That's the one! A nice sheltered porch to sit and watch the trains do their thing (and keep dem dang kids off the lawn...)
Imagine sitting there as a tie gang went by, inches away. I think a person could burn up many Gigs of video!
I always thought that this would be a fine place to live too, in a house adjacent to an interlocking tower. This is in Dover, NJ overlooking the former DL&W main, taken in September '82. Tower was active then.
Dover's call was UD, but I think it was called Dover. I think it was closed about 1985 and demolished about 1990. Here's a photo I found on the web of Dover Tower in its final days: http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tubbs/ErieLackawanna/162-35.JPG
This is a former CNJ tower in Bethlehem, PA, JU Tower, shot August 1980. I always thought it looked like a Kibri model kit of a Deutsche Bundesbahn structure. I don't know if it remains staanding. Happily, the CNJ's PU Tower in Phillipsburg, NJ remains and is owned by a rail club I think.
This is Phillipsburg's PU Tower in disrepair, taken September '82. Nice to know that it looks much better today, though I've not seen it since. I never got a good shot of PU because Jersey Transit always parked a train in front of it on weekends!
From back in the early 1990s when Texas Tower 17 was still in service and where the real Santa Fe crossed the real Southern Pacific.
Found several more CNJ towers in my collection. I don't know if any of these remain; my guess is not. Cranford, NJ's XC (or Excee) Tower in March 1983. I always thought it odd that they placed the bungalow on the tower foundation. These were usually placed adjacent so that the tower could be easily razed. Maybe they had no additional real estate. Whitehouse, NJ in a very tired state in August 1980. A friend tried to buy this structure from NJ Transit (aka NJ Train Set) to make a residence, but the bureaucracy was too much to overcome. Steel Tower in Bethlehem, PA taken in the summer of 1982.
Two more CNJ towers I overlooked. Bank Tower in Red Bank, NJ in my b&w days. Probably mid-1970s. And to think that the Blue Comet used to flash past here ..... RA Tower in Raritan, NJ. I think that's a Dispatcher's office added on to the original structure. Also from mid-'70s.
That was 3985 as herself cruising through Texas outside of Navasota, north of Houston on her way to the Republican National Convention in 1992. Here she is crossing the Navasota River, both sets of drivers in sink with rods down. David M. See photo.
The great 1990 Galveston Stand Off between motor car with trailer and the Texas Limited. Actually the motor car lead the train in and out of the Galveston station to line the switches and blocked un-signaled crossings. David M. See photo.
