It is July 1972 in Alliance where Penn Central GP35 No. 2381 is eastbound on the ex-Pennsylvania Fort Wayne Line. The train is about to pass the passenger station just behind me. The old bridge with its signals adds to the scene. The train is crossing over the original Cleveland & Pittsburgh route to Bayard and beyond.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
Amtrak is seeking regulatory approval to remove automatic wayside block signals on its line between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
In a notice published in the Federal Register, the Federal Railroad Administration said the passenger carrier cited the existence of a positive train control system on the route as providing enough protection for train operations.
The signals to be removed serve as distant signals to existing interlockings in the Keystone Corridor.
The FRA notice said the territory covered by the waiver being sought extends from Park Interlocking at milepost 46.3 and Roy Interlocking at MP 94.3.
“In its petition, Amtrak explains that formerly, the automatic wayside signals served as distant signals to the existing interlockings. However, as Amtrak has fully implemented PTC, which imposes ‘updated standards for cab, no-wayside signal territory to remove all automatic signals[,] including distant signals,’ Amtrak seeks permission to remove 10 signals (at MPs 55.3, 59.2, 64.5, 66.1, 70.8, 71.8, 81.5, 86.0, 92.3, and 96.4). Amtrak states that the removal of the signals will ‘eliminate maintenance and operation of unnecessary hardware [that is] no longer needed.’” The FRA notice said.\
Amtrak owns the line although some Norfolk Southern freight trains also use it.
The notice said NORAC Rules will remain in effect and there “will be no changes to operating practices because of this modification.”
Amtrak told regulators the cab signal system without fixed automatic block signals and positive train control systems will continue to enforce train speed and positive train stops under normal operations.
If the cab signal system fails, PTC will continue to prevent train-to-train collisions through enforcement of positive train stop at interlocking signals when all tracks are not clear to the next interlocking with a permissive signal, Amtrak said.
In the event of a PTC failure, the cab control system will continue to enforce restricted speed in approach to occupied blocks and stop signals. If both system fails, trains must follow the operating rules currently in place.
Amtrak said it would start removing the signals upon receiving FRA approval, a project expected to take up to two years.
The FRA said in its notice that it does not anticipate scheduling a public hearing “since the facts do not appear to warrant a hearing.”
It is early on a Sunday morning in late March in Waterloo, Indiana, on the Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern. An eastbound manifest freight has a clear signal on Track 2 at CP 367, which controls a set of crossover switches, one of which can be seen in this image.
I didn’t get the symbol for this freight but chances are it originated in the classification yard in Elkhart, Indiana, 55 miles to the west.
I made this image while standing on the Amtrak boarding platform. The Chicago Line was busy with eastbounds on this morning, In less than an hour’s time I caught four of them, including a coal train, two intermodal trains and the manifest freight shown above.
Not a bad way to begin a day of railfanning.
I am standing on the rickety wood bridge carrying River Corners Road over the CSX New Castle Subdivision west of Lodi.
A westbound CSX coke train rumbles along past the venerable Baltimore & Ohio color position light signals at a location the crews call Pawnee when calling the signal indication over the radio.
You will notice the mast for the signal on Track 2 has a letter plate “G” which denotes grade. If an eastbound gets a red signal here the crew may continue at restricted speed prepared to stop until the next signal. That is because the train is on a grade.
A number of things have changed at this location since this image was made on May 23, 2008.
The CPLs have been replaced by newer signals that can be seen standing shortly to the east. Interestingly, those “newer” signals have themselves since been replaced.
In 2008 the bridge on which I am standing was still a one-lane wood structure. It has been placed by a modern concrete two-lane bridge.
However, that bridge has a high chain link fence that makes getting photographs here a challenge.
The signal is likely named for Pawnee Road, which once crossed over the tracks on a wood bridge to the east of here. That bridge was removed in conjunction with the project that led to the replacement of the River Corners Road bridge.
The highway to the right is U.S. Route 224 and it is still the two-lane road it was when this image was made.
Article and Photograph by Craig Sanders
It is late afternoon on Oct. 21, 2007, and the sunlight is warm and illuminating. I’m standing on the bridge carrying Biglow Parkway over the CSX Greenwich Subdivision.
The bridge spans the CP 47 interlocking where the Wheeling & Lake Erie’s Carey Subdivision joins with CSX to Greenwich before Wheeling trains either continue west on CSX to Willard to interchange cars or get back on the Carey Sub to continue their trip.
