Nostalgia & History > What does an US&S S-8 Interlocking Machine look like?

...from the tower operator's point of view as to controls, tower board, etc? I assume this was electro-mechanical.

Victor Baird



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/23 17:43 by wabash2800.

wabash2800 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ...from the tower operator's point of view as to
> controls, tower board, etc? I assume this was
> electro-mechanical.
>

http://www.rrsignalpix.com/tower_delray/delray2.jpg

With the mechanical frame removed:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonroma/5601535885/in/photostream/
and
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonroma/5601535491/in/photostream/

TAW



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/23 18:46 by TAW.

Thanks Tom. I tried to email you the question but your mailbox is full. This is what I thought an S-8 was. Could this be called "Pistol Grip" or was that something different?

Per the first photo, did the S-8 always supplement older mechanical machines? Or was it possible that an entire tower was an S-8? If an S-8 supplemented an older mechanical, Armstrong what was the protocol? Extra track infrastructure? S-8 for signals, derails or switches only?
In other words, if an S-8 supplemented an older mechanical in a tower, why? for what?

Victor Baird



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/23 19:24 by wabash2800.

wabash2800 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks Tom. I tried to email you the question but
> your mailbox is full.

That sneaks up on me. Need to copy the stuff I want and clean out again.


> This is what I thought an
> S-8 was. Could this be called "Pistol Grip" or was
> that something different?
>


Pistol grip was GRS. Westinghouse made a similar, right side up minature levers only machine commonly called miniature lever machine. I never saw one of them in the US. The only term I heard for this was electro-mechanical.

> Per the first photo, did the S-8 always supplement
> older mechanical machines?

Made that way.


> Or was it possible that
> an entire tower was an S-8? If an S-8 supplemented
> an older mechanical, Armstrong what was the
> protocol?

Interlocking expert Jon Roma observed observed in the second two that it was an electro-mechanical with the mechanical levers removed, but the attached diagram of Clarke Jct  calls out the S-8 and the S&F as separate machines..


>  Extra track infrastructure? S-8 for
> signals, derails or switches only?
> In other words, if an S-8 supplemented an older
> mechanical in a tower, why? for what?


A plant that was partially electric, either electric signals and mechanical everything else and/or part of the plant distant from the tower.



TAW

---

Thanks for the one at Clarke, Jct.

Here's one for the PRR Dunkirk, Ohio tower that had both too (and a table interlocker for a remote location). I was at first wondering if the PRR used the S-8 and the NYC  the conventional levers. But the NYC didn't have that many switches, derails, etc.

A similar WWII brick replacement tower was built at Vandalia, Illinois. I would be curious what that plant looked like but haven't been able to find a diagram yet.

Victor Baird



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/23 06:37 by wabash2800.

---

wabash2800 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for the one at Clarke, Jct.
>
> Here's one for the PRR Dunkirk, Ohio tower that
> had both too (and a table interlocker for a remote
> location). I was at first wondering if the PRR
> used the S-8 and the NYC  the conventional
> levers. But the NYC didn't have that many
> switches, derails, etc.
>
> A similar WWII brick replacement tower was built
> at Vandalia, Illinois. I would be curious what
> that plant looked like but haven't been able to
> find a diagram yet.


I never studied the S-8 as extensively as other signaling. The only one I ever encountered personally was at Clarke Jct. Unfortunately, I was in the tower only once for a very short time. There was a lot of railroad to learn in detail while working full time at 75th and training in the office at GC. I have a comprehensive set of books on signaling, but it is in a storage unit 'exactly somewhere.' However, I found this explanation https://www.jonroma.net/media/signaling/railway-signaling/1915/Trenton%20Electro-Mechanical%20Interlocking.pdf

It appears that the electric side of the machine served only to replace the Facing Point Lock function. The switches were still pipe connected. That doesn't explain the pictures of the S-8 machine with no mechanical levers. Stranger yet is that they S-8 cabinet appears to be mounted on a Model 14 cabinbet. Maybe it was a locally constructed hybrid to make use of stuff they had on hand.

Dim memory tells me that the Clarke remote interlocking at CJ was a desktop machine.

TAW

I spent a lot of time at CJ in the 1985/86 era and do not recall a table machine there.  Clarke, or as Conrail called it "Dunes" was controlled by the S-8 machine. 
This interlocking to the best of my knowledge was always power switches, however the tower at CJ most were pipeline switches.  As time went on, some were 
converted to power switches as well.  By the time i was a visitor there, the only pipeline switch left was the one remaining switch from the B&OCT to the former
Wabash eastbound main.  It also appears at one time CJ had derails protecting the diamond, that were later removed.  

There were 2 traffic levers, that controlled the bidirectional 261 territory west of the tower, those were in the locking bed.  However the "master lever" was on the S8 machine
for choosing between B&OCT / PRR traffic at the diamond. Somewhere i have a photo of the master lever, but i cant find it right now.

Thanks for the information TheIndianaConnection. The table top is in the diagram for Dunkirk (Ohio).

Victor Baird



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/23 20:04 by wabash2800.

How did the PRR number its main tracks? For double track here, which was No. 1 and which was No.2? Could an auxiliary track be numbered No. 0?

Victor Baird



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/23 20:25 by wabash2800.

https://www.redoveryellow.com/position-light/PRR_Diagrams/union.gif

The PRR numbered it's tracks as eastward 1, westward 2.  Opposite of almost everyone.  Tracks below 1 were common to be track "0" and they even sometimes used letters.  I think in the northeast corridor there are several
examples of "A" track and "B" track.  

Example of Union in Rahway, NJ you will see some odd track names.  From redoveryellow.com