTA's rails were controlled from 7 interlocking towers. The first two, WIND and WAYNE, were co-located within the old Reading WAYNE tower building at Wayne Jct and consisted of two 1960's vintage CTC panels that not only controlled practically all of the Reading suburban network, but also parts of Conrail freight lines due to the shared Reading System heritage. The next two, BROAD and MARK, were built as part of the Commuter Tunnel Project and replaced two large Model 14 legacy terminal plants with modern N-X panels. The next two, MEDIA and CHESTNUT HILL (WEST), were direct PRR legacy towers that controlled terminal operations on the West Chester and Chestnut Hill West lines with their original interlocking equipment. Finally A TOWER was constructed new in 1985 to control the Airport Line with a contemporary unit level panel.

Beginning our tour at Wayne Junction, WAYNE tower was the most traditional of SEPTA's diverse rail control locations being located inside the former Reading WS tower, a 1920's era Model 14 powered facility that controlled the double junction between the New York/Bethlehem main line, Chestnut Hill East branch and Tabor Branch freight link. Unlike the PRR, the Reading wasn't afraid of new technology and in 1965 it implemented a wide-scale CTC project that consolidated control of its Suburban network inside WS/WAYNE tower. (Note, by CTC I mean remote interlocking control as there was only a limited amount of actual Rule 261/CTC operation in this territory.) In the tower the old Model 14 machine was supplanted by two high end General Railway Signal NX panels installed in adjacent corners of the operator's floor.

Operator lines a route at 16TH ST JCT on the WAYNE panel in 1991.

Other half of the WAYNE panel in 1991.

This gave rise to WAYNE Towers's unique "Two Towers in One" layout with the "WAYNE" panel and operator controlling everything between 16TH ST JUNCTION at the top of the Viaduct to TABOR JCT (Fern Rock) on the Main Line and the Fox Chase branch (via Newtown Jct and Cheltenham Jct). The WAYNE panel saw one major alteration with the "south" end of the panel being extended to accommodate the insertion of the new HUNT interlocking and reconfiguration of WAYNE interlocking to support the mid-80's opening of Robert's Yard. Compare the above and below photos to the original 1965 configuration (NSFW).

 

South end of the WAYNE panel in 1994

North end of the WAYNE panel in 1994

The second panel and its operator was known as WIND and was interesting for not only being a virtual tower located about 6 feet away from the WAYNE panel, but also not actually controlling an interlocking named WIND. WIND's territory was everything north of Tabor Junction including the R5 route from Jenkintown to Doylestown, the R2 to Warminster, the old New York Branch/R3 to Woodbourne and even the previously signaled Stony Creek Branch to Norristown. WIND also had control of the New York Short Line that would become the Conrail Trenton Line north of Cheltenham Jct which included a single controlled siding and various joint interlockings between Neshaminy Jct and Woodbourne. 

WIND panel 1991 with WOOD interlocking and Fairless Branch.

Between 1991 and 1993 the first state of the Conrail SEPTAration began with a re-signaling and track re-alignment project on the Trenton Line transferring control of Conrail trains between CP-CHELTENHAM JCT and CP-WOOD (exclusive) to the Conrail dispatcher. You can see in the following 1994 photo of WIND how the north end of the old New York Branch has been deleted off the panel as an active element. 

WIND panel in 1994 w/ WOOD interlocking etc blanked out.

SEPTA's WIND would retain control of both CP-WOOD and gain control of CP-TRENT after TRENT tower's closure in 1994. Unfortunately my photos do not reveal the method of control, but it would most likely be a computer terminal seeing as how CP-WOOD and CP-TRENT was re-signaled to 90's Conrail standards. The only remaining portion of the Reading Suburban network I have yet to cover is the Norristown terminal area that was originally controlled from a CTC panel in NORRIS tower. NORRIS tower closed some time after 1988 and by 1994 the CTC panel had appeared in WAYNE tower (likely under purview of the WAYNE operator). A 1991 photo shows a non-operable mimic board installed in the tower which may have operated to inform the WAYNE operator of R6 terminal movements before NORRIS closed. 

1991 Norristown area minic board.

 

1994 Norristown area CTC panel.

If you were wondering how two operators could handle all the train movements on the Reading side of the SEPTA network on an NX panel without any form of automated train labeling, I was told that at peak times each "tower' each would support at least two panel operators working in a non-socially distanced manner. Based on the recollections of a visitor, it was also likely that the physical WAYNE tower operation included a train director to call some routes and handle communications with the SEPTA dispatchers. By the turn of the 21st century SEPTA WIND and WAYNE had a very distinct presence on the scanner scene with their VHF transmissions registering loud and clear at least 10 miles distant in South Jersey. It was a truly modern rail dispatching operation in all but name.

MARK tower panel.

Looping through Center City, the next tower encountered on the SEPTA trunk was MARK. Part of the Market East station complex, I believe it was located somewhere around the ticket counter / station master's office on the east end. MARK arguably replaced the 111 lever Model 14 RACE ST interlocking plant that controlled the Reading Terminal complex. The Center City Commuter Tunnel shows the gross inefficiency of stub terminals as a the 13 track Reading Terminal complex was able to be replaced by 4 through tracks. MARK "tower" consisted of a US&S unit lever panel in an office controlling VINE, a 4-track full crossover hear the north end of the tunnel, and MARK, an interlocking without any appliances (aka switches, derails, etc) that spanned the length of the Market East station platforms. It did not control the adjacent JUNIPER interlocking located between Market East and Suburban station on tracks 2 and 3. MARK opened in 1984 with the closure of Reading Terminal.

BROAD tower center panel with 20TH ST and SCHUYLKILL interlockings.