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. 

TOBYHANNA is the last stop on my tour and one of the better preserved DL&W towers having been under private ownership for some time. Some say it was used as a law office, but there is currently no indication as to the occupant.  Located along a stretch of tangent track on the Pocono plateau is stands adjacent to the preserved Tobyhanna station that currently hosts a railroad club. The DL&W line at this point is operated by the publicly owned Delaware Lackawanna railroad known for its fleet of classic Alco type locomotives.

The Tobyhanna DL&W train station is also standing having followed the familiar script of having been turned into the clubhouse for the local historical society. 

Wrapping things up in the Poconos, a little east of Moscow, PA I ran into the Caboose Food and Ice Cream stand which has a collection of railroad memorabilia as well as a preserved PRR N5 caboose. I did get some ice cream and I can definitely recommend. 

Back down in Maryland I had an event in Tyson's Corner which required me to undertake the old DMV Shuffle. Starting out at Halethorpe, MD MARC station here we have SC44 #85 and K-cab car #7848 stopping on the northbound platform with MARC MP36PH-3C #15 leading the following northbound train. 

I would be boarding K-cab car #7854 for the trip into DC Union Station.

I've used other WMATA Silver Line stations in Tyson's Corner, but not the Tyson's Corner station specifically. Because of WMATA's choice to build all stations with a single staffed fare barrier the street level entrance escalator takes one past track level in order to take another escalator back down.

WMATA 7k car #7200 at Tysons.

My event ended early so I arranged to meet a friend at what was the old Washington Coliseum arena, which now houses a brewery and REI store. This involves getting off at the New York Ave station so here is MARC MP36PH-3C #33 at MARC's Union Station engine facility which I passed along the way.

WMATA 3k car #3138 departing New York Ave.

Walking back to Union Station along 2nd St I got a good view of the terminals overhead catenary switching substation.

On a whim I went up to H St to catch what would turn out to be my final ride on the DC Streetcar with car #201.

MARC Penn and Brunswick Line trains were scheduled to depart close to the same time, resulting in MP36PH-3C #22 pacing the Penn Line train between K TOWER and C interlocking, passing MP36PH-3C #30 and WMATA's New York Ave Station in the process.

MARC Penn Line signal problems between HANSON and GROVE interlockings resulted in most northbound traffic moving at Restricted speed (20mph) for the better part of 15 miles. Amtrak dispatch decided to run northbound Amtrak traffic on the only track not affected, the normally southbound track #1.  This resulted in my very delayed MARC local on track #3 racing a northbound Acela on track #1 after clearing the outage. Acela power cars were #2026 and #2029.

K-cab car #7850 as seen upon my return to Halethorpe.

Jumping back north to South Jersey here are a pair of Atlantic City Line trains at the Utica Ave grade crossing. NJT likes to pass its trains at the new Pennsauken Transportation Centre so at both Utica Ave and Cherry Hill Station you usually get 2 photo ops for the price of one. Here the northbound train had GP40PH-2B #4216 and Comet V cab car #6078 while the southbound had #6052 and #4206.

NJT Erie heritage GP40PH-2B #4210 was still running on the ACL as seen here at Cherry Hill. 

That's all for this set. I'll see you next time as I participate in another Reading and Northern T-1 #2102 excursion, but this time from the ground.