Eastern Railroad Discussion > Toledo's last interlocking tower is retired

Ann Arbor's Hallett Tower is no longer an interlocking station.

CSX crews are testing their work after cutting over the plant there. The switches associated with CSX's main line through the area are now CSX-controlled. The diamonds where the ex-Toledo Terminal "Back Side" crosses the Ann Arbor main are now a separate, automatic interlocking.

The Hallett Tower operators are also the Ann Arbor's dispatchers, so for now the building will remain occupied. But it's expected the dispatching function will be relocated to a Watco office in Wichita, Kan., within a few months.

To my knowledge this leaves NS's Cleveland DRAWBRIDGE as the only remaining tower in Ohio.

Highlighted in Trains Magazine August 2019.

I don't believe that Drawbridge is Cleveland could be considered a traditional "interlocking tower".  I suspect although I am not absolutely sure, that if Drawbridge is manned, they only control the movement of the bridge itself and do not control any signals or switches.  Once the bridge is locked, I believe that the dispatcher controls the signals and switches...
By doing this, the employee is no longer covered by the hours of service...

dispr Wrote:
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> I don't believe that Drawbridge is Cleveland could
> be considered a traditional "interlocking
> tower".  I suspect although I am not
> absolutely sure, that if Drawbridge is manned,
> they only control the movement of the bridge
> itself and do not control any signals or
> switches.  Once the bridge is locked, I believe
> that the dispatcher controls the signals and
> switches...
> By doing this, the employee is no longer covered
> by the hours of service...

My understanding is that DRAWBRIDGE still controls switches and signals there. If that is not true, I agree with you.

LiveWire2 Wrote:
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> Highlighted in Trains Magazine August 2019.

Did you mean 2018 or is Trains magazine now running 4 months in advance?

Knew it was coming but still sorry to hear. Visited Hallett many times through the years starting from the mid-80s. Towers are a funny thing on the railroad: Each are/were unique and resisted standardization like a lot of other things in railroading, which led to unique situations that helped some like Hallett to remain open longer than anyone would expect. Weird to think that some big, very busy and complex interlockings have been remote for decades and small, less-busy sites like this stayed open. Back in the day, Hallett and nearby Alexis were a lot busier with so much more variety compared to today, and it was easy to bounce back and forth for some easy midwestern train watching with 60 or more trains a day between them. Then again, ETTS overtakes everything eventually...

JG



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/19 11:21 by jgilmore.

CSX602 Wrote:
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> LiveWire2 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Highlighted in Trains Magazine August 2019.
>
> Did you mean 2018 or is Trains magazine now
> running 4 months in advance?

2018. Hard as it is in January to start to put the current year on checks, it's even harder go to backwards when you finally figure out what the current year is!

Is this also the last interlocking tower in Ohio?

DevalDragon Wrote:
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> Is this also the last interlocking tower in Ohio?

See other discussion in this thread.

toledopatch Wrote:
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> My understanding is that DRAWBRIDGE still controls switches and signals there. If that is not true, I agree with you.

Is this the right bridge? (Cleveland)

---

DB, or Bridge One, as it is also known, has not controlled signals for a year or two. The dispatcher took that as part of the PTC process. So, structurally, it IS a tower, but it does not function as a classic interlocking tower. As some may know, Bridge Two, the former NKP Cleveland Drawbridge has not controlled signals for a long time, if ever. RU Drawbridge in Lorain controls signals and derails. These last two are bridge cabins though, not actual towers built on land. So Hallett may have been the last working tower in Ohio. 

toledopatch Wrote:
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> DevalDragon Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Is this also the last interlocking tower in
> Ohio?
>
> See other discussion in this thread.

Now that we have all the information I see the answer to my question is "Yes."

Thank you for your insight.

Europe there towers almost everywhere (or signalsboxes or whatever they are called in their respecitve country). Unreal that a state like Ohio lost their final one.

Does Gest Street still have control of the signals at the north end of the bridge across the Ohio River in Cincinnati?

Ohio

justalurker66 Wrote:
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>
> Is this the right bridge? (Cleveland)

The involvement of the Cleveland Dispatcher indicates to me that this is the ex-NKP bridge, not the ex-NYC bridge. But I don't know how dispatching territories over there may have changed in conjunction with all the dispatchers being moved to Atlanta.

To answer lurker's question, that is Bridge Two, the NKP drawbridge. It has been known as "Cleveland Drawbridge" for a long time in its own little parallel world. Note the B- prefix, for miles from Buffalo. NS uses a CD -prefix for the NYC/CR/Chicago Line. It was once known as Drawbridge Tower, or DB. I think the Bridge One and Bridge Two names are probably nautical terms. Confusing enough? lol

Thanks. It looks like the information I have is too old to help in this discussion. It refers to the CP 181 (Amtrak Connection) being controlled by the drawbridge operator, I assume they would also have controlled CP Drawbridge. I assume both have been turned over to CTC (now with PTC) for signal control. Especially on the Chicago Line.