Abingdon Update

[NW Mailing List]

Or used to be gold-plated. This was nearly 40 years ago when I was an Assistant Trainmaster in Sandusky, Ohio when we discovered one night that the non-gold-plated CTC between Bellevue and Sandusky had an issue where it was possible to knock down the CTC signals for a move from Bellevue while making a move that did not require permission (CTC track circuits extended beyond the end of CTC territory). Had to calm down an irate Bellevue trainmaster (CTC was controlled by Bellevue operator under that trainmaster’s supervision) who was insisting I had to pull a crew out of service.

I actually was not surprised. I had seen the model board and knew it showed that circuit beyond CTC. Plus WB moves beyond the end of CTC were governed by a very dumb automatic signal that showed Restricting at all times unless that circuit was occupied in which case it showed Stop and Proceed. But EB moves (which was the case in this situation) had no signal - this was a move on a main track within yard limits and not in CTC or an interlocking which at least at the time did not require permission.

-- 
Larry Stone
lstone19 at stonejongleux.com





> On Nov 1, 2018, at 8:52 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> I agree that N&W's CTC installations were gold-plated, but I don't believe wastefully so.  Running trains on single track where all the sidings are bonded, allowing trains to enter on a "diverging approach" indication instead of "restricting" was nice.   And having a separate indicator light for each block allowed the operators to do some operational things as well as pinpointing trouble toward which a signal maintainer could be sent.
> 
> I worked under too many half-a** penny-pinching CTC setups over the years to not appreciate N&W's setups.  The Wabash had one bonded siding between the junction at Bement and Landers Yard at Chicago, and I believe none between Alvordton, Michigan and Bement.  You went into all those sidings on a restricting indication.  West of Decatur, towards Hannibal, they had a setup called "manual block remote control", where the crew handled the switches after getting a "take siding" signal.  I believe that the NKP had some bonded sidings.
> 
> And then there was the Seaboard Air Line.  The CTC between Birmingham and Atlanta had no follow-up signals.  The only intermediate signals between controlled sidings were the approach signals, and you went into the sidings on a "restricting".
> 
> Having experienced a lot of those setups from behind the throttle, I remembered, and appreciated, those "gold-plated" N&W setups.  They bought them that way because they could afford it, and their balance sheets didn't suffer on account of it.
> 
> EdKing
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: NW Mailing List
> Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2018 7:38 PM
> To: NW Mailing List
> Subject: Re: Abingdon Update
> 
> On 11/1/2018 5:24 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:
> 
>> The US&S salesmen sold the N&W an absolutely gold plated CTC system for the Bristol Line (translation: more bells and whistles than they needed,) so no doubt the electric lock for this switch was controlled by a discrete 16-bit code address over the code line.
> 
> Abe,
>    The south end of Elkton and Stuart's Draft sidings had a spur off
> of them where you had to contact the dispatcher in order for him to code
> the switch before you threw it. The signal in the siding would change
> from STOP to Restricting once the switch was thrown.
> 
> Jimmy Lisle
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