25-06-21 PHOTOS: Fire Up Searchlights

I have a confession to make, I'm not a steam enthusiast in the way most railfans are steam enthusiasts. For steam people if something goes "chug chug", its an excuse to drive at unsafe speeds and elbow others out of the way to get that perfectly composed photo that looks like everyone else's perfectly composed photo. When I have been in the company of steam excursions it has been to ride the excursion to get both covered in cinders and get an open window view of the line and by extension its pieces of historic infrastructure. However when riding a RBMN #2102 excursion to Pittston in 2024 I was able to make note of the surviving CNJ searchlight signal locations on the former Conrail Lehigh Line. So since I was obviously going to have to come out again to photo these signals, why not do it in conjunction with a #2102 trip and generate some content that everybody can enjoy? So anyway here are photos from my first time being trackside for a man line steam excursion. 

Like I said, my primary mission that day was to get photos of former Central RR of NJ searchlight signals between White Haven and Mountain Top. After the CNJ abandoned operations west (north) of Lehighton in the 1960's, the Lehigh Valley RR incorporated this section of the CNJ route due to its superior alignment and industrial connections. The CNJ vintage searchlights were distinctive for having a square "basket" like structure around each maintenance platform. Here we see the Milepost 146 southbound intermediate signal displaying an Approach indication for the holdout signal at CP-WHITE HAVEN. The former CNJ signals are normally dark, but will illuminate when a route has been established by the dispatcher.

At first I was confused why the Reading and Northern was running a southbound train within an hour of the northbound 2102 excursion. It turns out the signal was for the "regularly scheduled" Pittston to Mach Chunk diesel hauled excursion train featuring Reading and Northern 40th anniversary GP38-2 #2023, which I caught at the northbound Milepost 148 signal.

As expected the previously dark northbound signal popped up with a Clear signal indication for #2102. I could hear the engine approaching in the distance when what I will call the "traveling circus" of train chasers began to show up with their tripods.  When #2105 did arrive it was applying all 5000 of its horsepower to muscle the 21 cars of the excursion train up the stiff grade. This spectacle was quite a bit more thrilling trackside and made it easy to understand what was motivating the traveling circus to chase these trains again and again.

The R&N's latest innovation in making money is open observation car #22 which offers a premium  view to those lucky enough to grab one of the 30 tickets available for each departure. Not going to lie, but #22 is definitely on my radar for a future trip, even if it covers territory I have already traveled.

 

25-06-20 PHOTOS: DL&W Pocono Towers

 Closed railroad interlocking towers have a lot in common with the Three Little Pigs nursery rhyme. If the ones made of wood aren't burned down by vagrants, it doesn't take much for the railroads to huff and puff and knock them down. The ones made of brick fare a bit better, but unless asbestos gets in the way, a couple of swipes with a back hoe is enough to turn them into rubble. However a tower made of reinforced concrete borderline indestructible and nobody liked reinforced concrete more than the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western. In June 2025 I set out for the Poconos to check out a string of surviving DL&W interlocking towers between the Delaware Water Gap and Scranton. Because that on its own isn't super exciting I also mixed in some photos from the Washington, DC area, so enjoy.

First up is the tower at Slateford Jct. Built around 1910 as part of the famed Lackawanna Cutoff project, it governed the western junction between the new cutoff and the old main line the cutoff was cutting off. The like most other cutoff structures the tower was poured from the then new wonder material of reinforced concrete. As processes around reinforced concrete had not been fully optimized for cost and the project was located near Pennsylvania's "Cement Belt" and the DL&W was flush with cash from the anthracite coal trade, the concrete used in this and nearby towers has proven exceptionally durable. 

SLATEFORD JCT itself was closed in the 1950's in favor of CTC. Now increasingly hidden by trees and underbrush the tower is used as a hangout by local kids with both the relay room and operator's floor accessible for inspection. Note the steel supports for the mechanical lever frame.

The next tower is the exception that proves the rule. EAST STROUDSBURG is perhaps the only surviving wooden DL&W tower and is located in East Stroudsburg, PA. It was obtained by a local preservation group after Conrail retreated from the region in the early 1980's and retains a fully functional lever type interlocking machine and model board. 

EAST STROUDSBURG sits adjacent to the old DL&W station site that, sometime between now and 2002, has been subjected to substantial alteration. 

Just a few miles up the road is another DL&W standard concrete tower, GRAVEL PLACE. Once the location of a yard and NYS&W interchange point, GRAVEL PLACE declined in importance until the interlocking was re-signaled and placed under remote control by the operator at EAST STROUDSBURG in the 1950's. Similar to SLATEFORD, GRAVEL PLACE is hidden amongst the trees. 

25-06-14 PHOTOS: Norwalk Nights

In 2025 a friend in southern New Hampshire I had stayed with during the HART tower trip back in October 2024 informed me that they would be soon be moving back to Ohio. Although I had largely completed by Connecticut Valley signal documentation project there were still a few odds and ends I wanted to check on so I found a free weekend with cheap Acela runs. Unfortunately, my friend was presented with a surprise gift of tickets to see Ringo Star's All Star Band at Carnegie Hall on the night where I would arrive via Amtrak's Valley Flyer to Greenfield, MA. Well, no problem, instead of transferring to the Flyer, I could just backtrack from New Haven to where my friend would be parked at Stamford, killing the remaining time at a brewery in South Norwalk. Here is a set of photos from what turned out to be a surprisingly successful Plan B.

Somehow I managed to get a reasonably priced seat on the 330pm Acela out of BWI which arrived with a classic set and power cars #2027 and #2033.

Using an upgrade to first class I was able to two meals on my trip to New Haven, crab meat enchiladas and a cheese plate.

I managed to make a very short connection to the next westbound Metro-North local with M8 MU #9729 leading. The previous eastbound MNRR NHL train was on the adjacent track with M8 #9365 on the rear. 

I arrived at South Norwalk well after dark. I had been to the station a couple times before to visit the nearby preserved SS44 interlocking tower, but never inside the actual station building.