NJT (CNJ) ESSAY Tower Demolished

 I have the sad duty to report the demolition of ESSAY (aka SA) tower in South Amboy, NJ. Nominally a CNJ tower on the jointly PRR/CNJ operated New York and Long Branch commuter line, it entered in service on Jan, 7, 1942. Since its closure around 1990 the tower had a second life as a maintenance base and had been kept in good shape. Unfortunately it ran afoul of the Raritan Bay Drawbridge replacement project and was demolished on August 29, 2023.

A few years ago I had caught a report that ESSAY was on track to be demolished, but looking at the EIS plans, it did not appear that the new bridge alignment would impact the tower. Unfortunately it appears that the initial reports were correct and we have lost yet another good condition, late model, brick interlocking tower.

This was unfortunately a more recent example of me not acting on intel of an impending demolition with literally years of advance notice. Unfortunately the location was both off my usual path and was not immediately accessible for photos, especially with all of the bridge construction activity. 

ESSAY controlled a modern interlocking plant with a Model 14 interlocking machine and pneumatic signals. It was located at the south end of the drawbridge and the junction with the electrified PRR Jamesburg Branch. It was also notable for overseeing the largely hand operated power change between electric and non-electric at the South Amboy station where the last operational GG-1s wound up their careers in 1983.

The good news is that NJT is generally supportive of its towers as I, in hindsight regrettably, took the time to visit those at SUMMIT and DENVILLE on the DL&W side back in June.

You Want to Live in the Box?

As housing costs in some of North America's most desirable areas continue to skyrocket, enterprising vagrants have discovered a somewhat innovative solution in the form of taking over disused railroad relay bungalows. The problem of the homeless setting up camp in rail related buildings such as stations and interlocking towers has existed for some time with the resulting fires used for heat and cooking inevitably leading to destructive fires such as those at SO and SHORE. However over the last year I have encountered multiple instances of persons living in disused metal interlocking bungalows which, as primitive as they are, can keep out the wind and rain. 

The fist was on a disused rail line in Colorado where between spring 2021 and winter 2022, someone moved in, ripped out all the relays and set up a cot on the old CTC relay cabinets. The second was in New Hampshire where the residents were at least thoughtful enough to lay in a supply of Narcan for their overdosing needs.

Now, these locations had been out of service for years, but it shows the lengths that the unhoused will go to. For the signal enthusiast there is always the slight risk of running into a disagreeable resident while out on a documentation exercise, however the more pressing risk is that these actions create a persistent nuisance that will prompt railroads to remove out of service bungalows that may have otherwise been abandoned in place, potentially full of vintage relays and other goodies.

My only suggestions for the enthusiast to err on the side of salvaging historic materials before they are broken up and dumped outside.

LIRR East Side Access Signaling Surprises

When the LIRR's new East Side Access opened to Grand Central Terminal earlier this summer and I was expecting the signaling to follow the pattern of the LIRR's other recent projects with the new reduced aspect signals like G/L that have become the new standard. However, now that cab view videos have become available the new signaling setup came with a few surprises.

Once trains enter the ESA tunnels at HAROLD interlocking they are exclusively presented with transit style 3-lamp signals displaying single light Green, Yellow and Red aspects. Although these two videos can't necessarily reveal all possible operating conditions, the lack of anything aside from Green, Yellow and Red over both straight and diverging routes implies that those are what one gets in the ESA tunnels even with track speeds up to 45mph. It also appears that intermediate signals are provided in the few parts of the route that have significant distance between interlockings.

I suspect that the decision was made to lean on both the track speeds and speed code based cab signals to simplify the ESA wayside signaling based on the LIRR's existing practices before the implementation of the Reduced Aspect Signals. Remember, ESA has been under construction for almost 20 years and the design work was likely completed a decade before the Main Line capacity expansion projects motivated the new signals. A review of the videos shows a combination of diverging routes at the prevailing line speed (15, 30 or 45mph) or sufficient distance between the signal and the turnout for a cab signal code drop to take effect. On the outbound video there appears to be an unprotected slow speed crossover so I am not sure if that would rate Green signals over cab drops or a Yellow approaching a flashing red or what. I made some inquiries and I will post an update if those pan out.

All in all, the signaling is more interesting than an endless string of Green over Lunar and the use of US&S transit style signals is nice, but its unfortunate we didn't get a full set of LIRR "tunnel" signals similar to the Atlantic Ave branch.

The Final Months at AC Tower

Looks like the Railroad Media Archive has done it again with a video covering the last few months of operation at the former Erie AC tower in Marion, Ohio from November 1994 to just before its closing on January 18, 1995. AC tower was located at the crossing of the compass east-west Erie and Big Four (NYC) with the compass north-south N&W and C&O.The Erie and Big Four alignments would be merged into Conrail and eventually became the Indianapolis Line on a largely Big Four routing with the Erie RR main being largely abandoned. By the mid-90's it was finally time to retire the old Taylor Model 2 machine.

