DOCK Movable Bridge to Become DOCK Bridge

In 2017 the great DOCK tower closed as a staffed interlocking station after about 80 years of service. However the imposing structure retained one last official duty beyond "employee lounge" and that was housing the controls and auxiliary equipment to work the adjacent three span vertical lift drawbridge situated between the tower and Newark Penn Station.

 

Unfortunately the Passiac River was not the industrial thoroughfare of years past and unlike the nearby PORTAL bridge whose low clearance made it subject to periodic openings for barge traffic, the height of the DOCK draws is sufficient for the dwindling commercial traffic on the waterway.  After not opening a single time in 2024, Amtrak has petitioned the Coast Guard for permission to permanently close the bridge.

While it is unlikely that anything will happen to the bridge, Amtrak will no longer have to maintain the operating equipment, interlocking logic and the mechanisms used to make and break rail and overhead wire continuity.

DOCK draw actually contains three independent movable bridge spans. A large 3-track north span for mostly westbound Amtrak and NJT trains, a 2 track span for PATH rapid transit trains and a single track span for mostly eastbound Amtrak and NJT trains. The PATH span was set at a higher clearance above the river to reduce the number of openings on what was higher frequency rapid transit line.

 

One interesting quirk was the use of standard point machines to work the rail locking mechanisms at least on the PATH tracks. 

Based on the general interlocking layout I would not expect many signals to move, although the eastbound signals on tracks 2 and 3 might be moved across the bridge to resolve possible ACSES positive stop issues.

The fate of the control equipment on the operator's level and the auxiliary equipment, like AC-DC motor-generators, on the cavernous ground floor remains to be seen, however the safe option would be to leave it in place just in case. Numerous lift bridge have been converted to a fixed status with the counterweights left to dangle for many decades with little thought.

The petition requires a 120 day trial period of being "closed" at which point it will be approved or denied. After that there would be no set timeline for Amtrak to make changes so if a signal move looks likely I'll keep you informed.

1994 SUISUN BRIDGE Cabin Tour

 Movable bridge cabins are the invisible step children of the interlocking tower scene, but its easy to forget that they have all the same stuff that regular towers have including the full compliment of electro+mechanical interlocking machines. While poking around YouTube I found this video of someone's 1994 tour of the Souther Pacific's SUISUN BRIDGE movable bridge cabin. This vertical lift drawbridge is a crossing of the Carquinez Strait, which connects Suisun Bay with San Fransisco Bay and hosts Amtrak's Capitol Corridor, Coast Starlight and California Zephyr services.

As far as I am aware it is still a staffed interlocking station, although I am not sure if it retains the US&S Model 14 machine and panel seen throughout the video (specifically 10:30). In the video you can also hear the sound of a signature US&S pneumatic switch machine at 4:00 as it locks down the lift span under the control of a Model 14 lever.

Based on intro and outro clips of ABS searchlight signals on the south bank, I suspect this pre-dated the era of SP style tri-light signals that remain at the bridge today and therefore implies that the Mode 14 was replaced by a panel or VDU.

Westbound home signals SUISUN BRIDGE

The panel shown at various points in the video also lacks the VISTA crossover immediately west of the eastbound signals.

Westbound home signals VISTA interlocking with eastbound home signals SUISUN BAY

So it looks like the "Southern Pacific" style re-signaling was going on quite a bit later than I had figured what with the mid-90's Union Pacific merger.

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.

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.

LAB Cabin Closes, Ending Many Eras

While this may sound like a bit of a rehash of my recent post on the status of signaling in and around Amtrak's Empire Corridor, some additional news has come to light in the last week that confirms that the former Conrail LAB tower in Albany-Rensselare, NY has officially closed as of 02/07/2017.  Located on the former New York Central freight movable bridge across the Hudson River just north of downtown Albany, the tower controlled the Albany terminal area from CP-141 through CP-145 inclusive.  As part of a general re-signaling and capacity expansion effort, it was replaced by CTC control from New York City.

