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  • B&O Newton Falls (Oh.) Tower Damaged in Wreck, Demolished

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in the American Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas. For questions specific to a railroad company, please seek the appropriate forum.
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in the American Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas. For questions specific to a railroad company, please seek the appropriate forum.

Moderator: railohio

 #916816  by 2nd trick op
 
Those of us lucky enough to hve been exposed to the unique cameraderie that developed in the days of interlocking towers and train order offices lost another piece of that culture this week.

The former B&O's combined station and interlocking tower at Newton Falls, Ohio, at one time a junction between that line's Pittsburgh-Chicago main and an ore-traffic feeder to Fairport Harbor, was heavily damged in a freight derailment on Monday and reportedly razed yesterday.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2 ... 7445992218

Photos of the interior of the tower and its interlocking panel once graced the home page of a Yahoo group. Its suitability for other purposes prolonged its service in those capacities long after refinements of CSX' centralized dispatching system rendered its original purpose superfluous.

To the best of my knowledge this is the first instance of loss of a tower to a derailment since another accident on former B&O property, at Confluence (Ursina), Penna. in the summer of 1986. That tower was still manned, and the operator was probably the last of his trade to die in the line of duty.

The avoidance of any injuries is the only solace we can find in this loss of another old friend.
 #916962  by shlustig
 
Newton Falls was the junction of the old and new B&O mainline alignments, not the Lake Branch to Fairport Harbor.

That branch ran from DeForest Jct. on the old mainline.

Many remeber it as a stronghold of steam power into the mid to late 1950's when the main road power and helpers were the EM-1's.