In the video the things of note are the various communications duties of a tower operator and the lever manipulation sequences, specifically the use of crossing lock levers to set the direction of travel through a diamond. 

AC Tower model board and manipulation charts as preserved.

Although the tower was closed in 1995, it was moved to the nearby station grounds and preserved as a semi-restored museum. Hopefully they will get the expertise to restore it in a similar fashion to HARRIS. Because of the "lateness" of the conversion, the N&W and C&O signals were retained on the two non-Conrail routes until about 2012.

SEPTA Completes ARSENAL Re-Signaling

SEPTA is finally wrapping up its ARSENAL interlocking re-signaling and track reconfiguration project that has been underway since 2019(!).



The primary goal of the project was the allow select trains to turn back at the University City station, instead of 30th St, which required the addition of crossovers and a tail track between the old limits of ARSENAL and WALNUT interlockings. However SEPTA used the funding opportunity to renew the 12kv overhead lines and 1980's vintage ARSENAL interlocking, which unfortunately saw the demise of amber type PRR position lights, some of which were 2000's era LED upgrades.

An extension of ARSENAL southward to include a new trailing point crossover on the West Chester Line resulted in the old northbound signal bridge now serving only the NEC bound tracks. Note that the signal from the NEC can display full indications instead of SEPTA's go-no-go 562 indications.

In the other direction two new automatic exit signals have been furnished as distants to PHIL interlocking. With Approach Medium/Limited being the most favorable indication this could be seen as a downgrade for Airport Line routings that should take place over a Clear signal, however the ACSES speed enforcement doesn't make 45mph possible, let alone the actual line speed, so no big loss..

ARSENAL's southbound limits have been relocated about 900 feet to the south. This will substantially reduce transit time through the interlocking so that an NEC train can follow more closely behind a West Chester Line train .

The big surprise was the complete removal of the WALNUT crossovers in the trench leading up the tunnel approaching 30th St Station. Possibly due to maintenance issues involving water drainage or foul time associated with close clearances, the lack of WALNUT's crossover will risk snarling service if there is ever a need to single track/wrong rail through 30th St Station. Southbound wrong-railing trains at 30th St will have to travel 1.5 miles to ARSENAL whole northbound trains can benefit from the new turnback crossover for a 1.1 mile penalty. I'm not a daily rider, but hopefully I'll have a chance to pick up on how the new configuration help or hurts the user experience (as opposed to the bottom line).

A Second B&O CPL For Baltimore Penn

A year ago I reported on Amtrak replacing the NECIP era cantilever mast covering tracks 7 and 8 at CHARLES interlocking with a pedestal and ground mounted B&O style CPL dwarf. Well at some point over the winter of 2023, CHARLES' ad-hoc cantilever governing track #3 was also replaced by a CPL dwarf. Baltimore Penn Station has always been a land of close clearances, so is this part of a trend that will result in even more new B&O CPL dwarfs? Probably not, but its fun to take a look at the new one on track #3 since there's a bit more history than meets the eye.

Pulling up the 1992 track chart we can see that after the NEC Improvement Project (NECIP) and before the late 1990's expansion of MARC service that restored Track #5 as a stub terminal, tracks 3 and 4 converged past southbound PRR pedestal signals over the 34 switch before passing a second PRR pedestal, 3SA, guarding the convergence with track #1 and ultimate connection into through track #6.

With the MARC expansion, track #4 was extended to its own switch with through track #6 with the 34 switch and 3SA signal being removed.

Photo courtesy B&O Photo Tours

The improvements also left track #3 as the only remaining low level track at Baltimore Penn Station as track #1 was being used as a freight bypass stood off from the platform and protected by a low fence. At this time it was also decided to replace the 3S pedestal with a cantilever mast to raise the pedestal up off the trackbed for some reason. The low level platform would eventually fall into ever more disrepair before being completely taken out of passenger service in the 2010's Track #3 would be used for storage of MARC trains, but the 3S signal was still positioned in relation to the long removed 34 switch resulting in the waste of several carlengths of storage space and extended train movement transit times through the interlocking.

Above we can see the placement of the new temporary(?) 3S CPL dwarf in relation to the 1S pedestal and the insulated joints for the 64 switch. (The 4S pedestal is located under the bridge to the upper left.)

The CPL dwarf has a R-Y-G face and orbitals in the 12 and 6 o'clock position. This is slightly confusing as the 3S lacks any straight routes for Clear or Approach that would utilize the 12 o'clock orbital, but it might be used for a Stop and Proceed marker light in a way that made the wiring easier.

The 3S now joins the 7S as the second B&O CPL in the Baltimore Penn Station terminal area. A fitting turn of events as Baltimore has very few of its namesake CPL signals in service on home rails.

