LIRR VALLEY Tower Closes and Other News

I just got an unfortunate report that the famed LIRR VALLEY tower was closed for good after surviving nearly 2 decades after it was re-signaled.

VALLEY Tower has closed—and then there was one... https://t.co/HOlN5oHAvL pic.twitter.com/nDktyBTJhF

— The LIRR Today (@TheLIRRToday) October 8, 2023

Although I did not get confirmation about where the control was passed to, I suspect that it will follow QUEENS, and NASSAU with the territories being remote to the dispatch center at the Jamaica offices. It is unknown if installed panel or VDU interface was removed or if they remain available for emergency restoration.  

In addition to the closure of VALLEY, I was informed that BABYLON and BROOK previously saw their operators relocated to nearby yard offices and DIVIDE was also closed in 2021 in conjunction with the opening of the Main Line Third Track. This means that VALLEY was the last full time, stand alone interlocking tower on the LIRR with LEAD technically being in the bridge cabin format. It seems that the LIRR has just witnesses the same collapse of interlocking stations that SEPTA saw in 2003.

In other news, L&W brand PRR pedestal signals have appeared at ROCKY interlocking on the Babylon Branch,  Rocky is the last remaining position lit crossover on the branch and the LIRR uses pedestals as a precursor to re-signaling events, however the move to reduced aspect signals have made this progression less necessary and the use of new peds could be permanent in order to decommission the aging signal gantries.

I also had the opportunity to visit M CABIN that controlled the Main Line Cutoff drawbridge over the Dutch Kills in Queens. Unfortunately the cabin has been gutted of any interlocking hardware by local scrappers.

The LIRR has a number of zombie towers such as this like BLISS and HAROLD and I'll try to get definitive answers on more of them.