Western Railroad Discussion > Signal Sunday: Endangered ATSF Cantilever

One of the two remaining, soon to be replaced ATSF cantilevers left on the BNSF Topeka Sub.  This one is in Topeka, while the other is in Eudora, KS.  CTC is coming soon, so these will be lost to that project, unfortunately. I'm not sure when it will happen though.  It would be great one of the two could end up at a museum such as the nearby Midland Railway.  

Thanks for looking,
- Jeff Carlson

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Nice shot. It will be more plain vanilla when they are gone.

Damn! Theres a pic that couldve been taken 50 years ago!

You should recommend to the railroad museums closest to the signals locations to contact
BNSF regarding their donation!

The Pacific Southwest Railroad Museum, out of Campo, CA. asked for and recieved the one
and only Santa Fe cantilever in San Diego County!

In PSRM's case, the line was owned by North County Transit District, home of the Coaster.
We were put in contact with the contractor doing the signal changeover and they even let me
use their boomtruck to load the cantilever on to the truck transporting it for us!

It was cut in 2 pieces for easier transport, the bridge section separated from the vertical post!

It doesn't hurt to ask, all they can do is say NO! We got other target and dwarf signals just for the asking,
they were all going to be scrapped anyway!

Mike

When is CTC slated to be installed? Are there any other planned CTC installation projects on the system?

"CTC is coming soon..." Why? there isn't really all that much traffic on the Topeka sub. There aren't really any sidings where you can have meets. CTC wouldn't make sense unless the lengthened some sidings. 

Beautiful pic, I still wish I got the Tehachipi one before it got taken out!

Haha, thanks!  Not much has changed from this particular view, that's for sure.

- Jeff

wigwag Wrote:
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> Damn! Theres a pic that couldve been taken 50
> years ago!

Not sure what the timeline is, but I've heard of it from a handful of reputable sources.  

- Jeff 

Orient Wrote:
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> When is CTC slated to be installed? Are there any
> other planned CTC installation projects on the
> system?

I think that the goal is to get it so you can run more trains than they currently can.  On its busy days, the line serves as a relief valve for the Emporia Sub, so when one of the tracks on the Emporia Sub is taken out of service, trains can be rerouted via the Topeka Sub instead.  This results in quite a large amount of traffic for the line, if only in spurts.  However, the current setup requires plenty of warrants to be copied, cleared up, etc., which can prove to be a cumbersome task, so I'm sure that the goal is to alleviate this.  

- Jeff Carlson

WichitaJct Wrote:
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> "CTC is coming soon..." Why? there isn't really
> all that much traffic on the Topeka sub. There
> aren't really any sidings where you can have
> meets. CTC wouldn't make sense unless the
> lengthened some sidings. 

Sounds like a plan!  I'll let certain people know about this.

Thanks a lot,
- Jeff Carlson

2720 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You should recommend to the railroad museums
> closest to the signals locations to contact
> BNSF regarding their donation!
>
> The Pacific Southwest Railroad Museum, out of
> Campo, CA. asked for and recieved the one
> and only Santa Fe cantilever in San Diego County!
>
> In PSRM's case, the line was owned by North County
> Transit District, home of the Coaster.
> We were put in contact with the contractor doing
> the signal changeover and they even let me
> use their boomtruck to load the cantilever on to
> the truck transporting it for us!
>
> It was cut in 2 pieces for easier transport, the
> bridge section separated from the vertical post!
>
> It doesn't hurt to ask, all they can do is say NO!
> We got other target and dwarf signals just for the
> asking,
> they were all going to be scrapped anyway!
>
> Mike

Could PTC plus passenger trains have any bearing in installing CTC (in addition to the reasons stated above)?  Just asking............