Living with Steam Sample Clip: Episode 5, "Interlocking Tower"

The following clip was taken from Episode 5 of the Living with Steam podcast where the purpose and operation of interlocking tower is discussed.
PLEASE NOTE that this is intended to be an audio clip as a sample from the Living with Steam podcast. I've inserted the various images of interlocking towers to help move the clip along, but not necessarily to sync with the audio.
Listen to Living with Steam on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you download your favorite shows.

[@patrickomahoney3630]

This is excellent railroad and technology history, with the human element also. I remember interlockings still operating in LaCrosse, Wisconsin in the 1970's. Also, telegraph was still being used for quick messages to local stations! It was quicker and easier than radio or telephone for short messages, kind of like texting today.

[@LivingwithSteam]

Recreating the interior of the interlocking tower was a challenge at best. I had never been in one that was actually in service, so I had to take my best guess based on what I heard in John's recordings and in pictures. I'm going to do another such recreation soon.

[@gonebamboo4116]

@@LivingwithSteam Looking forward to that. I've seen other vids of simply deteriorated equipment but nothing more on the operation.

[@jameshenry8015]

I managed to get into Tower H once before it was razed in the late '90s. There wan't much left in there and it was a dark dangerous mess of scrap metal by then. I had wanted to inquire about buying it from Conrail, but one day it was just gone. When i was a teenager in the '70s I had the pleasure of visiting FW Tower and operator Scotty Whitehead a number times. It was a true "Armstrong" plant with the floor mounted levers connected to switches and signals by pipes and bell cranks. Scotty taught me how to run the plant and would test me on it when switches and signals needed to be lined for an approaching train. I will always treasure the memories of my afternoons spent there.

[@LivingwithSteam]

I'm truly jealous. Every interlocking tower in Western New York was boarded up or in the process of being demolished by the time I started appreciated railroad architecture in addition to trains. I missed out on a huge piece of history.

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

There were still a number of towers along the ex-B&O mainline into the 1990s. I was lucky enough to get to visit several of them. A few were "armstrong" plants, even at that late date. Still others used variations on General Railway Signal's pushbutton "NX" machines with electric or air switch machines. A couple of them had GRS "Pistol Grip" U2 plants. The dispatcher would arrange the traffic and the operators carried out the instructions. D Tower in Grafton, WV still handed on train orders for the "Fairmont Side" until June 1989! The towers at Rowlesburg, West Keyser, and Brunswick actually worked into the 21st Century, but all are closed now, and most have been demolished. I miss those places. Generally speaking, the operators were glad for some company unless "officials" were out and about. I enjoyed the whole "tower scene" so much I adopted it for my screen name!

[@gonebamboo4116]

Very cool channel, subbed. Been catching your Podcasts on ListenNotes

[@fredericnystrom9045]

Traffic was routed through an interlocking in accordance with the timetable most of the time. The operator would be expecting a specific train at the time specified in the timetable, but where I worked (the New Haven mainline) towers to either side of you would announce the passing of the train from them to you by a bell code. Intervention by the dispatcher wasn't necessary unless he wanted to change something; most of the time he simply listened and acknowledged reports, recording the progress of all trains in his district or division. In addition, you could follow the progress of trains by listening to other operators reporting the passage of trains on the speaker line, a kind of party line. This was a phone line dedicated to the dispatching district, on which all operators and the dispatcher could overhear each other continuously. Each tower had a speaker on the desk for this purpose. The speaker was on continuously, but not your mic. You would press a foot pedal under the desk to open your microphone in to the line and everyone from New Haven to Boston could hear you report the passage of trains to the dispatcher or whatever else you had to report. In earlier times the telegraph was used in exactly the same way, with open communication using Morse code between all points in the district. The dispatcher would dictate train orders to whomever he wished using this channel, for delivery to a train(s) by the operator at the location addressed in the order.

[@wabisabi6875]

Sad to see all those old towers forlorn. Such interesting designs.

[@LivingwithSteam]

It's really sad when a tower disappears and you don't know about it. One week you're taking pictures and shooting video in front of the thing... and when you go back a week or two later, the tower is demolished and a bulldozer is pushing the debris into a ditch.

[@berthasitumorang9982]

Fascinating

[@g2macs]

Took me a minute to realize he's talking about (US) signal boxes.

[@jeffshorts6052]

Wow a lot of responsibility with that job. Very interesting.

[@LivingwithSteam]

I would have loved to spent just 8 hours in one. I can guarantee I’d lose my mind…. Especially if were raining or snowing out.

[@jeffshorts6052]

@@LivingwithSteam and I’m sure there was no way to talk to the engineer. Which he had to rely on the signals. Indeed it was a very serious job they all had. Yes I would have loved to be in the tower just watching and observing.

[@gonebamboo4116]

Hey, have you thought about doing something with clocks, Seth Thomas, time zones & such?

[@LivingwithSteam]

I'm afraid not. I actually collected them for a while, but when the main spring on a Seth Thomas mantle clock let go while I was restoring it and the sudden and very violent rotating of the key darn near took my fingers off, I decided to leave the clock restorations to the professionals who have the correct tools.