In a situation that should surprise absolutely nobody, the PRR's SHORE tower, located at the old Frankford Junction, caught fire and suffered significant damage. The 1896 structure was built to support the then new Delair Bridge to Southern New Jersey and was the oldest surviving tower on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. The wooden tower closed at some point in the late 1980's and had somehow managed to remain standing stood for the next 30 years before someone or something set it ablaze.
 |
| SHORE post-fire |
Although the damage was not total (see SO tower in 2009), this event will likely hasten SHORE's demolition. As one can seen from the above photo, the tower is surprisingly accessible and is probably something I should have taken time to visit. The exact state of the interior pre-fire is unknown, but while in service SHORE features an old school US&S 23-lever Electro-Pneumatic machine and a panel to control the remote FORD interlocking.
 |
| SHORE pre-fire |
Just another reminder to get seek out photos when you can least you have events start to dictate your schedule for you. If I am able to gin up any more photos of the tower, its interior or the interlocking plant I'll post something a bit more comprehensive.
Considering the area it's located in I'm very much surprised it lasted this long. Many years ago Amtrak announced plans to tear down the remaining unmanned towers on the NEC. I'm figuring this incident will force Amtrak to actually follow through on those plans at least for the wooden towers. The remaining wooden towers that I know of are Landover (rough shape), Bowie (moved and saved), Bell (somewhat isolated), Hook (bad part of town), Baldwin, Brill (surprised this one hasn't burned) and Shore which will probably be coming down soon. Two wooden towers, Lamokin and Elmora have already been torn down. Landover tower, where I began my railroad career in June of 1977, is scheduled to be torn down as part of the "Hanson" interlocking project.
ReplyDeleteGet your pictures now.
Only SHORE and LANDOVER are all wood. Because Amtrak is quasi-governmental they have to abide by all the historic preservation and asbestos regulations which raises the cost significantly. Many towers are employee sign in locations and towers used in that fashion like HOOK are actually in great shape. BALDWIN and BELL would be the two I would also at risk of demolition.
Delete