Kouts, IN: Junction Tower: Erie vs. PRR

(see satellite below)

Matt Lasayko posted
PRR Panhandle Kouts IN crossing the Erie
Wayne Hudak All ALCO's!
Josh Lemier also posted

Both are long gone. The scar of the diagonal route was easy to spot on current satellite images. But I had to find an old topo map to determine it was the Erie and that the east/west route was the Pennsy.

Satellite pluse Paint

Matt Ditton posted "then and now" photos with the comment:

A sad before and after of the Erie Lackawanna/ PRR at Kouts Indiana. The first photo is looking west down the PRR in the early 70's. The second was taken by me in the same general area today looking the same direction. You can see the elevator is present in both pics. I'm not sure who took the first picture but as you can see, all tracks are long gone. The E-L was lifted in 1981 and I believe the PRR tracks were all gone by 1984.

1970s

It is interesting that the PRR Panhandle double tracks have the wide spacing I normally see only for the Erie, and the Erie appears to have the narrow spacing that other railroads use.

Now

The treelines and land scars are still clearly visible for the Erie. The PRR Panhandle went east/west through town about 2.5 blocks south of IN-8. Once I knew where to look, it was easy to find its route. I marked it with a blue line to emphasize that the tower was on the east side of town. (Looking again at the satellite image, the PRR does seem to be closer to IN-8 on the east side than the west.)
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Satellite plus Paint

Update:

Mark Llanuza posted
Its Jan 1968 with westbound at Kouts Ind going under the classic semaphores with F-units [photo collection Mark Llanuza,]
Daniel Gless How much fun would it have been to change the light bulb in those top semaphores?Brandon Kulik Looks like 2 PA's in the trailing position

Mark Llanuza commented on a Justin Oates posting
This Kouts Ind 1975 with photo from Don Ellison and my shot last year lined up the same location.
Mark Llanuza posted again
Its 1975 with eastbound Erie Lackawanna at Kouts Ind crossing the Penn Central Panhandle line by photographer Don Ellison . I went back in the year 2017 to match the same location where at one time up to 35 trains a day would cross here with both railroads .The old water tower is still there in the before and after shot where long time friend and Erie photographer Gary Clark and i went back to match everything all back again.Gary Clark and i spent almost a whole day here on the last week of operations of the Erie.

Marty Bernard posted
2. EL 6561 (F3A, ex-DLW 656A, built Jan. 1947) at Kouts, IN in November 1966. Rick Burn photo.

Mark Llanuza posted
Its June 1975 Penn Central's Kouts Ind train station looking east .Went back again to the same location to match my older shot in 2012 and its a ice cream store .This was at one time double main line of the where it crossed the Erie just east of here.
[Satellite, Street View]

Mark Llanuza posted
Its 1975 Looking east on the Erie Lackawanna Railroad at Kouts Ind station where it crossed the Penn Central Pan Handle line .Both main lines were double track .The Erie had up 20-25 Frt's a day and the Penn Central had about 20 a day .by 1982 both the Erie Lackawanna and the Pen Central were gone ,Today there is nothing left of anything.

Jim Prrfan posted
PRR Kouts tower, Kouts In.  1970's.
Jim PRRFan photo from 35mm slide
Cass Telles: I see one of the EL diamonds out of service. The other diamond maybe removed, also. I would estimate the time frame between 1976 to 1977. I heard somewhere that the diamonds were removed for a short time before being reinstalled for the Erie Western operations.
Rick La Fever: Seems like a big tower for such a small town. Pennsy Panhandle crossed the Erie here and 20 miles further east at North Judson, they crossed again. PRR controlled both diamonds and could effectively contain Erie trains.
Chad Quick: Rick La Fever yes, even on the EL track chart it shows the track between Kouts and North Judson is controlled by the PRR. Always found that odd.
Tod Riebow shared

Michael Dye posted six images with the comment:

Kouts Interlocking Tower, 'DN'. Located at Kouts, Indiana, this was a PRR (PCC& St.L, 'Panhandle') tower, which controlled the crossing of the mainlines of the PRR (Chicago-Logansport) and the Erie/EL (Chicago-Jersey City).
After 1948, Kouts also remotely controlled the Erie's Wilders ('DR') Interlocking, where the Erie croosed the Monon's Michigan City branch. This is mentioned on Photo 5.

1
Looking RR West on the PRR, 1962.

2
Looking RR West on the PRR, 1973.

3
The SW elevation of the tower, 1920.

4
he SW elevation of the tower, 1975.

5
The PRR Interlocking chart for Kouts interlocking.
The PRR Interlocking chart for Kouts interlocking. Note the information concerning Kouts' remote control of the Erie(EL) crossing of the Monon at Wilders.

6
The interior of Kouts Interlocking, Kouts, IN, SEP56 (Photo by the late CL Coates, Foreman, Erie Signal Gang #33).
Philip Kulina Notice the PRR calendar ?
Michael Dye Yes. 'Course, Kouts was a PRR owned Tower.

Michael Dye The color code for the lever function was: BLACK - Switchpoints, derails and movable-point frogs.
BLUE - Locks for switchpoints, derails and movable-point frogs.
YELLOW - Approach signals.
RED - Signals.
GREY or WHITE - Unused levers.

Michael Dye commented on his post
Since the diagram states that Kouts was a Manual Interlocking (Lower left side of Photo 5), the Armstrong Levers on the top deck actuated a machine on the lower, similar to this one.

Dennis DeBruler shared
Rick Aylsworth The interlocking bed.
Daniel Herkes Did the position of the various blocks allow the eyebars to move or not?
Rick Aylsworth Daniel Herkes Yes, the bars had notches and dogs that engaged with other bars to control what could move and what was locked.
Daniel Herkes Rick Aylsworth A mechanical NAND/NOR gate. Perfect.
Rick Aylsworth Daniel Herkes Exactly! Next came relay logic, then digital hardware logic, nowadays software logic.

Michael Dye commented on his post
Which moved pipes that ran to the various appliances; signals, switches and such. NOTE: On the other hand, the remote control of the Erie's Wilders was done electrically.

Dennis DeBruler shared
[I added three photos to explain how pipelines worked.]