RIP ALTO: 1915 - 2012

Not sure what else needs to be said.  As expected the Railroaders museum will get a chance to preserve it, but is will not be in situ so the elderly wooden tower will need to survive a move across the street.  Let's hope it makes it like BOWIE tower instead of MO Tower (in Cresson, PA), which fell apart when the crews began to move it.  The new interlocking has been named CP-ALTOONA and combines the function of both CP-SLOPE and ALTO.  CP-WORKS, CP-HOMER and CP-ANTIS have all been re-signaled and CP-ROSE has been removed.  Where will NS strike next?  Who knows.

ALTO Tower 1952.

ALTO Tower 2012.

Updates: BNSF and D&H, Bad News All Around

Leading off, if you remember a few days ago I posted that Canadian Pacific had abandoned its policy of replacing old three head searchlight stacks on its former D&H main line with similar Unilens units and instead decided to abandon all sense of style and just go with Darth Vader types.  Well it appears that what was sighted at CPC-100 was not an isolated replacement, but instead part of a whole line re-signaling that has now reached the signals at CPC-37, including the widely photographed D&H bracket just north of the Saratoga Springs Amtrak Station. 

So much for the authenticity of the Saratoga and North Creek tourist operation.  Anyway, the re-signaling is going to spare the recently re-signaled plants like CPC-36 and CPC-481, concentrating on the relay logic plants in order to aid PTC adoption.  (See why the signal vendors were lobbing so hard for this?  Cost effective "overlay" my ass!)  The fate of the plants that recently had signals replaced without back end improvements remain to be seen.  What is even more unfortunate is that CP is piling cheap upon cheap and installing signals unable to display bottom yellow Restricting indications for many of the routes.  At least CSX gets some credit for rectifying this oversight on the former Seaboard system interlocking plants it is "upgrading."

The saving grace for the former D&H main is that all of the automatic signals have already been replaced with searchlights of the Unilens type and modern relay and track circuiting equipment.  Moreover the line has one passing siding per 20 route miles, instead of the usual 7-10 so a majority of the signals will stay Searchlit.  Still, its a shame that CP couldn't stick to its guns and continue providing the D&H with a higher quality signaling experience, even if that meant LED searchlights (which are not being given a fair shake IMHO). 

Second update comes on former CB&Q Main Line where pole-line serviced searchlights mounted mostly on two track gantries have been under attack for the last couple of years.  While that replacement was long in coming, it appears that the Altoona of the CBQ is also facing extinction with the A, B and C plants at Galesburg now under a death watch despite lack of pole line feed.  What a waste.  Good news here is I'm scheduled on a Zephyr trip and should be able to document them in time.

Odd Stuff at Night

I wanted to quickly take the time to show some really fascinating signal related photos I came upon in the last few weeks.  The first was taken at Willowtown, WV on the old Norfolk and Western main line and shows a pair of classic N&W CPL bracket mast automatic signals.  What makes this photo especially cool is that it helps to counteract the conventional wisdom that N&W CPLs are equivalent to Amtrak's colourized position lights.  While the upper head of an N&W CPL is the same as the Amtrak variety, the lower head makes use of all yellow (not Amber) lights (except for the central red marker on absolute signas).  You can see this for yourself in this photo that shows an Approach Diverging signal on the bracket next to a Clear signal.

The next pair of examples show the C&O's absolutely bizarre implementation of a diverge to stop aspect.  Before the advent of reliable flashing relays, most railroads that wanted to use a lower head yellow for Restricting had to kludge how they handled diverge to stop (Medium Approach, Slow Approach) aspects.  Some, like the New York Central, simply used three signal heads on all signals, other used ground mounted subsidiary signals while the PRR simply had trains diverge over Approach (or Slow Approach).  Well the C&O was to have none of this and for their Medium Approach they added a second yellow lamp on the lowest head as seen here in this photo near Fostoria.

What is the reason for this?  Well it makes sense when you see that Slow Approach is R/Y/R, compared with Restricting R/Y (over Dark).  Yup, the C&O was so committed to the Restricting yellow on the second head they actually will light up a red lamp to upgrade the signal...crazy!!!  Here is a Slow Approach example at Fostoria.

CSX Chicago Line Resignaling

If obtained some more information on CSX's resignaling plans on the former Conrail Chicago Line in upstate New York.  In the east CSX is planning to cut over new signals from CP-RJ (Rotterdam Jct) to CP-175 (Amsterdam) on July 1st.  Not only will this wipe out the famous junction at Hoffman's (CP-169), but one of the few remaining NYC style cantilever masts.  Moreover I confirmed that CSX is changing over the signal rule set from NORAC to Seaboard.  This change was already put into effect on the Selkirk Branch back in 2007 and will slowly be making its way out along the entire route. 

In addition to that there is a larger project under way out between Syracuse and Rochester, but unlike other parts of the Chicago Line, was last updated under the Penn Central instead of Conrail and now CSX has almost the entire Rochester Sub targeted for replacement as well as a ruleset change.  As you can see in this image from CP-335 in Lyons, NY some of the interlockings still have local pole-lines between the appliances and the relay hut.

And here is a video taken at CP-334 you can see former NYC bracket masts and the new signals set to replace them.