Short for "Livingston Avenue Bridge", LAB was the last active tower in Upstate New York.  Seeing service under the New York Central, Penn Central, Conrail, CSX and finally Amtrak, LAB wasn't special for some sort of classic interlocking machine, but because of the role it played.   LAB was one of a number of "island" towers that supported Amtrak operations deep in freight railroad territory.  Outside the NEC, Amtrak ran many of its operations from concentrated hubs.  Not wanting the second class service afforded by freight railroad dispatching and (previously) not large enough to be its own CTC territory, Amtrak would either operate its own tower or contract with the host freight railroad to staff one for them.  This gave Amtrak on site attention for its many passenger movements and helped keep the trains moving on time.  Other Amtrak island towers included those around Chicago Union Station, Drawbridge tower in Michigan City, IN, which controlled the Michigan Line and Clara St tower in New Orleans. 

While I never saw a picture inside LAB, it's a pretty good bet that it was equipped like many other Conrail 1970's/80's CTC towers, with a minimalist N-X panel.  Similar Conrail towers included HICK and SCOTIO, although I am sure there were more.  In addition to Amtrak not wanting to deal with a CSX dispatcher, having LAB in charge of a movable bridge also helped as there would be little savings replacing an operator with a bridge tender.  As implied by the term "cabin" the tower was located in the center portion of the drawbridge, the CTC pole line reaching it overhead.

As I said before, the entire Albany complex has now been resignaled with not only new tracks, new doubleslip switches and LED searchlights, but also 562 operation running, so far, between CP-145 and a new CP-149 west of the city.  Eventually the double track will reach Schenectady.  The current (new) layout of the Albany terminal complex can be seen below.

 While it's always bad to see a tower close and classic signaling removed, the new layout is quite impressive and the modern LED searchlights and target signals are not too dissimilar from their GRS fore-bearers.  Also, Amtrak kept the NY Central track numbering scheme going in the station terminal area.  Now all we can do is wait and see at what point the state money runs out and how many Central signals are left standing.

Caught on Camera - Episode 2 Google Special

having a railfan catch a rare signaling situation on camera, but having one be captured by a civilian on a completely unrelated mission is a lot rarer.  In today's episode of Caught on Camera I wanted to show off two interesting bits of signaling captured by the Google Street View car.  With more and more of the world's roads appearing in glorious HD by the law of large numbers it is only natural that Street View will capture comparatively rare events.

The first of these is located at SHEPARDSTOWN interlocking  on the NS Shenandoah Line in Shepardstown, WV.   The Street View car was traveling on State rt 230 when it caught the southbound N&W position light signal displaying a Diverging Approach indication for a southbound train taking the single track to wait for a northbound to pass.

Here is a closer view of the same signal in its normal state.

The second photo was taken in Bridgeport, NJ on the Conrail Penns Grove secondary.  This is the location of the Bridgeport Movable Bridge on the Raccoon Creek   The Bridgeport Movable Bridge is a non-interlocking swing bridge that was converted to automatic operation about 10 years ago.  The bridge works by a train occupying an island circuit which combined with some radio handset tones will command the bridge to close and a small dwarf signal to light up.   Well the Google Street View Car did it again, capturing the bridge in the closed position, crews on hand wanting for something or another.  

 Interesting detail is that the dwarf displays G/R proceed instead of G.  Remember this is DCS trackage so the signal only indicates the bridge is locked and does not convey movement authority.

Our last photos was actually not provided by Google, but looks like it should have.  Instead the Ohio DoT compiled a photo database of every grade crossing in the state and in so doing captured the unique pair of automatic signals on the former Conrail Cincinnati Line at Hague Ave in Columbus.  These are the only known examples of Amtrak style colorized position lights employed by Conrail.  Later replaced by NS as part of the general SCIOTO tower resignaling project in 2003 they live on in these photos.  

Of course Google is still helpful if you want to check out the non-Darth traffic lights that replaced them.

Anyway that's all, but rest assured that next time I catch the Google Street View car catching I'll let you know ;-) 

Falling Signals and a Possible New Tower

It's news time again and I have a mix of good and bad news this time, which I guess is better than just all bad news.  First up the CSX re-signaling project in the Bailey's Wye area was supposed to be completed over the President's Day weekend, but do to the crazy amount of snow that schedule has slipped back until May so everyone has another month to get their final photos in.

On the other side of the Potomac it looks like NS is doing some signal replacement on the Southern Main in the VRE Zone, although the extent of the work is not quite apparent.  What I do know is that NS is replacing the northbound Southern style signal gantry at BURKE interlocking in such a manner as to improve the sight lines.   As you can see the new cantilever is about 400 feet farther away from the curve than the old signal.