Piercing the Beltway: 50 Years of Change at New Carrollton

The southernmost end of the Pennsylvania's New Yor to Washington Main Lines has seen a number of interesting changes since the funding of the Metroliner Project in the late 1960's. At some point soon the latest and perhaps most significant change will becoming to the NEC where it crosses the DC Beltway and I figured the project might benefit from some photos and diagrams.

Before Metroliner and multiple NEC Improvement Programes, the PRR's Philadelphia to Washington Main Line ran into Union Station without much of a break in its usual 10 mile spacing between interlocking and block stations. From north to south, the 2 to 4 track main line (depending on the year) had a full crossover and Pope's Creek Secondary junction at BOWIE interlocking (MP 120.6), followed by another crossover and junction with DC's freight bypass lines at LANDOVER interlocking (MP 128.8) before finally hitting the Union Terminal division post at mile 134.6. It is LANDOVER interlocking where the latest changes have been taking place.



As the original Baltimore and Potomac line continued through southern DC to the Long Bridge and the RF&P connection, the 1908 line to Union Station was known as the Magruder Branch and split off at LANDOVER interlocking. LANDOVER was a pretty basic three track crossover with an extra switch added for parallel movements on and off the freight bypass. To the south were two, two-track lines and to the north, a single three track line.



The first significant change to the area came in 1970 with the Metroliner project's Capital Beltway Station at milepost 126.5. Constructed to serve suburban business travelers using the Metroliner, the station had high level platforms serving two of the three tracks. Due to the clearance needs of main line freight that still made heavy use of the NEC, the length of the two station platforms were fitted with interlocked gauntlet tracks controlled from LANDOVER tower.



The NEC Improvement Project (NECIP) of the early 1980's would bring a more significant set of changes to the area. In 1978 the DC Metro had opened on an NEC adjacent right of way to a terminal at New Carrollton and the plan was to not only close Capitol Beltway and move its functions to a new NEC platform at New Carrollton, but also shift the local commuter service there as well, allowing for the closure of the local Landover and Lanham stops. Since neither Capital Beltway nor the planned New Carrollton station would have a platform on the easternmost main track #1, a new facing point crossover between tracks 2 and 1 would need to be installed between the New Carrollton and Bapitol Beltway platforms as part of a new interlocking called CARROLL.

Limited speed #21 switch at CARROLL facing south with the New Carrollton station just out of sight.

One knock-on effect of the new CARROLL interlocking was the removal of the #21 (nee-#7) switch at LANDOVER interlocking. Located on a curve, the maintenance intensive crossover was arguably redundant as most trains out of DC would need to make the New Carrollton stop anyway and therefore would have no reason to cross over to the platformless track #1.

LANDOVER tower and interlocking northward past the #23 and removed #21 switches

Moreover, Conrail had ended electrified operations and changes in overall freight patterns in the northeast allowed for the removal of the parallel routing over the former LANDOVER #15 switch. Although trains to/from the renamed Conrail Landover Line could access all three NEC main tracks to/from the north, no NEC train from the south could access main track #1 until past New Carrollton. Further emphasizing the decline in NEC freight, a gauntlet track would only be installed on track #2 at the New Carrollton station.

LANDOVER #91 and #32 switches with former Conrail Landover Line to the left.

The NEC CTC project of the 1980's would ultimately close LANDOVER as a manned interlocking station and the Chase, MD wreck would banish most through freight, but the next significant change would not emerge until the rollout of the Metroliner replacement Acela service around the year 2000. Changes in business travel eliminated New Carrollton as a stop for Amtrak's premium high speed service while increases in MARC Train commuter service began to cause conflicts. This resulted in a new 80mph high speed turnout being constructed at CARROLL for southbound trains on the center track #2 to cross over track #3 through the New Carrollton station instead of having to effectively wrong rail all the way to the crossover at LANDOVER on a 45mph Approach Medium signal. 

 

New 80mph high speed turnout at CARROLL

Although this solved the problem for fast southbound trains on the center express track, New Carrollton emerged as a major bottleneck for northbound trains out of DC. Although the track #2 gauntlet (ultimately removed ~2003) was protected by its own signal south of the station platform, that signal was still only 3000 feet from the 45mph #21 turnout at CARROLL, requiring an Approach Limited at LANDOVER and the associated 45mph speeds. This brings us to today with Amtrak's long running LANDOVER replacement project.

Northbound HANSON signals in relation to southbound LANDOVER signals and tower.

Designated HANSON interlocking for the adjacent John Hanson Parkway (US 50), it is located directly north of LANDOVER's southbound signal bridge and will consist of a complete 3-track crossover, restoring access to the previously cut off #1 track for Amtrak use, with 2 of the 4 crossovers of the 80mph high speed variety.

This will allow northbound trains not stopping at New Carrollton, like MARC expresses, to take the 80mph diverging route to directly bypass the station and subsequent 45mph turnout. Other non-stop northbound trains like Acelas can use the other high speed turnout and use track #3 jump around locals making the New Carrollton stop on track #2. Said northbound would return to track #2 via the 80mph HST at CARROLL interlocking.