The real shame is that with baggage cars riding the back of the Lake Shore and rear cars frequently being closed on Empire trains there isn't a very reliable method to survey the line without multiple attempts and/or staying overnight in the Buffalo area.

More NS Signal Recycling

I found a couple more examples of NS's more liberal policy of reusing older signaling hardware instead of just replacing it at the drop of a hat.  First up is CP-466 on the Chicago Line where a classic New York Central signal gantry has been updated with a few NS style Darth Vaders, replacing one full head and a marker head, but leaving 4 "G" heads still intact.

The second is at CP-EAST PITT where NS has recently installed new electric switch machines to replace the ratty old ones and re-painted the bottom half of the PRR PL signal masts to give them a nice shine.

PRR Main Line Survey 2010 Part 13 (PAOLI to PENN)

In Part 11 we left off at PAOLI interlocking at the beginning of what is known as the Philadelphia Main Line which is a string of extremely wealthy communities that follow the Pennsylvania Railroad Main Line from the Philadelphia city line to Paoli (or arguable Malvern today). The wealth of these communities was directly attributable to the railroad as the transportation link allowed those with means to escape the dirty, smelly, congested downtown and trade it all in for plush suburban estates. During the gilded age the Railroad itself took on the role of real estate developer buying up land along its tracks and establishing several of what became the Main Line communities. Traffic on the Main Line became so intense that it was chosen in 1915 for the PRR's first experiment with high voltage AC overhead electrification as well as some of the earliest installations of Position Light signals due to a combination of fog and smoke risk as well as overhead wires obstructing sight lines.

This final section of the Main Line as we progress towards Philadelphia is almost completely untouched by re-signaling and functions today in roughly the same fashion as it did back in 1948. As always you can check out the 1992 diagram located here I have also included some photos taken in the fall of 2011 to replace any 2010 photos of inferior quality.

Now I have covered extensively in a previous post, so I have absolutely no intention of repeating myself, however due to the length of the interlocking I was unable to cover much of PAOLI's East End except by setting my camera's zoom to max. The East End begins with a standard 1915 era signal gantry holding the 24R, 26R and 28R signals and the 22R dwarf on the ground under it. In a bit of a historic quirk the 28R and 26R signals have a separate backing plate for the lower position light head. This was how the original PLs on this part of the line were installed back around 1915 with the lamp units set in front of detached black backings.

The 24L and 22L signals for westbound movements are set on a 1930's style of beam gantry and were probably installed when the plant was re-interlocked in the early 30's and the original electro-mechanical frame replaced with a US&S Model 14. The introduction of fully powered signaling allowed the construction of the East End facilities. Also visible are the 25 and 27 switches. The 25 is a 30 mph turnout used by trains on the express track to reach the Paoli Station platform. The slow speed 27 switch is somewhat strange in its placement and as such is barely used (as evidenced by the rust on the rails). It allows access to #2 track in the reverse (non-signaled) direction. What makes this stranger is that #3 track is actually bi-directional so it would be more logical for a facing switch from #2 to #3 in the East End, but this does not exist

However the East End continues on past the 22L/24L gantry, around a bend and finally to the 29 switch which allows trains on track #1 to go express on track #2 as my Amtrak train is shown doing. Note the reverse points, pneumatic point machine and secondary point detector.

Here we see the entire 29 turnout in all its reverse glory again with the pneumatic point machine and a back drive with attached point detector. In the foreground are the 26L and 28L dwarf signals which are both capable of displaying Slow Clear as PAOLI interlocking is bi-directionaly signaled on all 4 stacks between the east and wet ends. 

Wider view showing the displacement between the 29 and 25/27 switches. This was to accommodate very long, long distance passenger trains platforming at Paoli that used to run way back in the day.

So just beyond the 29 switch we see an out of use signal gantry at about milepost 19. I mentioned that back in the day commuter traffic on this line was some of the most intense in the country. Both the steam hauled and later electrified trains weren't exactly sprightly by today's standards with speeds hovering between 30 and 50mph. As a result very close (about .5 mile) signaling was employed to minimize headways. Later block lengths were increased to 2 miles and speeds raised to 70 passenger, 50 freight.

Now That's More Like It!

While the overall outlook for classic signaling is just this side of dismal, there are a few slight rays of hope.  One of these was recently brought to my attention and consists of CP-EAST COLSON on the NS Fort Wayne Line.  This interlocking which is of the same vintage (1980) as CP-ANTIS which is being replaced in the Altoona area, was recently suffering from a structurally failing classic PRR signal gantry.  The typical NS play in this situation is to replace the gantry with some new cantilever with Darth Vader signals.  Well not this time as NS installed two brand new PRR PL masts with LED lamp units.  Why can't they do this more often!!

Hey, why stop here.  I was reminded of another innovative use of old hardware by NS in the Atlanta area where a three track former Southern RR caltimever mast was re-used to support three pairs of two head Darth Vader automatic signals.  They were even mounted with old school offset heads.  Give another point to NS.

Well since three examples are a charm here we see a location (Pembroke) on the former  N&W main where the old US&S style PL signals on an old bracket mast were recently replaced with brand new Safetran models.  They are so new the mounting screws haven't had time to rust yet!