NS Pittsburgh Line Cut Over This Weekend?

The scuttlebutt is that NS will be cutting over the new signaling and attendant Rule 562 operation on the Pittsburgh Line between Harrisburg and...somewhere.  There are two 12 hour outages scheduled for September 9th and 10th, or so I have heard.  However when I visited in person over Labour Day the new signal bridges at CP-BANKS and CP-HARRIS were still sitting trackside there I had seen them over a year ago. 

File Photo

Because the BANKS to HARRIS segment started being worked on after the CP-CANNON to CP-ANTIS segment, I suspect that the Middle Division is what will be cut over with the Harrisburg island to follow and the Altoona to Pittsburgh portion coming after that.  No matter what is happening, get your photos in ASAP. Tune back because I have some feelers out and hope to have the exact information about what is being cut over in a few days.


Also in other news NS is also planning to do some Chicago Line re-signaling sometime in October.

Mark D Bej's The Broad Way Archive Gone

It seems that I'm not the only person running into a hosting jam lately.  For literally the last 20 years when I have needed information on one PRR era interlocking or tower I have dutifully gone to Google, typed in "Maps of the PRR" and been taken to broadway.pennsyrr.com, and been taken to a wonderful Web 1.0 gem that gave me my information with little fuss.  The PRR part of the site had the aforementioned archive of interlocking sheets while else where on the file tree was a general signaling site with a good yet somewhat incomplete listing of signal rule sets and explanations of operating principles.

Unfortunately Mark's The Broad Way site was hosted on Keystone Crossing, a long running PRR history website that also hosted my interior photos of STATE tower in Harrisburg that I took in 2003. As the decades past the site owner Jerry Britton was overtaken by mounting costs and shrinking ad/donation revenue and I never noticed that he had announced the site's closing. While a stub of Keystone Crossing is still up (for now) most of Mark's page has completely vanished from the internet. 

Fortunately, back in the day when broadband internet was yet to be a thing and websites were often highly unreliable, I was obsessive about saving everything to disc and I have long since backed up The Boad Way's interlocking charts as well as the html pages they were linked from.  These have now been uploaded to Google Photos.  Moreover, a lot of the site was archived here, including the HTML copy of the 1956 PRR rulebook.   

I am still trying to find out what happened to Mr. Mark D Bej and/or the full contents of his website.  For all I know he may have passed away,  but if he is still out there, and if I can get my own hosting back, I might be able to get his content back online. I am sorry I was unaware of KC's problems as I would have done everything I could to drum up donations and support.  Meanwhile, some of KC's content has migrated to a PRR group on groups.io.  Of course I am now going to have to go through my own posts to change all of the broken interlocking chart image links 😢

New NORAC Signal Rules!

Yes, and before people get all nit picky yes NORAC is indeed adopting both new rules and a couple new aspects that go along with old rules.  All of the new changes have in fact been used for many years by a number of member railroads as system special instructions and moreover they have also been seen in other railroad signaling systems.  This is a nice example of a signal rules committee looking at the state of the art and deciding not to keep its head buried in the ground.

The new rules were made effective in the 11th edition of the NORAC Rule book released on Feburary 1, 2018. I've been a bit busy since the start of the year so I just hadn't noticed until now XD

We begin with Rule 281a, Cab Speed, which has been modified to include SEPTA's *G*/*G* dwarf indication which it has been using for about the last 10 years.  Also included was a PRR pedestal indication probably because of some situation on Amtrak.

 The next change plugs a major hole in several eastern signal aspect systems in that there is often no Approach indication available on dwarf signals. Y/R is Slow Approach, Y is restricting and for years NORAC had to make up with displaying Y/*R* Medium Approach for straight routes.  However there was one obvious solution and after appearing on the Conrail SAA timetable as a special instruction for years, *Y*/R has been adopted as Approach.  CSX please take notice.

A bit more consequential is the long overdue adoption of Medium Approach Slow.  Unlike CSX which had reserved R/Y/G for M-A-S forcing R/Y/*G* for M-A-M, NORAC went with a nod to the PRR using R/Y/Y.  This aspect had long been used in by the MBTA in the Boston area and possibly also on the former Boston and Maine territory. More recently it had been incorporated into Caltrains new speed signaling system in 2003. Note, NORAC Rule 283b does not include the "when first becomes visible" admonition, which I would suspect is something they are trying to get away from.

