Nassau Tower Separate topic

What is the official date Nassau Tower is scheduled to be razed? If it is actually in the next few weeks, is it going to be on a weekday or on a weekend? According to the original plans on a modernli, the Main Street Crossing isn't scheduled to be eliminated until February 2021. I would think that the Nassau Tower wouldn't be demolished until right before; est. January 2021. Only time will tell.

Does anyone have plans or drawings for Nassau Tower? I've got a friend who is scratch building it in HO scale and would love some real drawings.

And further... I see the crossing at Nassau has movable points so the selected path has effectively a continuous rail. Anyone have a clear photo of that arrangement?

The movable point switch was always the maintainers' nightmare at that tower. They gave no end of trouble. Probably still do.

Can someone describe the action of the linkage of the switched diamond (movable point crossover) at Nassau Tower? [image from Steve Lynch's website]

It looks like there are two parallel tie rods that actuate the points. These are connected by a linkage on the left so one pulls, the other pushes. All well and good.

But where does the actuating linkage from the tower connect? I see a rod running parallel to the rail that connects to a right angle link,but it is unclear what that rod actually does.

Does the lower tie rod connect to one pair of points and then go through to the tower?

I would gather the rod connects as seen here:

True, but not clear how the connection from the tower moves the points.

>>>It looks like there are two parallel tie rods that actuate the points. These are connected by a linkage on the left so one pulls, the other pushes. All well and good. <<<
One rod moves the points the other is a point lock. So the operation is:
1.) Unlock the points
2.) Move points.
3.) Lock points
4.) Set the signal.
The rods make (made) a 90 degree turn in front of the tower then up inside to the levers. I watched this in operation in 1985.
vince

scopelliti wrote: ↑Mon Jun 22, 2020 11:53 pm True, but not clear how the connection from the tower moves the points.

Additional photo from NASSAU Tower... it still doesn't show the exact linkage, but...

Consider the length of the pipes actuating the switch mechanisms. Even greased as they are, the transfer of energy along that distance, levers included, to move something as heavy as those switch points, is remarkable. Electric motors, pneumatic pistons, those I can understand, but muscle power? Rather an incredible feat.

The two photos of the H-10s and then H16-44 were welcome sights for sore eyes. No glorified subway cars for that LIRR.

Actuating rod linkages are pretty simple; they're "bellcranks." Imagine a capital letter "L" with a pivot at the apex, where the two parts of the "L" meet. Now push left or right at the top of the "L" and the bottom tip of the "L" moves up or down. That's how a bellcrank generates output motion 90 degrees off the input motion. In Steve's closeup photo above, the angled heavy steel plates are the housing which holds the bellcrank pivot bearings. Each actuating rod (and there are 4 shown, looks like 9 others have been removed) from the tower moves left/right in the photo. Its bellcrank converts that motion to far/near motion of the rods parallel to the rails in the photo. Those parallel to the rails rods end in another bellcrank at the switch point actuating rod, which converts the motion back to left/right and throws the switch. Dick Glueck is right: not an easy job to overcome the friction along the path from tower to switch! Worse when it's all frozen up in wintertime. No transistors, no megabytes, no heat sinks, just muscle power!

The pipe connections have long been replaced with pneumatic switch machines. That was done in the 1980's as I recall. The old machine's locking bed continued to interlock the pneumatic operation for several decades after that.

I knew the second trick maintainer back in the days when that was a pipe-operated interlocking. They called them "strong-arm machines" for obvious reasons. In freezing weather, they'd pour hexane oil on the pipes and light them to defrost them and warm them up every hour or so in snow and ice. Gallons of alcohol was used under the crossings where pipes ran in chases to dry out water and prevent freezing.

Real men, as they say.