Inside Delray Tower in Detroit!

On November 20th, 2020 Delray Tower shut its doors and turned off its lights for the final time. After a full day cutover on Monday the 17th, and a week of monitoring the new CSX RN dispatching, the tower finally closed. We take a look at the interior of the tower, which we were lucky enough to visit while the tower was still in operation. I have taken the interior audio out, and please note that the exterior and interior shots were not shot at the same time. With the tower closed, another chapter of railroading history has ended with it.
Please rate, comment, and subscribe!

[@robertkaspert4092]

I was born and raised in Delray went past that tower many times,my friend worked there for a while

[@stripervince1]

I was a career railroader in signal and train service and worked at mission tower in controlled by Santa fe in Los Angeles for a while when i was in signal,about 40 years ago. It controlled Santa fe, southern pacific, amtrak, union Pacific and later on in the 1990s, metrolink. Amazing place. The operators were just amazing, just like air traffic controllers

[@mitchmatthews6713]

Thanks for posting. Here's an idea: Make the tower into a bar, so that train watchers can kick back with a brew as well!

[@squibrail4014]

Thank you for preserving this history digitally for everyone.

[@ScottPalmer-mp1we]

I went on the Cardinal about a week ago and saw quite a few railroad towers. Some looked to be in excellent condition, others looked like they would collapse if I huffed and puffed and tried to blow them down. At least one had fire damage.

[@TucsonBillD]

I occasionally was able to visit Delray when I was a kid…

[@alcopower5710]

Sad that another piece of rr history is shut down. I understand that with newer technology things like this is bound to happen......but I don’t have to feel good about it. Hopefully it will be preserved or relocated

[@rickprusak9326]

I was born and raised in Delray. As a little kid, whenever my parents and I were in the family car driving south on Dearborn Ave, I knew we were almost home when I saw the Delray Train Tower. In my young mind at the time, looking at the Delray Tower going home, gave me a sense of peace & tranquility. I remember telling my parents from the back seat of our car, as we drove over the train tracks passing the tower - " we're back home". And for a time also when we would drive out of the Delray neighborhood, passing the tower heading for Fort Street, I would look at the Delray Train Tower and say: "We'll be back home soon". I was just fascinated of the tower as a kid. From our kitchen window, we could see the DelrayTrain Tower. And what a piece of rail history that train junction was. Through the years of my growing up in the Delray neighborhood, I got to see many steam trains go through the double diamonds of track. It was also a treat to see the Ringling Brothers & Barnum Bailey Circus Train roll through, and pass the tower when the circus came to Detroit, and left the city towards the next city circus destination. There was a stretch of elevated land alongside the east & westbound set of tracks, known in the neighborhood as "the hills". Kids and teens would ride our bikes from Dearborn Ave. to the Rouge River, and watch the train bridge lift up to allow the lake frighters cruise by heading to and from the Ford Motor Company Rouge Plant. Many times the passing trains on that set of tracks had to stop and block traffic on Dearborn Ave. because the train bridge was up, allowing the boat and ship traffic to pass through the Rouge River. When a few passenger trains would go by toward Toledo Ohio, and us kids were on " the hills", being elevated higher than the train cars - we would turn our backs to the passenger trains, pull down our pants and bend over mooning the people looking out the windows from their seats. Sometimes we would just stand there giving them the national sign of discontent- the middle finger. I don't know how many times I would see a train traveling east or westbound while playing and riding my bike on "the hills" and place coins on the track to watch them get flattened by the passing trains.The whole time being on "the hills", we were in plain sight of the Delray Tower nearby. Never knew why the tower operator didn't call the railroad dicks, (Railroad Police) on us. We were I think on railroad property. Anyway, thanks for filming another piece of railroad history going into the dump. One question does remain, can't the tower be removed and re-built at the nearby Henry Ford Museum, or at the outdoor train museum in Green Bay Wisconsin? Everything that is of historical significance in Detroit gets torn down and sent to a landfill. Detroit barely has any historical things or building sites to see, because Detroit wants to be known and seen as a "City of Progress". Yeah Right, look at Detroit's "City of Progress" today. A city FULL of abandoned homes, business's, and former factories. There are not only thousands of city & neighborhood blocks of empty land, but still many area's of Detroit where police officers don't go into, fearing for their personal lives. Quite a few Fire Stations are closed because there is nobody living in the neighborhood's they once served. But boy oh boy - the Detroit Downtown area is ALIVE & WELL. That's where the city billionaires have their company headquarters & penthouse home suites. Thanks again for the train memories. Woo Woo, Keep them coming - rolling down the track.

[@kristinarp526]

I know delray very well

[@b3j8]

I assume you deleted the interior audio to protect the Operator from possible recriminations having let in there.

[@ryanfrogz]

You are one lucky man to have been invited into an interlocking tower!

[@TucsonBillD]

Actually, back in the day you could just walk in. The operators appreciated the company, as long as you didn’t get in the way.

[@stevendorris5713]

Way too cool. Thank you for posting!

[@ChadQuick270W]

It’s a shame you had to remove the audio from inside the interlocking tower but I assume it was to protect the kind person who allowed you inside. No more interlocking towers left in all of Michigan now.

