PHOTOS: METRA BLUE ISLAND TOWER

When one hears the name BLUE ISLAND in a Railroading context one is most likely to think about truss bridges, a 7 track grade crossing, 4 diamonds and the last Crossing Tower in the United States. Blue Island Junction is near the top of the list of hottest railfan hotspots. Located at the west end of both CSX's Barr Yard and the IHB's Blue Island Yard, many tend to pair it with the previously featured Dolton Junction which sits at the east end of the same yard complex. Like Dolton, Blue Island Junction is also controlled by a manned interlocking tower, although it is seldom seen as it sits on the far side of the river, partially hidden by the 5 truss bridges carrying the B&OCT, Grand Trunk, IHB and Iowa Interstate lines over the Calumet River.

However, there exists another Blue Island tower some 3000 feet from the first. Built about the same time and of roughly the same design, the second Blue Island hides in plain sight on a METRA passenger station platform at the southern end of the former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Blue Island Yard on what it today's the METRA Rock Island District. Visible on Google Street View, yet largely absent from the discussion today we will look inside the other Blue Island tower and also wrap up my METRA tower interior series as both the now demolished Lake Street and permanently hidden Jackson Street towers were part of Amtrak owned plants.

The METRA Rock Island district can be thought of as the Harrisburg Line of the Chicago area. While significant portions of the line have been running under CTC for decades now, up until 2010 there were still 4 active interlocking towers between LaSalle Street Station in Chicago and Joliet Union Station. These included the unique Gresham Junction, the increasingly elderly 16th St Crossing, the immaculate UD and of course the forgettable Blue Island.Blue Island is so under appreciated that a simple Google search reveals more photos and information about the abandoned Root Street tower than the active Blue Island tower. It probably doesn't help that Blue Island looks like a yard office is placed rather aloofly from the junction that it controls, but that should not diminish the significance of it and the classic relay signaling plant that it controls.

 

PHOTOS: A Brief Ride Through DOLTON JUNCTION

For those of you who don't know, Dolton Junction is North America's largest operating mechanical lever frame interlocking tower located about 15 miles south of downtown Chicago. Over a couple of years while traveling on Amtrak Train 50, "The Cardinal" I have had opportunity to photograph the tower and parts of the interlocking and I seeing the ongoing series on Chicago area towers I feel its a good idea to share them here.

The massive complex that is Dolton Junction was created by the intersection of 4 railroad main lines. The Chicago and Western Indiana railroad ran north to Dearborn St Station as a terminal line that concentrated traffic from a number of other railroads, most notably the Chicago and Eastern Illinois, which eventually wound up owned by Union Pacific. Splitting the C&WI were the parallel east-west main lines of the Indiana Harbor Belt and the Baltimore and Ohio, Chicago Terminal railroads. Finally, playing the spoiler and crossing all the of the other main lines at an angle was the Pennsylvania Railroad's "Panhandle Route" main line from Columbus Ohio. Because the PRR was involved you can find an interlocking diagram here.



The tower at Dolton Junction was built in 1897 and contained a 178 lever frame with 100 active levers. As built the interlocking contained a total of 20 diamonds which included an extra 4 from various connection tracks between the main lines. At the time most of the routes through the plant were fitted with split point derails to prevent any catastrophic Stop signal violations.

Today the interlocking plant has seen some expensive reconfigurations carried out on the old mechanical frame. With the removal of the PRR route the number of diamonds has been reduced to 11 and a few new crossovers and connector tracks have been installed. Still the interlocking is operated as an island of manual control with CTC on all sides. Most of my photos were taken from the rear of a south/eastbound train as it passed through the interlocking in 2009.

Entering Dolton Junction from the North we pass the southbound home signal which is back to back with the signals for an independent interlocking that connects the C&WI line with the B&OCT line. The Doton signals stand out as they are older searchlights and not Darth Vaders.

Next we cross the B&OCT diamonds.

Then the IHB diamonds.

And now the tower itself. I believe you can just make out some of the levers inside the open window.

Another angle....

CORK Tower Closes: 1929-2013

At 10am on Tuesday February 19th, 2013 Amtrak's CORK Tower in Lancaster, PA will was planned to close for good and when it does finally close that will also drop the curtain on the last fully paper dispatched railroad main line in North America (although the LIRR probably still has some branch lines that can qualify as paper dispatched).   CORK tower was opened in 1929 as the PRR re-routed its Main Line around downtown Lancaster (resulting in the infamous 1000 foot mile) and along with a shiny new station building the entire area was signaled by a new brick interlocking and an 67 lever US&S Model 14 interlocking machine.  From end to end the whole interlocking was 3.2 miles long and controlled a junction of the Main Line with the Columbia Branch to COLA, the Reading Lititz Branch crossing both the Main Line and Columbia Branches, the Lancaster terminal area, the junction of the PRR New Holland Branch and, until 1948, the 4 track to 2 track squeeze on the main line at the Conestoga River Bridge.

