06-11-04 PHOTOS: TUCKAHOE Tower Centennial

Two months ago today was the 100th birthday of TUCKAHOE tower in Tuckahoe, NJ. This tower was built by the reading railroad in 1906 and was closed by NJ DoT in 1983. For almost 20 years it stood vacant and 1998 it was a real handyman's dream.

However, CMSL Tony was operating his fleet of 1950's Budd RDC cars only 10 miles down the track and his had his sights on bigger and better things. Part of this was the restoration of the old Tuckahoe station for a second RDC service between there and Richland, NJ and the adjacent TUCKAHOE was given some restoration as well.

This year was the 100th anniversary of the tower, and Tony, not wanting to pass up an excuse to grandstand celebrate not only bought a cake, not only rounded up surviving PRSL employees from local retirement facilities buy managed to bully Conrail to allow him to run two of his RDC's under their own power to Richland and back.

Now usually the Lehigh Valley F Units or PRR #7000 are the star of the show with the RDC acting as a glorified cab car, but for this birthday they would run to Richland on their own, the first time in 23 years.

Anyway you can find my photos from this special event at:

http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/06-11-04_TUCKAHOE_TOWER_CENTENNIAL/-Thumbnails.html

And here are some teasers for all you ppl who hate to click on things.
Oh, if you want to compare my new pics of the tower with my 1998 pics they can be found here:

LV 528 sure looks pretty, but she and PRR 7000 had to step aside for the RDC's.

The guest of honour on her 100th birthday. That was only slightly younger than the median age of the railfans in attendance :-D

06-10-14 PHOTOS Buffalo Line Interlockings

The Buffalo Line is like a massive living museum of PRR Signaling. The line was resigned for CTC sometime back when the PRR was in charge so neither the PC, Conrail or NS have seen fit to change anything. In fact, most of the relay huts have little keystones on them. Moreover, there are pneumatic interlockings everywhere, even where you wouldn't expect, i.e. at interlockings with only 1 or 2 switch machines.

On my way home from chasing the Fall Foliage express I was able to stop and take pictures at CP-LINDEN, CP-SOUTH LINDEN, CP-RIVER and CP-KASE and I would have hit some more had I not needed to catch a train at Harrisburg.

You can see all the signally goodness at:

http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/06-10-14a_BUFFALO_LINE_INTERLOCKINGS/-Thumbnails.html

Oh those, LINDEN, SOUTH LINDEN and RIVER make up a wye just south of Williamsport, PA. Here's a little diagram I found.

Since then the second track now starts at LINDEN instead of SOUTH LINDEN. Oddly enough, despite the 1980's re-alignment, a pneumatic switch machine was installed.

Anyway...here's a little tour.

This pedestal signal used to be on the through track, but when everything was re-aligned it can only display diverging routes. Still, the lamp for the CLEAR aspect has been retained!

The air-plant at LINDEN has a pipeline and everything even tho it only used to serve a single switch.

The PRR signal gantry at LINDEN.

 SOUTH LINDEN used to have a turnout onto the siding here, but it was moved to LINDEN.

06-10-14 PHOTOS: Chasing the Flaiming Fall Foilage Spectacular

Question? What CAN'T someone do in a first class accommodation in a preserved, PRR painted, private railway car?

Answer! Take pictures of your excursion train as it flies along the Susquehanna valley up the former-PRR Buffalo Line.

While over 1000 (mostly geriatric) railfans crammed themselves aboard 10 Amfleet and 4 private cars for the Harrisburg NRHS Flaiming Fall Foilage Spectacular, an equal number of (much younger) railfans decided to stake out places lineside to photograph and/or chase the train. Of course chasing the train was no easy feat with a linespeed of 50mph, railfans frequently had to exceed Class 6 speeds on local two lane roads in order to keep up!!

My team of myself (navigator) and another railfan I know (driver) won the "hard core" award for successfully chasing the FFFS all the way from CP-WYE (MP306) to CP-LOCK HAVEN (MP 194).  In addition to pics of the NRHS Special I took time to document many of the Buffalo line interlockings and signals. The NS Buffalo line is a bastion of PRR Position signaling and pneumatic switches so of course, how could I resist :-D

All the photos are located at:

http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/06-10-14_CHASING_THE_FLAMING_FOILAGE_EXPRESS/-Thumbnails.html
I started out at 5am at ROY interlocking on the Amtrak Harrisburg Line. Heh, signal-fanning at 5am...that's hard core. Here is a photo of the ROY relay hut still sporting a Penn Central sign. The air equipment is still there to support the #15 switch, which is the only pneumatic switch left in the interlocking after Amtrak ruined things :-(!!! You can even see the penciled in number for when the interlocking gets completely re-signaled (91B vs 5B). Come on, who can tell me that electrics are cooler than pneumatics.