Finally in a weird nod to the Seaboard Coast Line, NORAC has adopted Limited Approach  signal as Rule 286a.  However, unlike the CSX Rulebook which is a bit ambiguous about when a train must slow to Medium Speed, NORAC Rule 286a states that Limited Speed applies only through the switches and turnouts, then Medium Speed applies.  Like Rule 286 Medium Approach, trains must begin reduction to Limited Speed as soon as it becomes visible.  I suspect this might be used to claw back a few seconds where trains had previously been stuck at Medium Speed due to a far-yet-visible Medium Approach indication.

All in all these are sensible moved by NORAC.  The real question continues to be when CSX will finally adopt *Y* Advance Approach!!

Closed and Closing NYCTA 6th Ave Line Towers

Another two major losses in the world of North American power interlocking machines as the 1940 vintage towers 34TH ST and W 4TH ST, both on the NYC Subway 6th Avenue Line, will both be closed by the end of this week.  Actually, 34TH ST tower already closed back in May, while W 4TH ST tower will be closed over the two week period centered on the weekend past.  Both towers were equipped with GRS Model 5 pistol grip type machines and W 4TH is perhaps the most famous of them all for its "fishbowl" windows looking out onto the lower downtown platform for all the world to see.

While W 4TH ST and it's 54 lever frame controlled an impressive plant, linking the 8th and 6th Ave lines south  of Midtown, it unfortunately did not put on much of a show unless trains were being diverted.  The operators could sit back with the entire plant straight railed and signals fleeted, pausing only to harass those interested enough to even peer through the window.




34TH ST tower on the other hand had a 68 lever frame controlling perhaps the closest thing the NYCTA had to a complete railroad 4 track crossover, although it was embellished with a few unnecessary scissors crossovers.  This tower was located a bit down front the end of the uptown platform, but due to the 34th St Station platforms being offset, it could be viewed from the side.

As we speak W 4TH is being slowly cut over, one track at a time with the process scheduled to be completed on the weekend of August 12th, 2018.  Anyone in the NYC area should make a special trip to get some video and piss the unionized tower operators off one last time ;-)

Don't believe the hype.  These old school machines will have lasted decades longer than what replaces them They are reliable and hack-proof as long as they see proper maintenance.  Unfortunately that is something the NYCTA can't afford so they beg for capitol money for a flaky CTBC solution that costs billions and only increases capacity by 5-10%.  So long, and farewell old friends.

Liverpool Lime Street Signalbox Closed

One of the last two active Westinghouse Brake and Saxby Signal Company power frames on British Rail was taken out of service on July 13th and it was quite an impressive example, controlling the 13 track stub terminal in Liverpool, England since 1948.  This matters because the WB&S Co Style L power frame installed in Liverpool Lime Street is pretty much a US&S Model 14 just with the levers rotated 90 degrees to moved in the proper British fashion.  Also the all brick structure with a bay window follows the pattern of high quality North American towers as seen on the Pennsylvania Railroad or New York Central.

With 86 active levers and a plant that had pretty much remained untouched since the signalbox was constructed after The War, this is a huge loss for living signaling history, although a number of these frames survive in various preserved forms.



The machine was shut down track by track instead of a simultaneous cutover.  This resulted in the unfontunate side effect of the model board being completely painted over aside from the last two active tracks along the bottom :-( All of this can actually be scene along with general tidbits about the Signalbox's history and future use in this video produced by Network Rail.




Unlike many other British towers Lime St is a listed building and should be preserved along with the rest of the station. Also make sure you check out the The Westinghouse Brake & Signal Company Ltd. Miniature power lever frame website for more information on this cross pond cousin.

2018 RF&P / A-Line / H-Line / Southern Main Line Trip Report

It has been three years since I last surveyed the RF&P, A-Line and Southern Main Line and quite a bit has changed. This report will try and cover more of the signaling related changes and less of the various capacity improvements that have occurred in tandem. On the RF&P third track projects are causing intermittent layout changes north of Fredericksburg, but a number of legacy 2 track bridges are isolating the new segments. Not much of a signaling change as the whole area was re-done between 2012 and 2014. South of Fredericksburg a few remaining RF&P large target US&S N-3 intermediates still stand along with the classic bracket mast at Doswell. Towers at Fredericksburg, Millford, Doswell and Greendale were also still standing.

Still hanging in there!

