Harlem River Lift Bridge

When the signals at Woodlawn were first put in to service way back when they were timesavers at the very least. Remember that all signals of the period in the northeast were speed signals and not route signals. In other words they would tell you how fast you could go but it was up to you to know where you were going. Take a standard equipment en-route from Grand Central to Brewster with an electric motor. You get a medium clear signal at Woodlawn from track one but instead of crossing over to track three you are routed to track three then to New Haven track two. The third rail did not go too far and once you left that third rail you were out of business and that happened more than once in the PM rush and really tied the railroad up. Under today's operation you no longer have that possibility with the third rail all the way past Mt. Vernon and the MU equipment being able to stop faster and having third rail shoes throughout the train but back in the 60's and 70's it was a real problem. Even with today's operation these signals can save a huge delay.
Noel Weaver

Thanks to all above posters for explaining about this, especially Rockingham for that great description of activity in the tower. And Noel and Dutch, you're saying that even if you got the normal speed signal for the correct route, you could still be mis-routed. Got it!

JIC anybody was wondering, the usual reason for the misroutes was the fact that an inexperienced sheet-man at a preceeding tower screwed up the order when reporting trains and tracks to the DS. I was on #1284 (2 FL-9's & 7 coaches, a nH train) with Engr. John Kenefick one evening on Tk. 3 MO to Woodlawn when the Op at Woodlawn called us on the radio asking if we were still moving, then again why we were stopped, and again to see if we were moving on Tk.1. He was surprised to hear that we were making track speed on Tk. 3 and more so to find a Harlem job stopped in his plant crossing from Tk. 1 to the NH Tk.2.

As Noel said, there was just a very short length of 3rd rail going onto the NH.

For quite a while, the afternoon team at Woodlawn was Op. MacMillan and Leverman Schmidt. They did a great job of keeping things straight at Woodlawn, VO (Mt. Vernon) and RK {Crestwood}.

When TCS was installed on Tk. 2 MO to VO, that helped greatly.

Rockingham Racer wrote:

Head-end View wrote:Yeah, looking at Google Earth it was probably the 233rd St. bridge, looking north.

No, further south than that.

Watched carefully out the window last night and this morning. The signal bridge is here: https://goo.gl/maps/ZtcdDCTBFe92" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. You're about a quarter-mile south of the 233rd St. bridge. You could definitely see them from Webster Ave. You can probably see them from the Bronx River Parkway if the leaves are off the trees. You might be able to see them from Bronx Blvd., again when the leaves are off the trees. No way though that you could see them from the next overpass south, Gun Hill Rd., because there's a curve in the tracks.

<SNEEZE> <DUST> <SNEEZE>

Okay, this article is 3 months old, I know: https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Me ... 067044.php

How long does an opening take?

For late morning to early Wednesday afternoon, Metro-North had delays of up to 45 minutes due to issues closing the bridge after an opening near Harlem 125th Street.

Earlier Wednesday morning, Metro-North told riders there could be possible delays with the planned opening of the Harlem River Lift Bridge at 138th Street in New York City.

The opening was scheduled for 10 a.m.

In a 10:49 a.m advisory. Metro-North was reporting delays.
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