Johnson City, New York semaphore still in opperation?

A while back I heard that all of the semapores on the ex-erie main line had been removed from service, all except one in Johnson City, New York. Can anyone tell me if this semaphore is still in place or if it was removed by Norfolk Southern? I'll be passing through the area shortly and am trying to figure out if I should stop or not. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thankyou![/quote]

The semaphore your referring to is in Endicott, NY which is a few miles west of Johnson City. Its still in service on the #2 eastbound track. Just in case your not farmiliar with how to get there: You'll want to take Route 17 west from Binghamton to the interchange with route 26 north. You'll cross the Susquehanna river into Endicott. You'll then want to take the next exit after the underpass onto Main St/Rte 17C west. Follow Main St through town about 2 miles or so. You'll come out to a bridge over the tracks. Just before the bridge, take a left. This road parallels the tracks out to an airport. The semaphore will be off to your right through the trees. The only way you could get to the signal legally would be to wade through a water filled ditch between the road and the tracks. The dry way would be to park near the bridge and walk down the side of the tracks to the signal but of course, thats tresspassing. You could also walk up onto the bridge and see the signal in the distance. I think the bridge has been fenced in though and I dont know if there has been holes cut into it for photography. Hope this helps.

Thank you for the information on the signal in Endicott. I found it. I got a little scratched up from traveling up and down the hill and crawling through the brush, but it was definitely worth it! What a beauty. I know that the next time I'm in the area it will be gone so I took a lot of pictures. The only thinkg that dissapointed me was the KKK and Nazi graffiti on the base. It's a shame someone vandalized it. Oh well, thanks again for your help!

-Joe Marchinchin

It's still there. No one knows how long though...

Yea, about the graffiti, its 50% redneck drunks around here. One of them got paint, and well, you see what happened. Now they want to turn our airport into a dragstrip.

Maybe someone could volunteer to remove or paint over the ugly mess.

Is this semaphore visible from the highway ?

Is this the part of the line which also gets CPR traffic too ?

Yes it is visible, but not very good. I believe someone cut a hole in the wall so you could photograph it. I would like someom=ne to, but no one knows how much longer it will be there . The CP jus tlet the Haulage rights expire, so it will now strictly be NS traffic.

At one pont, after soing some research recently, there WAS a semaphore in JC, at Milepost 219, it controlled tracck 2, but was removed many years ago. the other signal, 2191 is a searchlight. The base of 2192 is still there, and visible from the George F. Highway

OK boys, the semaphore is being replaced, and we want this thing saved! So all i ask you guys for is to call up NS if you're in the area, and inquire about saving it. Now i KNOW for a fact im not the only one sentimental about this thing, and it desserves a nice home after it's retirement. So let's mobilizze the NMRA, NRHS, TAMR whatever and save us the last Semaphore operating East of the Mississippi!!

now MOVE!

Well here it is, when I got to work I got the following bulletin...

Here it is...copied word for word.
-------------------------------------
Harrisburg Division-Norfolk Southern
Operations Bulletin for
September 6, 2005

Southern Tier Line-Physical Characteristic Change
CP-Johnson CP-Waverly

Effective 12:01 PM Wed. Sept. 7 2005

Automatic Block Signal No. 2242 governing Eastward movements on No. 2 Track permanently removed from service.

New ABS No. 2232 in service east of former signal.

As information, ABS 2242 was the last working semaphore on the Harrisburg Division. It will be moved to the Charlotte Roadway Shop for modifications and then to Norfolk, VA where it will be displayed in a museum.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Greg

ANDY117 wrote:save us the last Semaphore operating East of the Mississippi!!

Actually there is a Operating Semaphore in Toledo Ohio it sits on the former Toledo Terminal. Tracks belong to CSX, Ann Arbor has trackage rights and really are the only ones using the line. Sees at least a train a day pass. Trains shove into the old DT&I yard past the signal and come back up to the semaphore and get a signal to cross or merge Ann Arbor tracks or merge onto CSX tracks.

Ryan