Wow, feel the history. CP-ROCKVILLE, 109 miles from Suburban Station in Philadelphia. Unfortunately CP-ROCKVILLE has also been converted from pneumatic to electric switches.

The Buffalo Line starts at CP-WYE, which is located at the north leg of the east Rockville wye. CP-WYE is complete with position lights and air switches. In fact the air plant has seen some work.

The PRR E-8's are in the lead!

06-10-09 PHOTOS: Far rockaway Circle

On Columbus Day I hooked up with Pigs and went on a little circle trip. I started at Penn Station and took the LIAR out to Far Rockaway and simply returned via an A train.

My goal was to try to get an M-1 on the LIRR and then an R-38 on the A. I arrived at Penn Station early as to have my choice of trains to Jamaica. I wanted for 40 minutes before giving up and catching an M-7...however had I waited one more train I could have gotten an M-1/3 (although I would not have had any time at Jamaica for photos).

At Jay I met pigs and transfered to an M-7 out to Far Rock. It was my first M-7 ride and i discovered that they are absolutely useless for railfanning. There is literally no point to to railfanning in an M-7. You're better off staying at home. They are a waste of time and money.

At Far Rock we made the walking transfer b/t the Far Far Rockaway and Near Far Rockaway stations to pick up the A train. I worried having to wait some time for an R-38, but we were lucky and only had to wait 1 headway. We also saw the R160 on it's field trials (Boooo!!). I did not realize that the building at the end of the platform was MOTT AVE tower.

We boarded the R38 and despite the window being rather dirty, I got good front end shots all the way to the portal at Euclid Ave. That's pretty much it for the trip. I will post samples below.

All the photos can be found at:

http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/06-10-09_COLUMBUS_DAY_FAR_ROCKAWAY/-Thumbnails.html

 The Jamaica Yard complex as seen from the eastbound Main Line flyover.

JAY tower still routing trains through the interlocking after 70+ years in service.

HALL tower with M-3's and the triple deck relay hut trying to re-wire the interlocking. I like the old brick package.

 Doubleslip switch in HALL interlocking.

Rear of VALLEY tower controlling the junction of the Babylon Branch, West Hempstead Branch and Far Rockaway branches also on a 1930's era US&S Model 14 machine. 

06-09-04 PHOTOS: Albany Circle

Over Labour Day I drove with a friend in a circle around the Albany Area exploring various interlockings with a stop off at Super Steel to view the stored Turboliner trainsets.

The trip included XO tower in Mechanicsville, CP-RJ in Rotterdam Junction and CP-VO in Vhoorheesville.

You can find all the photos at:

http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/06-09-04_ALBANY_CIRCLE/-Thumbnails.html


Here is a short narrated tour of what I saw.

Not too much Turbo in these Turboliners as they sit parked at Super Steel.

 Many were still shrink wrapped to keep out the rain.

 

Dual position third rail shoe that works on the under-running NYC rail or the overrunning PRR rail.

XO tower in Mechanicsville. Former D&H tower at the throat of a large yard which has also been ripped out. Now a simple interlocking (CP-467) where the former D&H line now operated by Canadian Pacific links with the Guilford Rail System freight main line.

06-08-21 PHOTOS: South Jersey Tour

Several months ago I took a small road trip around South Jersey with a friend from Boston. We started off near Trenton with some photos of MILLHAM tower, then wandered down to Cove Road at CP-HATCH for some RiverLINE photos. Finally we headed east to Winslow Township home of the South Jersey Railroad and the Cedarbrook Bunker. Tomorrow I hope to head out to one of the Abandoned NIKE Missile bases which once surrounded most large American cities.

If you remember the old Bell System, you might not know that all those monopoly profits went into building a long distance network that was literally bomb proof, Atomic Bomb proof. Across the country there exists to this day a network of bunkers to keep the phones working in case of nuclear attack. They were linked by a series of microwave relays and L4 co-axial carriers. So next time when you're shouting "Can you hear my now" into your Cell Phone, think of what "6 9's of service" used to mean.

The other cold warriors in South Jersey are the SJRR's fleet of Alcos. Granted most of them are Canadian imports, but it's close enough. You don't see any imported diesels from Lada or Gaz.

