Carleton, MI: Junction Tower: DT&I vs. C&O

Mark Hinsdale posted

Mark's comment:

Penn Central power fronts a southbound train on the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton, as it crosses the C&O's Toledo-Saginaw main line at Carleton MI. This train will move another 20 miles to Diann Tower, where it will use the connection to the Ann Arbor Railroad and follow it to Toledo. July, 1973 photo by Mark Hinsdale.

Doug Hefty Apollo (AP-9). I was working at Carleton at this time and this train usually went through "under cover of darkness." I think I usually had AP-10 northbound as well.

Mark Hinsdale In the CR split, I fought very hard for through use of the Lincoln Secondary on behalf of CSX. I realized there was going to be a need for an exit from Detroit, especially the Conrail side of Detroit, aka Sterling and North Yard, other than having to take everything out to Plymouth and turn south. Of course, the ceonomic malaise that struck Michigan made it, perhaps, less compelling ten years later, but it still has a role to play in CSX operations.

Satellite

Wow, the tower still exists. The north/south route is CSX/(PM+PRR) and the single track route is (CN+IORY)/DT&I. CRSA/PRR branches of towards the east just a couple blocks north of this junction. CRSA stands for Conrail Shared Assets Operation. I wonder if Norfolk Southern ever bothers to use this shared route.

Charles Geletzke Jr. posted
Jessica Kasumi Today, the DT&I is now the Canadian National. The C&O (PM) and PRR lines are now CSX.

Ricardo Garcia posted
D T & I in Carleton Michigan. John Bjorklund photo.
David J. Calhoun: Got a freight waiting in the hole. . . .

Charles Geletzke Jr. shared his post
One more shot of the C&O (PM)-DT&I-PRR crossing and tower at Carleton Michigan. This one was taken on July 4, 1971. (C. H. Geletzke, Jr. photo)

Charles Geletzke Jr. posted
The C&O-DT&I tower at Carleton, Michigan on April 7, 1992. (Jack G. Tyson photo)

Marty Bernard posted
GTW GP38-2 5720 built Oct. 1972 as MP 913 at Carleton, MI in Oct. 1993, photo by Karl Miller.

Mark Hinsdale posted
"Dirty Eye"
A southbound Detroit, Toledo & Ironton manifest train is banging across Chessie System's Saginaw to Toledo main line at Carleton, Michigan in December, 1977. Auto parts dominate anything coming out of Detroit, and this train is no exception. DT&I earned several "nicknames" over its existence, one of which was the "Dirty Eye," although I'm not sure what the story behind that one is. A favorite uncle of mine used to call it the "Darned Tired & Independent;" the first word was tamed down a bit because he didn't cuss! Note the yellow "flag" hanging from the tower window. That was a train order indicator for Conrail (ex Penn Central, nee Pennsylvania Railroad) trains utilizing long standing trackage rights over Chessie between Carleton and Alexis, north of Toledo. December, 1977 photo by Mark Hinsdale.
Daniel Gless: Can you imagine the TM's of today trying to figure out the just in time connections to the various plants and railroads that were commonplace back then? MUST MAKE CONNECTIONS were a daily occurrence that were sacrosanct in the industry. Those days are GONE!
Mark Hinsdale shared

Charlie Whipp posted

Friday's Flickr photo....CSX GP40-2 cracks the DT&I (by this date GTW) diamond at Carleton, MI with a northbound freight and a clear order board. It was a hot late June day, the perfect afternoon to hang out at one of my favorite south east Michigan interlockings. We didn't get a lot of trains this afternoon but the ones that we did get were running in the correct direction for photos. 

I just finished scanning a group of photos from Carleton so I thought I'd pick out one of my favs from the group even though it's not Tower Tuesday. 

In the background to the left of the tower is the favorite watering hole for the area, the Carleton Hotel. I'm sure that I set up where I did to included it in the scene. 🙂

The maintainer at the time lived quite a distance from his work base at Carleton so he set his trailer up for living quarters during the week. 6/22/1991

Jason Whipp: Was the order board still a signal they followed or was it just set to clear and left that way?

Charlie Whipp: Jason Whipp The order board was used to tell the crew that they had either a train order(s) or a message to pick up. Clear meant no train orders, yellow meant messages or train orders in the hoop and red meant stop for orders or messages.

Jason Whipp: Charlie Whipp that is crazy. It’s amazing to me that order boards and flimsies lasted in places into the 90’s but then all the sudden everything became electronic. I hate that I missed that era.

Charlie Whipp shared