Fostoria, OH: NYC Fostoria Tower: NYC/TOC vs. C&O/HV

Bryan Monaco posted

Birds-Eye View, Streetview

Bryan's comment:

New York Central's Jackson Street tower, in Fostoria, Ohio. The tower was built in 1927 and housed the first CTC system. The control panel is in the Smithsonian. I believe the rails were removed in the early 1980s. CSX's busy ex C&O mainline is nearby.

James Torgeson Toledo & Ohio Central Eastern Branch. If you look closely, you can still see remnants of a NYC cigar-band herald!
Scott Stasa Just below the top boarded window? Pretty neat!

According to the comments, the Fostoria Rail Preservation Society tried buying this tower to preserve it. But they have given up because no one can figure out who to write the check to. That is, the current ownership of this tower is unkown or in dispute.

The NYC/T&OC was abandoned by Penn Central. You can see the old right-of-way where it entered town from the northwest including three buildings that were built on the RoW.

Satellite

You can follow the tree line down to where it curved south to run parallel to the CSX/C&O/HV RoW past Fostoria Tower.

Satellite plus Paint

 Looking at a 1951 Historic Aerials map, I added blue lines to a satellite image to mark the NYC RoW. In particular, it continued straight as it crossed the NKP and then the HV with a very acute angle, then east of the F Tower. It then curved a little east before it crossed the overpass for Lytle Street. Then it continued straight out of town where it paralleled OH-587 a little over a 1000 feet to the east to Berwick. The NYC RoW still looks intact in the 1972 aerial photo, but it is clearly gone in the 2004 photo because of the trees. The resolution of the 1988 and 1995 photos are not good enough to conclusively conclude the track has been removed, But further northwest I found some bushes along the RoW in the 1988 map that indicates the track was at least out-of-service. This is consistent with a lot of track being abandoned after the 1980 Staggers Act was passed.

Between the 1958 and 1961 topo maps, the NYC joined the C&O tracks north of NKP and then separated again south of NKP to eliminate some diamonds, especially those very acute diamonds.

I used the 1939 and 1973 topo maps to trace the LEW through town. I had assumed it crossed the NYC and HV at this tower. But this tower must have controlled crossover connections between NYC and HV because NKP/LEW was further south. The 1939 topo map indicates the HV had a little yard north of Jackson and the NYC had a little yard south of Jackson. There was a connector in the northwest quadrant between the LEW and the NYC Yard. The red line on the image below shows the LEW RoW. The LEW joined the NKP soon after it crossed the B&O tracks and still exists as Norfolk Southern.

Satellite plus Paint

So I still need to find a picture of the tower that was at LEW vs. NYC+HV.