Eastern Railroad Discussion > Where are NEC dispatchers/towers?

I visted the Amtrak CTEC dispatchers center in Philly (PA) a couple of years ago. I remeber at the time their CTC did not reach all the way to New York as some towers were still open south of New York.

How has that situation changed? How many towers are still open on the NEC?

Also *** is Philly going to control all the way to Boston or is there more than one CTEC office?

Amtrak has a CETC center in Boston that controls the NEC north of New Haven, Conn.

The center that controls the south end of the NEC is in Wilmington Del, a few blocks from the station

I think that the section from Morris (south of Trenton) south is controlled from Philly. From there to Shell, is controlled from NY. The active towers I know of are, Union (Rahway), Dock (Newark), and Hudson (Harrison).

In Philadelphia, I believe North Philly and Zoo are still manned, but some of the functions at Zoo have been transferred to CTEC.

Okay, Northeast Corridor dispatching works like this:

1) The Boston CETC (centralized electrification & train control) center runs the railroad from there to New Haven;

2) New Haven to "Shell" interlocking is dispatched by Metro-North

3 "Shell" through Penn Station to just south of Trenton is controlled by the New York CETC

4) Philadelphia CETC controls from "Morris" interlocking in Morrisville, PA (across the river from Trenton) to Washington Union Station

5) Union Station proper is dispatched from "A" tower

6) The Amtrak National Operations Center (NOC) in Wilmington does not actually control any track; it's a management center. This is where decisions are made on equipment distribution, reroutes and annulments in case of weather or derailments, etc.

7) I know there are some manned towers still left on the NEC, but I am puzzled as to why. I know the plan was to run "Zoo" from the Philly CETC center.

Is there a mandatory prodding that these gentlemen go through before work? They NEVER seem in a good mood, and are downright mean to freight trains.

I have heard things after ten minutes of calling them such as, "Keep calling me, and you'll sit there all night." Also, when freight boys ask when they are going to get on, CETC (C-Teck to those unfamiliar) comes back with things like, "You'll see the signal." Meanwhile, the signal comes up two and a half hours later.

And this is if they are nice enough to answer. It often takes a phone call from someone, and even then they don't talk to the lowly freight crews. The switch just magically opens and closes when they are clear.

They are surely an interesting bunch....


Scott H

There are three CETC (Centralized Electrification and Traffic Control) offices on the Northeast Corridor. Below is a listing of how CETC was set up in the fall of 1996 (at that time I bailed out of Amtrak and headed west....)

The Philadelphia center is located on the 8th floor of 30th street station (directly over the west taxi/passenger pickup/drop off zone).
It controls the NEC from "Avenue" to "Grundy". The sections are broken down as follows -

CETC 1 - "Avenue" to "Fulton"
CETC 2 - "Charles" to "Gunpow"
CETC 3 - "Magnolia" to "Ragan"
CETC 4 - "Yard" to "Phil"
CETC 5 - "South Penn" to "North Penn" (30th street station)
CETC 6 - "Zoo" to "Grundy"
I was at one time qualified on sections 1-2-4 and 6


The New York center is located about two blocks west of Penn Station. It controls the NEC from "Morris" (west of Trenton) to "Pelham Bay". The sections were as follows -

CETC 7 - "Morris" to "Midway"
CETC 8 - "County" to "Islin"

From "Union" (Rahway) to "Hudson" the railroad was under the control of the following towers -

"Union" controlled "Union" and "Elmora"
"Dock" at Newark controlled "Lane", "Hunter" and "Dock"
"Hudson" controlled "Hudson" and "Swift" (NJT connection)
These three towers were under the control of the section "B" dispatcher. Plans were for this territory to become CETC 9 and CETC 10.

From "Portal" (drawbridge) to "Pelham" the railroad was under the control of the PSCC (Penn Station Contol Center). This was a joint operation with the LIRR. As far as I know all towers in this area have been closed, but I think drawbridge operators remain at "Portal" and "Pelham"


The Boston center is located on the 5th floor of South Station. This center controlled the railroad from "Shore Line Jct" (just east of New Haven) to South Station in Boston. According to my somewhat out of date 1996 Amtrak employee timetable the railroad was broken up as follows -

CETC Shoreline TD - "Shore Line Jct" to "High Street"
CETC Main Line TD - "Kingston" to "Mansfield"
CETC Midland TD - "Juction" to "Read"
CETC Corridor TD - "Forrest" to "Back Bay"
CETC Terminal TD - "cove" to "Tower 1"
CETC Springfield line TD - "Cedar" to "Spring"


The NEC between "CP 216" (Shell) and "Fair Street" is controlled by the MetroNorth dispatcher(s) in New York City (near Grand Central).

Washington Terminal (Washington Union Station) is controlled by the train director at "K Tower" which is located at the end of the track 15 platform. This tower controls everything from just south of "Avenue" (CETC 1 dispatcher) to the south end of the 1st street tunnel where Amtrak joins the CSXT/NS line at "CP Virginia" (NS Harrisbugh dispatcher).

A web site with some more information on CETC can be found at -

http://www.panix.com/~danielc/region/neccetc.htm

Be advised the E-mail addresses for the two "Eric's" at the bottom of this page are no longer valid. Neither of them work as dispatchers on the NEC anymore....


As far as towers are concerned, I beleive the following towers are still in service -

K tower in Washington DC

Zoo Tower in Philadelphia
Mostly still in service for SEPTA lines. The NEC portion is now
run by CETC 6.

North Philadelphia tower in North Philadelphia (where else)
This tower will soon fall to CETC 6

Overbrook Tower in Philadelphia (Harrisburg line)
Paoli tower (Harrisburg line)
Thorn tower (Harrisburg line)
Cork tower (Lancaster on the Harrisburg line)
State tower (actually a room in Harrisburg station)
Plans were to CETC the Harrisburg line with money from PA. I
beleive this plan/funding fell through.

Union tower (Rahway NJ. Might have fallen to CETC 9)
Dock tower (Newark NJ. Might have fallen to CETC 10)
Hudson tower (Meadowlands. Might have fallen to CETC 10)
South Bay tower (Boston. controls South Bay yard)




RRspatch (who in the past was known as CETC 1 but is now known as DS45/DS47)