Canadian Railroads > Oban Interlocking, Saskatchewan

The interlocking tower at Oban, Saskatchewan allowed a CN branch from Oban to North Battleford SK. to cross CP's "Prairie North" secondary main line to Edmonton.

​The tower was just north of Oban siding on the present CN main line . Today the building is preserved at the Saskatoon Railway Museum.

​The tower dates from 1912, and was built by the Grand Trunk Pacific.  The GTP completed their main line through here in 1908, and in the same year, the competing Canadian Pacific completed a parallel route just a hundred yards to the north.   The "land rush" was on for homesteaders and the railway companies were competing to establish rail lines to the new communities. Already the Canadian Northern was building a network of lines in northern Saskatchewan, an the GTP and CP were anxious to cash in on the rush also.

Alas, WW1 changed all that, as the flood of immigration was halted by the European War, and the GTP and CNor were in dire financial straits by the time of Armistice.

The GTP had bold and well publicized plans to develop the west, but very few lines were built. The Oban to North Battleford line was one.

The branch survived until 1976 in entirety, and south of Sonningdale SK until 1989.

​Service on the line was infrequent, so the interlocking plant was operated by train crew members in later years. The original semaphores and rod connectors remained on the CN side of the interlocking, while the CP used searchlight signals.

​The view through the window shows the manual interlocking levers and the timing devices which held the portions of the interlocking in the "Stop" position for five minutes after the opposing route had been lined. The CN branch had switch point derails to ensure the diamond with the CPR was protected.

​Usually the last railway to arrive was the one to build and maintain the interlocking, so this was a GTP tower from 1912 over the CP built in 1908.

 

This image looking north shows the rod connected switch point derail on the GTP branch, and also the two position semaphore, with a fixed lower arm with a bracket for a red lamp.

Visible in the far distance is another fixed arm semaphore in the "approach" (clear to stop) yellow indication.

​The trackside sign is a "flanger" sign, telling snow plow operators to lift the nose of the plow from between the rails. On CN this was two white dots on a black background

What a great set of photos and very interesting background info.  Thanks for this excellent post!

I think Atlantic Coast Line fans would like the building's color.

Uncle Joe,Seffner,Fl.

Thanks for sharing. I've got a special interest in interlockings. Do you recall how many levers were in the tower--about a dozen?

​Victor A. Baird
​http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

retcsxcfm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think Atlantic Coast Line fans would like the
> building's color.
>
> Uncle Joe,Seffner,Fl.

​Hard to tell if the purple is how the red paint faded, or my Kodakcromes from 1976.  A bit of both, I think
See colour corrected version



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/16 16:33 by eminence_grise.

Growing up in North Battleford, I visited the Oban interlocking tower a number of times.in the late 70's.  Looks exactly like I remember it.  Thanks for the memories.

Cheers,
Dwayne

A Manual Interlocking, perhaps the last one in Canada lasted in Abbotsford BC until four years ago.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?15,2848672,2848901#msg-2848901

When I went to CROR rules class in May 1997 threre was supposed to be a few still around but the one in Abbotsford was the only one I ever got to see in person.

I like these pictures EG. That looks like 70 lb rail at most on the Canadian National.

Jim