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1940,Fire at St.Louis,MO Union Station
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<div align="left"></div id="left"><font face="Times New Roman"></font id="Times New Roman"><font size="3"></font id="size3">[ <br /> black][/black] I was working with the PRR Philadelphia Terminal Division, Telegraph and Signal Dept. as an apprentice Electrical Engineer under the direct supervision of the T&S Dept. head. <br /> <br />I don`t remember the exact date that I reported for work and was told that the tower at Union Terminal, St.Louis had just burned to the ground and we were to dismantle about 10 sections of a Union Switch and Signal Co. Electro Mechanical interlocking machine located in the new 30th St. Station building called Penn tower. Only two sections of the machine were in use. <br /> <br />I was told that a baggage car would be spotted next to the elevator on the lowerlevel station platform (four track main NYC-Wash. DC) into which the Locking bars of the 10 sections along with the frames were to be loaded as soon as possible and to keep the office informed of progress. The car was to be dispatched upon completion of loading by special extra to the U S S Co. plant inPittsburgh to replace the machine destroyed in the fire. <br /> <br />The entire T&S gang pluss several off duty maintainers were already at work. <br />We had to be carefull not to overload the elevator as the locking bars were heavy. When the car was almost completely loaded the boss told several of the Sr. maintainers to go home and pack for a trip to St. Louis to reassemble the modified machine. I tried, unsuccessfuly ,to go too. <br /> <br />Was TRAINS Mag published then ? The fire was surely reported if it was. I waas told that The Unioin station was operating the terminal switching by the use of hand signals and knife switches to activated the electro pneumatic switch movements. <br /> <br />Can anyone remember any details of this emergency operation ?
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