nyandw wrote:Backshophoss wrote:This was the 2nd Fantrip of LIRR Equipment on MN, location is Norwalk Ct,At Walk Tower for 1 of the pics.
Nice. Was Wal;k Tower the bottom photo showing the trailing car?
Depends which tower you're referring to. SS 44/Berk Tower, now the SONO Switch Tower museum, would've been behind the train in the second picture. It closed in the mid-80's so the active tower was Walk Tower, a 2 story block like structure directly behind the photographer in the second picture. Not sure if Walk was still actively controlling the interlocking at this point in time, it did pass to the RTC's in NYC sometime in the early '90s or late '80s. After that, the operator just gave out paper work and blocked with the agents during the day, and controlled the branch up to Danbury at night. That ended in the late '90s when they changed their rule book and went to a Form M and closed the manned block stations on the branch. At that point the operator job was abolished and they went to bridge tender for the nearby bridge. If you're in the area, the museum is well worth the visit and that street south of the tracks has lots of nice places to eat, it's definitely improved from when I was there as a kid.
The middle picture is looking toward S. Norwalk psgr station, which is West/South of the branch, but the first and third pics face East/North towards the river and the infamous bridge that's causing a lot of mayhem in CT at the moment. The building that Steve refers to is a porch or fire escape to an old refurbished factory building near the tracks, you can see it panned out in the first pic from the third. The first pic you can see some old New Haven signals dangling down, at one point they had both lights and moving blades to show indication, but in this pic they're either just plain light signals (blades removed) or decommissioned altogether. Beyond that cat bridge is one of the two hulking towers that has the wires waaaaaay up high over the river and always good for a light show during a thunderstorm. Amazing at how overbuilt the system was, especially when you look at other catenary systems that came later.
What puzzles me is the pack is leading in the first pic, and then facing the other way in the third pic. Did the run the power around here, or turn at the Devon wye? I would've loved to have seen this, but was off serving with Uncle at the time. Great pics as always Newkirk, thanks for posting!
