From: bejm@ccfadm.eeg.ccf.org (Mark Bej)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Report: CR clearance project
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 03:27:03 GMT
Thought you all would like an update on CR's clearance project in central PA.
Work is still being done on Allegheny Tunnel (the middle one of the 3),
with what used to be #3 track fenced off from the workers. Allegheny
Tunnel appears to have new concrete facing but I did not dare go down
onto the ROW to check it out closer. One can get quite nice photos from
the road bridge in Gallitzin.
MG interlocking is now controlled from Harrisburg. This was a brick tower,
of quite unique design, and *very* hard to get to without a topographic
map. (A Jeep was also preferable.) MG was on up the grade (i.e., west) of
Horse Shoe Curve. It saw little use in the last 15 years, being opened only
in the summers when track work was being done. I suspect it will be coming
down shortly, unless the museum desides to preserve it. Given its remote
location, moving it in one piece would be nearly impossible.
It appears that signal bridge removal involved only those specific bridges
that would not clear double-stacks. Signal bridges remain up east of
Huntingdon (on the stretch adjacent to US-22), just west of the two
lower tunnels (with a covered-over signal), at the eastern limits of MO
(Cresson) interlocking, and in several locations between there and Johns-
town. CR has replaced all removed signals with G-style (3-light) color
light signals.
I was amazed, however, at the pell-mell replacement of these signals. At
Cresson, specifically, the signals for 2 main tracks (e/b) were replaced,
but just to their left there are position-light dwarf signals; and there
are position-light high signals at the other end of the interlocking. This
sort of practice was not previously allowed, and I don't know if CR has
obtained a special waver or what. Specifically, I have it from a CR Rules
Examiner that CR was allowed to replace position-light signals with color-
light signals only when the location was contiguous with one in which the
latter type was used. (This was why CR was able to put in color light
signals at Harris, in Harrisburg, because this was contiguous with the
ex-RDG's CP-Capitol; and why they could replace signals on the entire
Trenton Cutoff, because it was a complete replacement.) They were not
allowed to just plop a different signal type in the middle of territory that
did not have that signal type. And yet, this is exactly what they've done,
even to the point of mixing signal types at the same interlocking. I can
only conclude that either (1) the rule is no longer in force or (2) CR
has gotten some special "position-light-signal-phaseout" waiver.
Given that the entire stretch of track in question is cab-signal equipped,
I'm surprised CR did not go to cab-signals-without-fixed-signals operation
as they did on the B&A when that line was single-tracked. Apparently the
monies approved for the project are meant only for clearance purposes and
for nothing else.
I must say I did not recognize Cresson. The bridge that acted as a flyover
is gone, the victim of low clearance. Coal trains from off the branch must
now foul the westbound tracks to continue on up to the tunnels [Subliminal
editorial: not a problem, of course, as we're talking here about CR, not
the PRR]. A lot of power was sitting in the yard. There was a new fueling
station there. And a sign proclaiming "future site of ... [some society]
train watching platform".
Still seems to me (am I the only one?) that, as soon as CR figures out a way
of picking up a train in Chicago/St. Louis, and dropping it off in Boston/
New York/Phila/Balto without doing anything with it in-between, and running
the entire show with a grand total of 1000 employees, they'll do it.
From: bejm@ccfadm.eeg.ccf.org (Mark Bej)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: Report: CR clearance project
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 1994 23:39:00 GMT
> > > Yours truly
> > > MG interlocking is now controlled from Harrisburg.
> > @#&*%$ !! Sorry, deleted your name, and no easy way to recover:
> > Quick question: why did they remote MG to Harrisburg instead of one of
> > the Horseshoe area towers (perhaps to Alto)?
I don't know specifically. [Warning: conjecture follows.] But...
I can think of two possible reasons: (1) running wire all the way down to
Alto, or all the way up to AR, would be prohibitive when it's just as easy
to put up a microwave tower and talk to the dispatching center in Hbg;
(2) they're gonna take out the towers anyway, so why bother with the temporary
solution when you can go to the permanent one [although it must be said in
all fairness that they've done exactly what you suggest before - temporarily
remoted interlockings to adjacent towers before cutting over to the dspr.]
If you've not been there, allow me to describe the location a bit. The
mountain goes (approx.) north and south. Going RR-west, you proceed south
along the mountain face. At one hollow the main turns west, makes a U-ey
at HS Curve, then east. There's a road in this hollow (40th St.). Then
the RR turns back south, passes MG, then turns west into another hollow,
following this one up to the tunnels. There's a road (a couple, actually)
in this hollow, too: a road, and new (expwy) US-22. In between, a distance
of maybe 3 miles, there is nothing but a rather poorly maintained jeep path.
Taking my Beretta (the car, not pistol) up it a few years back was quite a
challenge, with several trips out of the car to displace branches, rocks, etc.
Not by any means a trip you want to take daily, if one cherishes one's
suspension and front-end alignment.
(See also, Altoona Area Directions
> Dave Chary (fbcb@iunsys.iun.indiana.edu)
> Probably too complicated and too expensive.
More succinctly put, methinks. I doth talk too much.
> Watch for something to
> happen around C and AO in the near future, though.
Do you mean SO (South Fork twr)? AO is an interlocking controlled from
C, if memory serves. [I was told by a reliable source that AO is the
American Morse abbreviation for a certain odiferous caudal part of the
human anatomy, and that it would not be beyond belief to have a location
named after this orifice.]
What did you have in mind, Dave? I assume you mean tower
closures, which everyone has been expecting since CR centralized the
section from SG (west side of Johnstown), exclusive, to PITT (central
Pittsburgh, the bay-windowed building south of the nicely restored
passenger station, and still standing), inclusive, in 1982-3, and the
section from BANKS (west bank of Susquehanna, north (RR-west) of Rockville
Br.), inclusive, to GRAY (just SW (RR-W) of Tyrone), inclusive, in 1986 or 7
(don't quote me on the latter).
> Conrail has applied
> to the FRA for a modification of the block signal system.
If you have details, could you please post? I assume that they mean
conversion to color light signals. But... have they applied for the
entire line? Are they planning to retain cab signals and/or is their
application for cab-signals-without-fixed-signals operation?