nydepot wrote:Any idea where XA Tower was? This would have been pre-WWI. Thanks.Welcome to the quest, Charles!
Charles
Railroad Forums
XA Tower
- Discussion of the L&HR and its predecessor the Warwick Valley Railroad for the period 1860-1976 at its inclusion with ConRail
Moderator: David
This thread was bumped up by a spam message; not a bad thing, because I'd forgotten about it, and have more info.
First, some background. A few years ago the Chester (NY) Historical Society was contacted by a woman looking for geneaological information on a couple of her husband's ancestors. A grandfather and grand uncle had worked for the L&HR and lived in the Greycourt area. She had a picture of one of them standing in front of XA tower that she thought was on the L&HR. The society contacted me, and I passed it on to Ed Crist; we both started digging into it.
The L&HR had no towers, so her theory was out on that point. At first I thought it might have been the Erie's tower at Greycourt (it looked similar, but the only photo I have of the Greycourt tower is not the best).
Ed's contacts with Erie historians finally nailed it. Apparently the grand uncle had migrated to the Erie from the L&HR; XA was the Erie's tower controlling a siding at Cheechunk, between Goshen and New Hampton (in the general area of the current Orange County Jail).
L&HR content- the grandfather moved to Warwick and worked his way to up chief dispatcher before retiring from the railroad, sometime in the fifties.
First, some background. A few years ago the Chester (NY) Historical Society was contacted by a woman looking for geneaological information on a couple of her husband's ancestors. A grandfather and grand uncle had worked for the L&HR and lived in the Greycourt area. She had a picture of one of them standing in front of XA tower that she thought was on the L&HR. The society contacted me, and I passed it on to Ed Crist; we both started digging into it.
The L&HR had no towers, so her theory was out on that point. At first I thought it might have been the Erie's tower at Greycourt (it looked similar, but the only photo I have of the Greycourt tower is not the best).
Ed's contacts with Erie historians finally nailed it. Apparently the grand uncle had migrated to the Erie from the L&HR; XA was the Erie's tower controlling a siding at Cheechunk, between Goshen and New Hampton (in the general area of the current Orange County Jail).
L&HR content- the grandfather moved to Warwick and worked his way to up chief dispatcher before retiring from the railroad, sometime in the fifties.
Minor correction Marty, the L.H.R. did have a tower at Franklin, N.J. for a while, although it was connected to the station. 
I didn't forget about Franklin, but I should have been a little more specific.
The photo supplied by the originator of the question was of XA, an otherwise unidentified stand-alone tower, not attached to any other building. That's what ruled out the L&HR.
Here's the photo in question:
XA Tower.jpg (20.62 KiB) Viewed 4245 times
The photo supplied by the originator of the question was of XA, an otherwise unidentified stand-alone tower, not attached to any other building. That's what ruled out the L&HR.
Here's the photo in question: