Moving Day in Union City

Years of planning and fundraising paid off in Union City, Indiana, on Tuesday when a moving company moved the town’s railroad interlocking tower about a block west to a park.

The brick tower, which closed in 1968, once controlled the crossing of the New York Central”s (Big Four) Cleveland-Indianapolis line with the Pennsylvania Railroad’s (Panhandle) Columbus-Logansport, Indiana, line.

Local interests raised more than $56,000 which was matched by a $50,000 grant from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Agency.

Union City, located on the Indiana-Ohio border, had faced a late March deadline to commit to moving the tower or else it would be razed by CSX.

The former Pennsy line through Union City is gone, but the former NYC line is today the Indianapolis Line of CSX.

Three city streets were closed so the tower could be move on dollies by Wolfe House & Building Movers.

The tower is slated to be restored with the lower level being used as a visitor center with restrooms, and the upper level returned to its appearance when the tower was still open.

It is located in the southwest corner of Artisan Crossing park and faces the CSX tracks in the same manner that it did before it was moved. The park is adjacent to the CSX Indianapolis Line and across the street from the restored former PRR passenger station.

In the top image, the tower is being wheeled west on Pearl Street. The bottom image shows the tower in its final resting place.

Union City Tower to Move July 27

The former railroad interlocking tower in Union City, Indiana, is scheduled to be moved to a new location on July 27.

The tower was saved after a lengthy fundraising drive. It will be moved one block west to a city park.

The city plans to have a festival on the moving day that will include food trucks and other activities.

Now located adjacent to the CSX Indianapolis Line, the tower once guarded the crossing of the former New York Central (Big Four) and Pennsylvania (Panhandle) railroads.

The former Pennsy route from Columbus to Logansport, Indiana, is abandoned through Union City.

Union City, located on the Indiana-Ohio border, still has its PRR passenger station, which has been restored and is now used as an arts center.

Indiana Town Raises Enough Money to Save Tower

An Indiana city has reached its funding goal to save a former railroad interlocking tower.

Union City reported on its website that with eight days left in its fundraising campaign it has raised $53,630, which exceeds its goal of $50.

The project involves moving the tower, which currently stands next to the CSX Indianapolis Line.

The tower once controlled a crossing of a the former New York Central (Big Four) line between Cleveland and Indianapolis with a former Pennsylvania Railroad line (Panhandle) between Columbus and Logansport, Indiana.

Having met its initial goal, Union City has now expanded its goal to $60,000.

The money will be used to move the tower 525 feet to a new location a short distance from the tracks in an existing park.

Money raised by the Union City fundraising drive will be matched by the Indiana Housing Community Development Agency.

More information about the fundraising drive and plans to move the tower is available at https://www.patronicity.com/project/save_the_rail_tower

Indiana City Raising Money to Save Interlocking Tower

A westbound CSX auto rack train passes the Union City Tower in September 2019.

City officials in Union City, Indiana, have stepped up their campaign to save a railroad interlocking tower from being razed by CSX.

The tower once guarded a crossing of New York Central (Big) and Pennsylvania Railroad routes.

The “Save the Rail” campaign needs to raise $50,000 by March 25 to have enough funding to move the tower away from its current location next to the Indianapolis Line of CSX, which formerly was a Big Four route extending from Cleveland to St. Louis.

The former PRR route between Columbus and Logansport, Indiana, through Union City has been abandoned.

If Union City interests can meet their goal, the project will receive a $50,000 matching grant.

The city wants to move the brick tower a few hundred feet to Artisan Crossing Park where it would become a multipurpose building.

Thus far the fund-raising campaign has raise about $8,000.

Union City is two contiguous municipalities, one of which is located in Ohio.

Getting it While I Can

Interlocking towers once dotted the railroad landscape in large numbers.

But the vast majority of them have been closed and their functions of lining switches and signals transferred to a dispatcher’s desk hundreds if not thousands of miles away.

Railroads generally don’t like to let vacant building stand unused next to their rights of ways so scores of former interlocking towers have fallen victim to the wrecking ball or a front end loader.

Somehow the tower in Union City, Indiana, has survived. But it may be living on borrowed time.

At one time, Union City Tower guarded the crossing of the Pennsylvania Railroad (Pan Handle) route between Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, of the New York Central (Big Four) route between Cleveland and St. Louis.

The two railroads crossed at a sharp angle by Columbia Street. In fact the crossing was movable switch points rather than a set of diamonds for the double track mainlines of both railroads.

The tower closed in 1968 and changing traffic patterns led to the abandonment by Conrail of the former PRR line through Union City.

But the tower remained standing. CSX would like to knock it down, but is willing to allow Union City interests to have it provided that they move it at least 50 feet back from the tracks.

The cost to do that is $60,000 and the city doesn’t have that kind of money. There is a fund raising campaign underway but small towns struggle to raise that level of money.

The latest report is that the city hopes to talk CSX into allowing the tower to remain in its current location but be surrounded by a fence.

The railroads is willing for now to give the city more time to raise money to pay to move the tower and its uncertain how it will respond to the fence idea.

Union City has been told that the tower is off the demolition list, at least for now.

But just this past July IU Tower in downtown Indianapolis and railroads, like any other company, can be notorious for doing what they want with their property.

Nostalgia and history don’t contribute to revenues, increase stock prices or help pay dividends to stockholders.

During a recent outing to Union City I made sure to capture a train passing the tower.

The auto rack train is headed westbound on the Indianapolis Line. I hope that it is not the last image I made of this tower, but you never know.