Tell-tales & telegraph poles

glennk419 wrote:Poles are still standing along several stretches of the ACL, although long out of service. Many of the poles are also still standing along the PRSL Ocean City branch through the marshes, despite the fact that the rails are gone.

Yeah those are the ones i see. Not wild wood, Ocean city!!

I watched a crew remove the EL wires underneath the Harrison Avenue Bridge. They set up a buried cable just to cross under the bridge during it's re-construction overhead. They saved all the wire & were supposed to re-install it later after the bridge work was finished. they indicated that Western Union was still using some of the lines too!

The bridge was finished in the spring of 1976 sso I never saw them come back to change the wires back...

Tri-State Tom wrote: I'll bet there are tons of places in this state you can find old RR telegraph lines, its just a matter of looking for them. I think the ROW that runs off the CMSL to wildwood (no tracks left) still has the poles running out to the city. If I'm correct, there is also a small trestle along with the poles. Not sure if they took them out, because I havnt been there in a long time, but I always remembered seeing poles run out towards town from what looked like RR ROW...

The bridge you remember was the Crook Horn moveable bridge. It was a swing bridge that connected the Ocean City trackage with the outside world. Unfortunately, the bridge was removed in the mid 90's after the Coast Guard deemed it to be a "hazard to navigation" which really means that too many drunken boaters tended to run into it. It also had a broken ring gear which would have had to be replaced if the bridge was ever put back in service.

Mikedc3 knows exactly what a TELL TALE is, The title of this thread is:

Tell-tales & TELEGRAPH POLES

henry6 wrote:mikedc3, and others, apparently do not know what a TELL TALE was...it was a group of straps hanging over a track to "hit" a brakeman riding atop a car to warn him of upcoming overhead obstruction like a bridge, tunnel, platform or other overhang, or wires. mikedc3's pics are of telephone/telegraph/signal wires and not tell tales.

[/quote]

wis bang wrote:I watched a crew remove the EL wires underneath the Harrison Avenue Bridge. They set up a buried cable just to cross under the bridge during it's re-construction overhead. They saved all the wire & were supposed to re-install it later after the bridge work was finished. they indicated that Western Union was still using some of the lines too!

The bridge was finished in the spring of 1976 sso I never saw them come back to change the wires back...

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

That's a very complicated deal, wis bang. I remember that work, as I-280 was cutting into the side of the railroad property. The westbound station disappeared at Harrison, and the access to the Alderney lead (lower DL&W bridge level) was severed. I believe they also removed the ramp for the lower level tracks over Cleveland Street and River Road, which increased clearances.

For young 'uns, the DL&W bridge at Newark was originally built as a double deck rail bridge, about 100 feet south of its current location. The original DL&W used the lower level,and operated on ground level past the Alderney water tower (appears on the Sopranos credit) and passed just south of the current Newark station. The railroad climbed a steep hill to Roseville/ Grove Street, and skidded down the other side.

When the DL&W decided to zero out the elevation, they built an embankment through Harrison and Newark, cut through the Roseville and built a viaduct through the Oranges. A ramp was built from the Harrison station to connect with the lower level of the bridge (the bridge had moved north to line up with the higher upstairs track) and service local Newark customers. You can see the piers over Route 21 where the lower railroad crossed until 1955 or so.

Although not in NJ there is a very little known Tell Tale that may or may not still be standing. Remember the LNE line through the tunnel that connected Lansford to Hauto? Well, about 10 years ago Rt 54 over the LNE tunnel collapsed. As PennDOT was fixing the road I looked down at where the tunnel bore came out on the Hauto side. Would you believe that there was a tell tale still standing (tunnel defunct since early 1960s) over the ROW, but what's more...there were 4 ropes with knot balls at the end hanging from the tell tale!!!! Rope must have been a century old and was still there hiding in the brush all those years.

There was also a metal sign, face down in the mud, before the tunnel entrance.

The telegraph poles to this day still go over the mountain following the tunnel benieth.

Also as far as telegraphs go, the entire LVRR from Allentown to Lehighton still has them complete with a million individual wires and glass insulators. So does the CNJ (L&S) along the same route. Some of the wires must still be used for something, because NS keeps the poles clear and when we had that bad ice storm in Dec '02 lots of the poles/wires were knocked down and NS fixed them.

Here is a photo of the telltales on the Susquehanna approaching the EL's Bergen County Line in the early '70s. If I remember correctly, the straps were chains. Please excuse the picture quality as I was about 12 years old shooting a Kodak Instamatic..

>>>NS keeps the poles clear and when we had that bad ice storm in Dec '02 lots of the poles/wires were knocked down and NS fixed them.<<<

The poles or also the individual wires? I've often seen a cable bundle on old poles with the older individual wires no longer in use.

Telltale bracket next to wye at West End

http://community.webshots.com/photo/173 ... 9156vrGSKu

Although not in NJ, I went to the Bronx yesterday to pickup an S & S cheesecake for Thanksgiving. I walked over the 238th St overpass of the Major Degan and the old NYC Putnam div. I took a couple of shots facing south, of a tell-tale next to the Stella D'oro bakery (on the right). Note the indentation on the right wall where the siding for the bakery use to be. Happy Thanksgiving.

Check out the shots at:

http://community.webshots.com/album/222340273OHYzqT

What about the tell-tales on the lower Boonton as it crossed under the NEC? The one on the North side was there until recently but I haven't looked in awhile. Did NS take it down?

GandyDancer wrote:What about the tell-tales on the lower Boonton as it crossed under the NEC? The one on the North side was there until recently but I haven't looked in awhile. Did NS take it down?

Nope, they are still there and stretch all the way to Arlington Station where they go underground. The come back from the ground somwhere in Bellville.

Infact, I just spent about 2 hours worth of Night Photography at Arlington Station and have pictures of them... I'll post later if I can get them online soon...

I see poles and wires of some sort along many ROW's and former ROW's in the area (Eatontown-LB) or by the Stone Church branch for instance. Are these telegraph poles are just regular electric poles?

LBWaveDude wrote:I see poles and wires of some sort along many ROW's and former ROW's in the area (Eatontown-LB) or by the Stone Church branch for instance. Are these telegraph poles are just regular electric poles?

The Stone Church branch was orginally a trolley line, so it's possible the poles could be former trolley wire verticals.

Both ROWs you mention, Eatontown to LB (actually Branchport) passing through Ft Monmouth and the west end of Monmouth park, across rt 36(by the 7-11) to Branchport are JCP&L lines. So are the lines along the former CNJ ROWs in Middletown, as well as Highlands (Stone Church).