At one time this location was called Hiles and a tower guarded the diamonds where the Akron, Canton & Youngstown crossed the New York Central (Big Four). But the former AC&Y is gone between here and Greenwich in favor of trackage rights on CSX.
In the top image, the rear of an eastbound auto rack train has passed the westbound CP 47 home signals. But look in the distance and you’ll see the headlight of a fast approaching westbound intermodal train.
In the bottom image the intermodal is about to knock down the signal on Track 2 and blast through the interlocking and New London.
In the distance can be seen the rear of the auto rack train. Note, also the set out track north of the signals.
The road visible on the left side of the frame is North Railroad Street but become Griffin Road a short distance north of here. It runs parallel to the tracks until ending at Chenango Road, which crosses both the CSX and W&LE tracks.
Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders
Getting that first train of the day during a photography outing can feel special, particularly if it comes along shortly after you’ve reached trackside.
Shown is NS train 25A at Ball interlocking in Cowan, Indiana, on the New Castle District. Ball is a set of crossovers toward the middle of a long passing siding south of Muncie, the home of Ball State University and a glass jar manufacturer in whose honor the college is named.
I had first spotted the 25A in Muncie and hustled out here to make this image. I’ve photographed several westbounds in Cowan but never an eastbound.
This train is typical of railroading in the precision scheduled railroading era. The 25A is, in theory, an intermodal train operating from Calumet Yard in Chicago to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
It did have some containers in the consist but these days you can find just about anything in the consist of many trains.
The 25A would not be operating very much further beyond Ball before halting near York Point, where the siding ends. The 142 was coming west.
I didn’t wait around to see that meet. I was heading back into Muncie to catch the 142 on a bridge over the White River.
The crew of Norfolk Southern container train 294 is looking at a clear signal indication on Track 2 of the Chicago Line at CP 412 in Goshen, Indiana.
In the distance a tie gang is working on Track 1 and the foreman had given the 294 permission through his work limits at 25 mph with instructions to make some noise.
The tie gang had Track 1 out of service until 5 p.m. on this Tuesday from CP 412 to CP 397.
The downside to track work season is traffic is generally reduced during work hours. The upside is the trains that are allowed to go through the work zones must identify themselves to the foreman in charge to get verbal permission through the zone.
Not far behind the 294 was the 22W, another eastbound intermodal train with stacks and trailers. But before these two trains showed up there had been a lull of more than an hour.
Article and Photograph by Craig Sanders
It’s July 1972 in Alliance. The fireman of Penn Central Alco C628 No. 6314 is giving a friendly wave as the train enters the Bayard Branch on its way to Conway Yard near Pittsburgh. Also in the motive power consist are PC 6314, 6300, and 6317. The track under the rear trucks of No. 6314 is the Fort Wayne Line to Canton and Chicago.
Photograph by Robert Farkas
CSX has removed some of the lap siding on the Toledo Subdivision that the Baltimore & Ohio installed years ago, but it kept the one in Cairo, Ohio. Shown is steel train K596 coming out of the northern end of the siding and onto the main.
If you look carefully, you will see that the dwarf signal is giving a train in the southern end of the siding a clear signal to come out onto the main.
Out of view is CSX manifest freight that is meeting the K596 here.
Note that lead unit SD40-2 No. 4008 has one of the square cabs CSX gave some of these units when they were rebuilt. This locomotive was originally built for the Seaboard Coast Line.
We had driven up Interstate 69 to Waterloo, Indiana, which would be our first stop during a day-long railfan outing.
Scarcely had we arrived when the detector west of town on the Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern went off on Track 2, likely indicating an eastbound was coming.
Through my telephoto lens I could tell the lead unit was not NS black and for a moment I thought that, maybe, it was a heritage unit.
It tuned out to be a BNSF pumpkin with a Southern Belle of Kansas City Southern trailing. That’s not a bad catch although I wished the order of the units had been reversed.
It was train 880, which had come into Chicago from the Power River Basin of Wyoming and been turned over to an NS crew at Cicero, Illinois. The train was bound for Trenton, Michigan.
In the view above, it is splitting the westbound home signals of CP 367 and passing the former New York Central passenger station, which is now owned by the city and contains a waiting room for Amtrak passengers.
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