BNSF is continuing to replace its lightly used searchlights in Kansas.

Perhaps the biggest tragedy is that the mystery searchlights at Eagle Bridge Junction are on track to be replaced by the Guilford Rail System's ultra cheap brand of Darth Vaders.   I had this on my list of locations to document in February, but car trouble caused me to shelve it in favor of CPF-480 (which I figured was more endangered) and it was about a week later when I saw this photo.  Yay for the bracket mast I guess.  If anyone can get out there this would be a top priority to document.

Back to the good news WILLOWS tower in East St Louis got a nice new coat of siding so you can say goodbye to the old asbestos shingles.  Inside is a super classic GRS/Taylor Model 2 interlocking machine.

Finally I believe I have located what would count as another Active Interlocking Tower on the CSX Palmetto Subdivision Gibsonton, Florida.  Like the other recent finds this one is also a bridge cabin and this one comprises a swing span over the Alafia River.  Now a trip to the timetable did not definitively prove that this cabin maintained the requisite control over local switches and signals, but it is manned 24/7, is still equipped with classic SCL signals and is not in any sort of signaled territory so I say it is likely to still have local control and be run by an operator.

Once Again its Time for the News

This week we begin with the CSX Philly Sub resignaling project, which completed phase 1 over the last several weeks for both interlockings and intermediate signals.  B&O CPL signals were replaced from Bayview Yard in Baltimore up through the Van Bibber siding south of Aberdeen.  This is yet another occasion of recent re-signaling not saving classic signals as the Philly sub was almost completely re-signaled 10 years ago with pole line replacement and some of the interlockings getting new vital equipment.  While the Van Bibber siding interlockings were still relay, Rosedale interlocking was one of those that had been modernized and was replaced like the others.  I believe that Rosedale did in fact get a new Relay hut and not just a signal splice.

Strangely enough the new signaling scheme has converted almost the entire line to 4-block signaling despite 2 mile blocks and 50mph speeds.  Here you can see the new northbound Rosedale signal displaying Clear over the equilateral turnout with the capacity for Approach Medium as well and yes it is Approach Medium and not the Seaboard's antiquated Y/Y/ Advance Approach.

Also lost were a pair of 1990 vintage intermediate signals south of Rosedale on the double track segment.  Luckily over the years I have had the opportunity to fully document the Philly sub CPL's so stay tuned for a possible post devoted to them.  One signal location I was not able to profile was this one at Bradshaw.  You can see the new but not new enough relay box still standing next to the new new box.  makes one wonder what was so different about 2000 vs 2013 in terms of cost calculations.

 Moving on I noticed that the fairly modern CPLs at the famous Youngstown diamonds have been replaced, but I don't think that anyone is really surprised by this turn of events.  Interestingly enough there is an elephant ear target on the former PRR line which must have been a Conrail recycle job. Also note the bi-directional 4-block ABS support.

Moving on to Fort Wayne, IN on the old Nickle Plate line it seems that despite being more immune to this practice than CSX, NS is dumping a modern traffic light bracket mast in favor of a cantilever at the Runnion St interlocking.  The way railroads want to spend money on shiny new signals structures you'd think it was going out of style. This is also the reason I place bracket masts of any type above searchlights on the priority list.

One might think Amtrak was operating a rapid transit line if you happened to see this signal at the new Brunswick, ME Downeaster station. The previously un-signaled line to Brunswick, ME was given the Darth Vader treatment as opposed to the circular target signals previously preferred by the Guilford Rail System, but this 7-stack of modular Safetran dwarf heads appears to be a close quarters exception. More puzzling is the mix of LED units and traditional bulb and lens units.  Can't quite determine what all this signal can display or if the lens units are Lunar or Green.  I plan to head up there at some point and will investigate.

Showing once again that drawbridges are one of the major saviors of classic signaling here is a picture from inside the control cabin of Amtrak's Bush River drawbridge on the southern NEC.  This movable bridge is not part of an interlocking and in fact to open it the rails must be unbolted manually.  It is only opened during summer months on weekends, one in the morning and once in the evening.  Here we see a couple of old school switch levers that move the wedges that keep the bridge locked for train movements.  Next to them is the drive assembly for the short bascule span.