[@jerrysgardentractorsengine2243]

Last I knew, shortcut bridge was still an active interlocker

[@Brianrockrailfan]

Awesome video 🚄🚄👍

[@MacGregor.]

Awesome 👍. Thanks for the upload

[@TrainTrackTrav]

Great video. So sad to see the tower shut down. That begs the question, how many manned towers are left in the country?

[@blackshadow3132]

Not many

[@B-and-O-Operator-Fairmont]

Leaving out "towers" that solely remain for drawbridge operation (no control of switches or signals), there are a very few around Chicago, three or four on Amtrak's Harrisburg line, and maybe one or two left on the old Long Island. And K Tower in Washington, DC. I would be very surprised if there are any others.

[@Luigi-uj5ml]

Good evening, it is not yet entirely clear to me whether those old electric block systems (Absolute block system, if I am not mistaken) with a wooden case were or were not influenced by the passage of trains for the purpose of occupying and freeing the section (block) towards to which and from which the train was respectively headed or from which the train came. Furthermore, it is not clear whether there is an electrical connection between the lever that controls the opening (switching from Danger to Clear) of the starting signal and the apparatus with wooden case. In other words, was it possible to pull the lever that activated the starting signal towards you without first having received electrical consent from the next station? However, it is common ground that where there is a token block it is possible to activate the lever that opens the starting signal even before having handed over the token to the driver, unless there is an error on my part. Thank you very much for your availability and collaboration

[@JonRRoma]

You are describing British practices, which are distinctly different from North American practice as evolved for at least since the 1890s. British AB (absolute block) was virtually unknown in the United States - we rarely have things such as "starting signals." British single-line working practices such as tablet, token, and staff systems were only rarely used, and in any event, most passed from the North American scene by the 1930s. We of course had manual block, a few of which survived into the 1980s or later. Manual block operation was not enforced by block instruments, staff machines, etc., but simply by a protocol of codes passed by telegraph or telephone between adjacent telegraph offices (block stations). Generally speaking, the most heavily used lines in North America were increasingly placed under automatic block signaling (ABS). The higher wages paid to skilled telegraphers in the United States has been cited as one reason automatic block supplanted manual systems. While equipping a line with ABS has a high first cost, it can pay its way quickly because the ongoing operating costs is relatively low - it's a matter of maintaining the track circuits and other equipment. In ABS territory, it is generally but not always the case that two tracks are paired, with each signaled in one direction only. In ABS territory, signals provide train separation but not movement authority (other than at interlockings). A refinement from the 1920s was Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) or Traffic Control System (TCS), both of which are different names for the same thing. The initial installation in Ohio was referred to as the "Signal Dispatching System", which is an apt name since a signal indication other than Stop and Stay conveys movement authority with no timetable schedule or written authority required. In either ABS or CTC territory, interlocking signals serve dual functions; they act as block signals in addition to protecting against conflicting moves. As for Delray itself, I am *not* a local expert. However, a glance at recent operating timetables for CSX (former Pere Marquette) and Norfolk Southern (former Wabash) suggests that there is no block system on the aforementioned railroads at Delray; though the operating rules of these two railroads use different terminology, both require trains to "proceed on sight", under an authority who verbally instructs train movement. Needless to say, in this industrial area, trains move at a slow rate. As for the two sets of levers at Delray, the strong-arm levers at floor level are an Improved Saxby & Farmer frame, and the levers therein controlled switch points, derails, and facing point locks. The upper machine with small hand levers that moved forward and backward was referred to as an S-8 machine, making the plant "electromechanical." The S-8 was a means by which to expand a machine without the need to enlarge the building to accommodate more of the conventional style of levers. Typically the signal levers were changed from mechanical to electrically-operated in the upper machine. Since they were the longest runs of leadout (pipe), the signals were an ideal candidate to be powered. The space freed up on the S&F frame could then be reassigned to other purposes. The S-8 and S&F machines were mechanically interlocked, and the usual electric interlocking features were included. At some point in the distant past, the mechanically operated switches were converted to power operation with lever circuit controllers replacing the mechanical connections to the switches, derails, etc. Hope this helps a little bit.

[@amessman]

Wow, I was looking at that on a map at like 1:00am, on the 20th, I was wondering if it was still in use - guess I got my answer. Cool video!

[@dabosue05]

This is incorrect information the final day the operators were in the tower on November 24th. That was the final run.

[@Erick-ve1jx]

Great video

[@trainroomgary]

Well done 👍

[@mojoalsaidi1001]

Cool stuff

[@Imintune...]

Appears to be closed now. Don't see anyone in it everytime i pass it on the freeway

[@fairwayrailproductions3239]

Nice

[@rickprusak9326]

What ever happened to the "Delray" sign on the tower? Did the tower operator get it as a souvenir? Any ideas where it went?

[@MichiganCentralLines]

Supposedly it went to a “good home” from what I heard

[@rickprusak9326]

Has anyone contacted The Henry Ford Museum, or Bill Ford Jr. to preserve the whole interior of the Delray Tower as a display inside the currently restored Michigan Train Station in Detroit's Corktown?