Anybody know what the apparatus running along the right side of the track is in this photo?
Looks like the linkage from that interlocking tower in the distance. It's used to remotely operate turnouts like those just barely visible in the foreground.The "interlocking" part of the name means that the turnouts so-aligned cannot create routes which will conflict with one another.Hopefully, someone more familiar with the details can elaborate further.
Wayne
I wonder how they kept it thawed out and working in the winter.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
doctorwayne Looks like the linkage from that interlocking tower in the distance. It's used to remotely operate turnouts like those just barely visible in the foreground.The "interlocking" part of the name means that the turnouts so-aligned cannot create routes which will conflict with one another.Hopefully, someone more familiar with the details can elaborate further. Wayne
I think the shot was likely taken from the interlocking tower. Note that, in the foreground, the linkages are peeling off over to the switches. And that there are fewer pipes as you get towards the other building. Which certainly does look like an interlocking tower. But it isn't THE tower.
Ed
BATMAN I wonder how they kept it thawed out and working in the winter.
In theory, the activating linkage didn't have to be thawed out. Note that it's up on blocks. One reason is for drainage. So there shouldn't be much water to freeze. Uh, in theory.
I'd sure like to hear what it was like to be in the tower when things got wet and cold, though. I s'pose the "outdoor" railroad workers would likely say: "What's yer complainin'--yer INSIDE with HEAT. Pull harder!".
Most of the time, as noted, snow removal probably wasn't necessary. But this is MILW territory, so there may have been times when it all came down to kerosene-burning switch heaters, downed wires, snow brooms, ice chisels, sweat, & lots of hot coffee.
See Trains & Travel, December, 1952, "The Last Outpost" by Wallace W. Abbey for a taste of wintertime tower operations.
Tom
Those rods are the connecting links between the interlocking machine (in the tower) and the switches and signals it controlled. Somewhere near the center of each long rod there will be a compensating bellcrank to equalize the effects of expansion and contraction.
The interlocking machine (sometimes called an interlocking frame) had bars in one direction connected to the levers at one end and those rods at the other. Another set of bars, with wedges that went into V-shaped pockets in the lever bars, ran in slots perpendicular to the lever bars and would slide to lock a lever in position as a result of moving another lever. (Example, clearing a signal to authorize travel over a set of points would lock the point lever until the signal was returned to its normal restrictive position.) Determining which levers have to be interlocked with which other levers how is an interesting exercise in Boolean algebra.
In Japan, as recently as 2008, there were interlocking plants on lines without ABS. The signals were cable driven lower quadrant semaphores. In temperate climes the cables ran at ground level. In frigid Hokkaido the cables became airborne and met the signal mast-mounted operating mechanism a couple of meters off the ground, presumably to keep the weight arm and sector plate out of the snow.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with simulated interlocking.
It is not easy to make out but that distant building looks very much like the eight sided crossing tower that the Milwaukee Road used in many locations -- available as a plastic kit in HO from Walthers and as a wood kit, probably laser cut, from Skytop Productions some years ago.
Dave Nelson
Yes, piping, frames, foundations and compensators on the ground connected to the interlocking frame in the tower. They would be connected to the "Armstong" levers in the tower for switches and likely derails and semaphore signals (not all interlockings used derails and some semaphores were retrofitted or built with signal heads actuated by electric motors).
Actually, the logic for determining the order of the levers and the interlocking dogs etc., is not that difficult and doesn't require Algebra as it's been covered in model railroader with "Dog Charts". I grew up around locations like this and am building a few on my layout. Things generally worked as they were supposed to with a lot of grease and occasional adjustments but one would sometimes have to really horse (put your whole body into it) on levers, especially in the winter. And if that didn't work, it would be time to call out the signal maintainer and his crew.
Of course, this was only one control arrangement with some interlockings pneumatic or all electrical or a combination.
Victor A. Baird
Fort Wayne, Indiana