Ohio Interlocking Towers

A sample of Ohio interlocking towers in the early 1980s.
0:00 - Tiffin (operator Pete White)
3:05 - F (Fostoria, operator Dale DeVene)
5:06 - Upper Sandusky (operator John Lyon)
9:52 - Estry (Van Wert)
11:56 - Sugar St. (Lima, operator Phil Albano)
15:25 - Hiles (New London)
17:20 - Oak Harbor (I know no tower)
20:09 - Swan Creek
31:00 - Maumee

[@RailroadMediaArchive]

To cater to the people who can't or won't read the video description, here are the timestamped locations of each tower. No more questions or criticisms about locations PLEASE. General questions about each location (what crossed where, etc.) are perfectly fine. Thank you for watching. If you haven't already; please like, comment, and subscribe. I'm really not this grumpy! 0:00 - Tiffin (operator Pete White) 3:05 - F (Fostoria, operator Dale DeVene) 5:06 - Upper Sandusky (operator John Lyon) 9:52 - Estry (Van Wert) 11:56 - Sugar St. (Lima, operator Phil Albano) 15:25 - Hiles (New London) 17:20 - Oak Harbor 20:09 - Swan Creek (Toledo) 31:00 - Maumee (Toledo)

[@sardu55]

Good stuff. An often overlooked important link in the old railroad systems. I remember them all over the place where I grew up in the southside of Chicago and into Northern Indiana. We had more than enough railroad ROW to keep any railfan busy.

[@WaffleDragon]

Having the original sound is fantastic.

[@trijet200]

Except for those goddamn yapping dogs!

[@MFXdump]

trijet200 Sounds like they had “Stupid Is, and Stupid Does” for dogs.

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

@@trijet200 I think anytime I ever tried to do audio on a railfan outing, there was always a baying or growling dog somewhere unhappy that I was around.

[@GoodbyeJoe2024]

Great stuff, I really enjoyed this. Got a question. Do you know of any video of the old Piqua, Ohio tower? I would go there as a kid to watch trains. The operators were always friendly and kept me informed when trains were coming. The good old days. I've not had any luck finding video. At on point Conrail was running 40-50 trains per day and If I remember correctly Chessie around 20 per day, so it was a busy crossing.👍👍👏👏

[@RailroadMediaArchive]

No video or films, just some photos of the inside, including on this site: northamericaninterlockings.com/ohio_11.html (use the search function on your browser to find Piqua)

[@mattstough3614]

Awesome shots! Liked the last shot location don't see too much of it, believe the line that connected to the chicago line is from the former PRR outer yard in north wood/Toledo

[@davidvanschaick5565]

Good Stuff RMA

[@choirboyfromhell1]

12:05 and Phil Albano Jr.!

[@tommytruth7595]

The October 1957 issue of "Trains" magazine has an article about the NY Central's Berea tower. That place was non stop 24 hours a day back then.

[@BNoakville]

Incredible to see and especially HEAR the sounds from then. I know sound recordings did exist in the mid-late 1970's but you really can't find 'em on KZbin. Do you, by chance, have any more older recordings of the Pacific North West?

[@RailroadMediaArchive]

I haven't found any.

[@b3j8]

I taped some railroad radio off the air in the 70s. But just took pictures of the action. Super 8 would have been great.

[@JTrepasso]

That F tower operator is 100% Dale Devene Jr

[@RailroadMediaArchive]

Yes, it is. The operator at Tiffin was Pete White. The operator at Upper Sandusky I think is John Lyon, and the operator at Sugar St. is definitely Phil Albano, Jr.

[@b3j8]

Surprised he got into F Tower! We were warned off by the Opr. One of just a couple towers I was refused access into.

[@RailroadMediaArchive]

Todd was friends with Dale (the operator at F tower). Still, though, it was likely on a weekend.

[@b3j8]

@@RailroadMediaArchive Yeah the Opr wasn't nasty, he simply told me the Chessie cops( this was a LONG time ago,) had been recently arresting trespassers. I took him at his word.

[@jeffreymcfadden9403]

I made it inside F tower a long time ago,,,about 1983. Also, an operator there had a painting of the chessie steam special on the side of his van. I vividly remember the art work. it was air-brushed onto the van.

[@matthewm6466]

i was just at fostoria

[@jfreelan1964]

I am guessing this was shot on 8mm or super 8 film. A format I wish I had back then. But then again Beta and VHS were just coming onto the seen.

[@RailroadMediaArchive]

This was Super 8 coverted to DVCPRO tape. Regular 8 did not have sound.

[@choirboyfromhell1]

5:15 John Lyon at SA!!!!!!

[@brianbooher7318]

Is this what they used to call the panhandle

[@RailroadMediaArchive]

No.

[@brianbooher7318]

@@RailroadMediaArchive what was the panhandle and what happened to it. I seen a video on here several years ago that they have took down and it was constant train after train and somebody told me they just removed all the rails and let it go. I don't know if that's true or not but I sure can't find nothing about it

[@RailroadMediaArchive]

@@brianbooher7318 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh%2C_Cincinnati%2C_Chicago_and_St._Louis_Railroad?wprov=sfla1

[@choirboyfromhell1]

2:00 Is that Pete White????

[@RailroadMediaArchive]

It is.

[@austinyingst5902]

It would be nice to know the locations.

[@RailroadMediaArchive]

It would be nice if you read the video description.

[@johnpsymqepdfq8492]

Great video. Nice camera work. The sound IS fantastic. Perhaps filmed by a woman; based on the "thank you" to the operator in the tower.

[@RailroadMediaArchive]

The photographer was male (not that it really matters).