CORK did not go quietly and was probably one of the most protracted interlocking resignalings of all time.  The process started way back in 2005 (!) when the interlocking was dramatically reconfigured from its PRR vintage layout with the old station tracks being removed and the disused main tracks (previously used by freight trains that did not like high level platforms) being physically moved over to serve the platforms.  The pneumatic point machines were replaced with electrics, new crossovers were added (but not activated) and many of the old freight sidings were reconfigured and a new freight bypass track installed.  In 2008, with Rule 562 operation on its way east from Harrisburg, the old junction with the Lititz Branch was spun off as its own LITITZ interlocking, and about a year later the old Model 14 machine was finally retired with the remainder of CORK's territory being split into a new CORK interlocking west of the Station, CONESTOGA interlocking east of it and HOLLAND interlocking at the New Holland branch junction.

CORK was not about to have a little thing like re-signaling stop it as it simply exchanged its Model 14 for a bunch of panel machines controlling not only LITITZ, CORK, CONESTOGA and HOLLAND, but also the new interlocking at LEAMAN (formerly a TBS) and PARK (replacing the old PARK tower).  CORK soldiered on with a 24/7 operator looking at the little portrait on the model board for three more years until Amtrak finally managed to move its NEC Mid-Atlantic dispatching facility from 30th St Station to Wilmington, DE in the fall of 2012.  While the Section B and C dispatchers made the move with their large paper block registers, their new digs were fully equipped for computers and other modern amenities unlike the "back room" on the 8th floor of 30th St. With CORK's territory already under remote control it was simply a matter of adjusting the Wide Area Network to send the work out of State.

While it was inevitable that the Harrisburg Line would wind up as traditional CTC, the sad part is that both is and the southern NEC are no longer dispatched from a purpose built railroad structure.  While Amtrak's new operations center in Wilmington is next to the NEC, it is not in a station or other PRR related building.  The real irony is that the state of Pennsylvania has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to allow Amtrak to offshore about 10 or so jobs to Delaware while former dispatching offices in the Harrisburg Station not sit empty.  Oh well, perhaps one day CORK and the other preserved towers will see new life as museums, or maybe not.

 UPDATE: Due to unspecified issues the cutover was not successful and CORK remains in operation as of 2/22/13.

PHOTOS: CPL Recycling at Landenburg Junction

Once upon a time in North America railroads were either seriously strapped for cash or railroad signaling hardware was abnormally expensive, but unlike today where re-signaling means installing 100% new signaling equipment and throwing out the old as recently as the 1990's it was common practice to reuse as much of the exigent hardware as possible. In today's post I will examine Landenburg Jct interlocking on CSX's Philadelphia Sub.

Today Landenburg Jct is hardly remarkable consisting of the end of a signaled siding on the mostly single track Philadelphia Subdivision. The Junction in Landenburg Jct refers to a connection with the Wilmington and Western Railroad, now a steam heritage line. I am not sure if this was ever a fully interlocked junction, but today the connection is not interlocked and the signaled siding interfaces with a small local freight yard. The CSX Philly sub used to be the Baltimore and Ohio railroads main line between Baltimore and Philadelphia and like many North American main lines it was operated as a two track line running single direction ABS. Because railroad interlockings used to be very expensive unless one was either the PRR or NYC they would tend to be used sparingly with simple crossovers and minor junctions being worked by hand with safety provided by timers and electric locks.

At some point, probably in the 1970's, the line was converted to a single bi-directional track with controlled sidings and CTC operation. However to save on costs much of the original ABS signaling hardware was retained. In the case of Landenburg Jct that means much of the original B&O Color Position Light equipment. At block signals the common practice was to simply move one signal over into the now empty trackbed to act as the reverse direction signal for the remaining track. I suspect that much of the track circuit logic from the old ABS line would have also been retained with some CTC modifications. An example of this type of block signal can be found a little to the south at Havre De Grace, MD.

The interlockings were a slightly different story as while a hand operated set of points could make due with protection by single direction ABS signals, and interlocking required signal protection on all routes. Extra signals could be installed, but back before the 1980's it was still common practice to install signals only to the right of the track they applied to due to the use of long hood diesel locomotives. Short of installing a new signal gantry, bracket or cantilever mast a dwarf could be installed governing the exit from the siding, but this could pose visibility problems and was susceptible to damage located between the running tracks.

However the B&O/Chessie System implemented a more innovative strategies to solve this problem that took the form of the bracket dwarf. This consisted of the original ABS signal for the removed/siding track altered to govern the new single main track with a dwarf signal attached to govern trains exiting from the siding. Here is what the bracket dwarf looks like at Landenburg Jct.

To allow trains on the main track to sight the signal that governs it over another train on the siding the mast must be extended to raise the CPL target up about 5-7 feet. Furthermore, because the dwarf is not visible a doll arm must be installed to indicate that a track intervenes between the signal mast and the track it applies to.

