NYtrainspotter
HOT MAIL AT MO
6 months after the formation of Conrail ,its still business as usual on the ex PC/PRR Allegheny Division. In fact unless you noticed the extra blue CR cabin head out on the coal train, there is no clue this isn't a PC shot.
A visit to MO Tower in Cresson finds a friendly operator who was open to allowing us to hang out in and around the tower and and watch the action. ( It was very different in those days...)
With one track westward out of service beyond MO due to trackwork, the operator was busy writing train orders and scrambling to align the switches.
As fast the DS could set up moves ,he changed them .Coal drags are steady revenue but not as hot as Intermodals.
The DS ordered the operator to hold the coal drag and put MAIL-9 around him at MO at the last minute causing the engineer to have some choice words as the westward Home signal dropped in his face.
MAIL 9 wasted no time in taking the high speed cross overs at the allowed 35 mph and accelerating past the tower loudly. The vibration shook the old building and unfortunately it was a sign of sad things to come.
( Years later CR had agreed to preserve the MO Tower building at one point when the interlocking was remoted , but efforts to preserve and move the old wooden structure resulted in it collapsing.
Sadly this day would be my first and last time at MO, and I would not return to CP MO until 2015. Life is like a river and the flow of time around people and places is never predictable.
MO Tower Cresson PA Mainline Harrisburg to Pittsburg Allegheny Division Central Region CR 1976
HOT MAIL AT MO
6 months after the formation of Conrail ,its still business as usual on the ex PC/PRR Allegheny Division. In fact unless you noticed the extra blue CR cabin head out on the coal train, there is no clue this isn't a PC shot.
A visit to MO Tower in Cresson finds a friendly operator who was open to allowing us to hang out in and around the tower and and watch the action. ( It was very different in those days...)
With one track westward out of service beyond MO due to trackwork, the operator was busy writing train orders and scrambling to align the switches.
As fast the DS could set up moves ,he changed them .Coal drags are steady revenue but not as hot as Intermodals.
The DS ordered the operator to hold the coal drag and put MAIL-9 around him at MO at the last minute causing the engineer to have some choice words as the westward Home signal dropped in his face.
MAIL 9 wasted no time in taking the high speed cross overs at the allowed 35 mph and accelerating past the tower loudly. The vibration shook the old building and unfortunately it was a sign of sad things to come.
( Years later CR had agreed to preserve the MO Tower building at one point when the interlocking was remoted , but efforts to preserve and move the old wooden structure resulted in it collapsing.
Sadly this day would be my first and last time at MO, and I would not return to CP MO until 2015. Life is like a river and the flow of time around people and places is never predictable.
MO Tower Cresson PA Mainline Harrisburg to Pittsburg Allegheny Division Central Region CR 1976