Acca Yard in Richmond has seen major changes. Previously both ends of the yard had been completely interlocked. Now the throats had been converted to hand operation with simplier terminal interlockings constructed farther out. On the south end the old AY interlocking has been relocated with a access cutting through the wye to allow northbound movements off the Belt Line to access all the yead tracks. South of Richmond AF interlocking was getting a complete set of limited speed crossovers to replace a single trailing 15mph crossover. The Petersburg Station has also been provided with a new interlocking to reduce the need for trains to cross passengers across an active main track.

This RF&P vintage modern style N-3 gantry is a goner :-(

South of Petersburg the only remaining classic signals are at CHARLIE BAKER interlocking in Rocky Mount. A few new limited speed crossovers have also been installed with a few extra miles of double track to reduce time spent waiting in sidings for meets which is what eliminated the last few N-3 holdouts after 2015. The NS H-line has also seen a number of improvements with new interlockings and new passing sidings, but the line had already been assimilated by NS so there wasn't anything to be lost. The new Raleigh Station is open, but not all the tracks are in service and there is still work to be done before the new terminal interlockings are fully in service.

The last A-Line N-3s were replaced by new crossovers.

On the Southern main line a smattering of interlockings remain unresignaled, typically 1990's builds with the traffic light style heads. One example is FAWELL interlocking south of Lynchburg. Also, CR TOWER interlocking in Alexandria, VA has seen new Darth heads placed on the Southern vintage ladder poles. Although there are some exceptions, NS did not use the opportunity to add new CTC features such as a Restricting indication into single track territory. This has been done on some NS lines like the former NKP route, I believe, but not Southern. Also, many of the old Southern signal gantries have been left in place along the RoW where it was somehow inconvenient to have them scrapped. So there might be something worth taking a picture of if anyone makes a signal trek.

Apt that FAWELL interlocking would be resistant to change.

All in all this was a pretty dull trip, signaling wise. Exactly what we have to look forward to across North America for probably the rest of time :-(

Caught on Camera: Clear to Next Interlocking

Also known as NOARC Rule 280a, this special cab signal related signal was invented by the Pennsylvania Railroad for their experimental trial of cab signals without fixed automatic signals (today known as Rule 562) on the Conemaugh Line between CP-CONPIT and CP-KISKI back in the late 1940's or early 1950's.  Without wayside intermediate signals, trains that experience a cab signal failure en route would not be able to proceed without absolute block protection ahead.  Normally this would involve train orders (or today a track warrant/Form D) however the reliability focused PRR decided to automate the potentially delay inducing procedure with a special signal that would illuminate when the track was clear to the next interlocking where the next wayside signal would be located.

 One option could have been to simply display a Rule 280 "Clear Block" signal, which was an upper head | with a single marker below and used in manual block territory.  However because of the lack of manual block distant signals and because of the non-lack of train detection, a new Rule 280a was created, "Clear to Next Interlocking" and it would consist of a flashing lunar white market offset to the side and labeled with a reflective 'C'.  Any diverging movements through the first interlocking would be covered by the fixed signal and trains would be instructed to approach the next interlocking prepared to stop.  Here we can see an example of a Rule 280a being displayed along side an Approach signal at Amtrak's REA interlocking.



As you can see, the 'C' lamp is displayed independently if absolute block conditions are met.  On unit lever and VDU interfaces the 'C' lamp is a separate switch associated with each signal.  While technically unnecessary at back-to-back interlockings, 'C' boards are more often deployed uniformly so crews do not loose track of which signals they can pass with failed cab signals. In this more elaborate demonstration of signal progressions at Amtrak's HUDSON interlocking we can see how the 'C' lamp is placed on the fame flashing circuit as other flashing signals such as Cab Speed and Approach Limited.



Finally, we actually have an example of a display 'C' signal in the wild.  This was at the re-signaled STELL interlocking for a southbound movement against the flow of traffic on the NS Enola Branch.  NS has decided to employ waysideless operation on much of it's cab signaled PRR territory, following in the footsteps of Conrail in the 1990's.  Previously the Enola Branch had been run under single direction Rule 251, but when the line was re-signaled, the Rule 562 operation saved a bit of money on intermediate signals.  First note the NS style backings on the 'C' boards, a practice not carried forward to subsequent projects. Second this is an interesting occurrence as a train with failed cabs could in theory be swapped out at Enola yard and finally note the slower flashing cadence compared with the Amtrak signals.



That's it for this episode of Caught on Camera. Nothing is scheduled for the next time cause I won't know it until I catch it ;-)