You Gotta Be Kidding me - Chicago Lake St Tower Demolished

Saw this heartwrenching photo last week of a backhoe ripping down the 80+ year old Lake Street tower at the north end of the Chicago Union Station complex. Lake St was in service until 2005 with both a big US&S Model 14 interlocking machine for the local interlocking and a large panel for the entire southern end of the Union Station complex.  While disused since then Lake Street was in amazing shape and in a very secure area.

Well so much for all that.  Perhaps it was attracting too many railfan photographers or perhaps Chicago is following through with some old pipe dream plans to cover the tracks in this area with either a park or parking lot.  Whatever the reason the City of Chicago has lost an important historic artifact that could have been preserved as a museum at the tri-point of the Chicago river.

Hopefully the interlocking machine and model boards were preserved before the tower was ripped down.  Fortunately the tower at the other end of the Union Station complex, Jackson Street, is immune from demolition as the new Post Office building was literally built around it in the 1990's.  Unfortunately its view of the city is now severely limited.

B&O CPLs: Gotta Catch 'Em All

This past year saw the destruction of my beloved Huntington Ave interlocking by CSX C&S forces as they needlessly re-signaled a 261/CTC line without pole lines just to spite the memory of the B&O in its home city.  However I was provided with over 6 months of lead time to get out and get all the photos and videos and since I needed to make a proper tribute to the signals that have given me so many years of enjoyment. I felt it fitting to show off the eastbound CPL dwarf's full range of emotion.

Rule 291: Stop

Rule 290: Restricted Proceed

Rule 286: Medium Approach

Rule 285: Approach

Rule 283-A: Medium Approach Medium

Rule 282: Approach Medium

Rule 281: Clear

The most difficult indication to capture was naturally Medium Approach Medium which I only managed to snag with a cell phone camera a week before the signal was retired.  Farewell old chum, your approach lit light show never failed to brighten my day.

PHOTOS: METRA TOWER A-5 (Pacific Junction)

While I have now covered most of the major METRA operated interlocking towers in the Chicago Area in my ongoing web series there are still a few left in the bag and one of these is the partner in crime to the recently covered METRA Tower A-2 at Western Ave. Pacific Junction is a 4-legged junction on the old Milwaukee Road passenger network as it approached Chicago's Union Station. Logically it is composed of the Milwaukee Road main line to Milwaukee running North-South and the main line across Illinois splitting off to the west with a small freight spur heading west to the Chicago River industrial district. In practice the junction looks like a 90 degree crossing with connector tracks cutting each of the corners. Today the Chicago commuter railroad provider METRA owns both the interlocking plant itself and the tracks south to Chicago Union Station. All other lines feeding the interlocking are owned by Canadian Pacific which was previously handled through its SOO Line subsidiary. Today the line to Milwaukee comprises the CP C&M Subdivision while the line to the west is the Elgin Sub and together they host the METRA Milwaukee North and Milwaukee West commuter services.

On the ground Tower A-5 has a very interesting layout with a three track main line running north to west via a sweeping 90 degree curve and another two track main line splitting from the 3 track line to run north. The eastern two-track freight spur used to split from the western route of the 3-track line, crossing the north-south line via a diamond crossing, but the diamond has since been removed leaving access to the freight spur and wye track via the curved connections to the north-south line. Here in a photo from the Railroad Signal Collections site we see the A-5 interlocking plant from the west with the tower visible far in the background. While technically two of the three Elgin line tracks diverge into the C&M line, the weak route signaling used on the line offers each of the two rightmost tracks (tracks 2 and 3) a "Straight" route through the plant. In the photo the track #2 signal is displaying a lunar white Restricting indication due to another train running ahead in the same block. Previously the former Milwaukee Road lines utilized "bottom yellow" Restricting, which is derived from the older practice of having a subsidiary signal for "call-on" indications. This is why the track #3 signal has the gap between the lower and upper heads to differentiate R/Y Diverging Approach and R/*/Y Restricting. Use of Lunar White in place of bottom yellow removes this potential conflict. A 4th siding track also used to join the junction from the right, but this has been removed although its signal on the gantry has only been partly so.



Here we see the rear of the northbound home signal gantry for Tower A-5. A three headed signal is provided for each track as all three are provided with diverging routes. The right of way clearly had provision for 4 tracks, but as the model board no longer shows any indication of a 4th track I cannot comment on the original layout of the tower as I do not have an original diagram. Both home signal on the three-track route are provided with absolute exit signals controlled from tower A-5. The use of exit signals is an easy way to implement bi-directional operation with simple relay based interlockings as it simplifies a lot of the logic by not having to check traffic flow status when setting up a route through the plant.  Also note the 72L signal for track #2 which lacks a middle "diverging" head despite protecting the 63 switch which can send trains either north or west.  This indicates either that both routes are signaled for the same speed and thus do not need to be differentiated or that a diverging move would need to be made under a Restricting indication.