The whole group of pix is at:

https://www.redoveryellow.com/position-light/06-08-21_SOUTH_JERSEY_TOUR/-Thumbnails.html

If you want to learn more about the old Bell System go to

http://www.long-lines.net


And a brief tour...

MILLHAM tower in Hamilton NJ is located on a straight stretch of NEC that used to contain a complete 4-track interlocking. Ultimate the interlocking was removed during one of the NECIP's as Trenton area freight traffic declined, but was partly compensated for by the construction of the new Amtrak HAM interlocking about a mile to the east.  MILLHAM was controlled by what became the prototype "corridor" style tower built in 1941 which replaced many older plants.  The peaked roof is a new addition to shield the leaking flat roof. 

RiverLINE unit #3501B at Cove Rd.

The bunker at Cedarbrook. The pryamyds are vents and the brown thing on the concrete post is a gamma ray detector to alert the ppl inside to a nuclear blast.  It's amazing the quality of service we got when AT&T was still a monopoly.  Even after a nuclear war the old network would have still functioned. 

Old microwave relay horn antennas. If you hook your laptop up to one of these you can get 802.11b wireless up to 30 miles distant.

Wow...that's a lot of backup power. Something still uses this place.

Lehigh Valley painted SRNJ C420 #415 getting it's brakes repaired.

06-08-05 PHOTOS: Reading Country USA

About a month ago I took a trip with a friend up to Reading Country in central-eastern PA. This has been one of my earliest railfan haunts back in the late 1990's, but I had not been back there since and I was eager to visit a few of the places and see how they had changed.

The old Reading system used to be quite impressive with a uge network running through the foothills to gather up anthricite coal for use in home heating systems. Today, north of Reading, the once vast network is nothing more than a patchwork of secondard tracks, but its still an interesting anvunique system full of legacy infrastructure. It has been my lifelong goal to walk through all 7 Reading tunnels and after this trip I am up to 4.

First stop was CP-PHOENIX in Phoenixville. This interlocking composes a brief single track segment through the Black Rock tunnel. The east end of the portal still had its Conrail era small target searchlights, but the west end revently had the Reading signals replaced with a Darth Vader, both at the home signal and the distant. Still, NS appears to be showing no plans to convert the line from 251 to 261 operation. Rule 251 is such a welcome relief in this world which has become overrun with CTC.

Moving on, I stopped by the site of the old Reading Outer Station in downtowne Reading. Unfortunately the station burned down in the 1980's and the last time I was there there was just a big enpty patch in the middle of the wye that served the station. Well boy was I surprised when I found that it had been filled in by some Dept of public works building. don't worry, there's still plenty of room for yards for the future SVM. While there I took photos of CP-OLEY and CP-CENTER.

Next stop was the Reading and Northern yard at Port Clinton. The R&N runs the former Reading main line out to Sunbury PA and also the Cormer Lehigh Valley main line from M&H Jct to a point past Scranton. their offices, shoppes and dispatching centre are located at Port Clinton.

Other fun bits there include a vintage US&S M3 switch machine and this neat hillside logo.

Moving on, my next goal was to walk through the currently abandonned Lofty tunnel. However when we got there, the RoW was flooded and i lacked deep water footwear.

Not to be defeated, we drove to the still active Tamaqua tunnel and after a bit of hiking in tick country we located the north portal. The tunnel offered a nice blast of natural AC as we walked through to the south portal.

The next stop on my trip was the towne of Tamaqua PA with the historic Tamaqua Station and the less historic Reading and Northern station.

Finally, the last stop was BIRD tower in Birdsboro. BIRD is where the Reading Main Line joins with what is called the Turkey Path, an alternate 3rd track to bypass reading city. Is also used to provide access to the Wilmington and Northern line to Wilmington. The RoW here is 4-tracks wide and the interlocking used to be very complex. The tower housed the air compressor for the pneumatic switches and you can still see some of the pipes. However today BIRD interlocking only has a single switch between the Turkey Path and the #2 S/B main line.

You can see ALL the photos at:

http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/06-08-05_READING_COUNTRY/-Thumbnails.html

My SEPTA train enters Bryn Mawr interlocking under a SLOW APPROACH due to an Amtrak Keystone cab-car test train passing in front of us.

The closed yet still standing BRYN MAWR Tower with a Stop and Proceed indication on the bracket mounted position light. 

 My SEPTA train deposits it at Wayne with Silverliner IV #349 in the rear position.

Searchlight dwarf signal at CP-CENTER.
 

OLEY Tower at the neck of Reading Yard.