Columbus, OH: LM Cabin/Scioto Tower: Pennsy vs. NYC/TOC and C&O/HV

(Satellite)

Stu Nicholson posted
The long gone Scioto Tower in Columbus, Ohio not long before it was demolished. In it's heyday, it controlled the junction of the New York Central, Pennsylvania, C&O and B&O. Here, a Chessie System local passes by on it's way north toward Delaware and Marion. This would have been in the early 1990's.

Charlie Whipp posted
Conrail at Scioto tower, Columbus Ohio. Full caption in link. https://flic.kr/p/2nmrGGB
Charlie Whipp shared
John Barnett: Operator Rick Timko from Dennison worked that tower for years

 

Jon Bentz commented on Charlie's post
Spent a lot of time there. Your shot must be near the end with the bungalow in position on the left side of the tower.
Charlie Whipp: Jon Bentz Thanks Jon. My photo was taken in March, 1987. Had a few dreary days along with some Spring sunshine which made for a bunch of interesting photos.

Thomas Wentzel shared a post by Daniel Adair of three photos with the comment: "Spent a snowy Saturday afternoon in early 1984 inside Scioto tower, Columbus, Ohio, visiting a tower operator friend of mine. Due to the heavy snowfall, it was a very busy day. Scioto tower has 3 lines crossing here. The ex PRR Panhandle line-CR, the ex C&O/Chessie Toledo line and the ex NYC/Conrail to WV line. Pictured, is a eastbound coal train on the ex PRR line. Once through downtown Columbus, it will swing north, and, most likely, go towards Cleveland. This was a tough day for this coal extra. This is its first attempt at climbing a grade out of downtown Columbus, through Worthington. After going by Scioto tower, it made it about 1 mile up the grade and stalled out. Then, a most unusual thing happened. Instead of calling for a helper, the operator advised the coal train to back down the hill, past our tower, and get a second run. Maybe there were no helpers available or maybe it was just a quicker way to clear it up. The engineer blamed the heavy snowfall. So back he came, backing westbound, through downtown Columbus,  past Scoito tower, stopped, and then came by, this time at a slightly faster speed. He made it about 3 miles before again, stalling out. So the dispatcher told him to do the same thing. Again backing through downtown Columbus, past Scioto tower. On its third try, it made it up to and through Worthington, Ohio. This process caused 2 C&O/Chessie trains and 3 NYC/CR trains to stop at the diamond. (I have pictures of these trains too). After the hapless coal train cleared, 8 trains in quick succession ran by us, inside our warm tower. Younger people who never got to experience being inside a tower will never know what they are missing. It was a great and memorable day, watching the snow fly, and watching the trains and their crews dealing with it, from inside Scioto tower."

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Tyler Dixon posted four photos with the comment: "Scioto Tower (LM Cabin), Columbus, OH."

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Darren Reynolds posted six images with the comment:

Conrails (EX-NYC)

"Scioto" tower 

Columbus, Ohio

Tim Shanahan shared

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"Scioto" tower in Columbus, Ohio. June 1981

Photo by: Rob Mandeville

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A C&O caboose is passing "Scioto," tower on October 19,1974

Photo by: David P. Oroszi

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A track and interlocking diagram and interlocking machine information for "Scioto" tower.

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A Penn Central freight passes "Scioto" tower on

November 19, 1979

Photo by: David P. Oroszi

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A look at the Dimonds at "Scioto" tower

Photo by: Bob McCord

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A Penn Central freight passes on Oct. 19, 1974

Photo by: David P. Oroszi

Mike Rep Hummel added three photos to Darren's post in the comments with the text: "Sadly, The Scioto Tower is now gone some 20 years I'm thinking (?). Here is a picture from inside showing the manual levers used to switch tracks pre-satellite circa mid-90's."

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I disagree with Stu's post that the B&O went through this junction. I marked up this map to show how the Pennsy, HV and TOC (NYC) went through the junction. The B&O route is the north/south route along the left side of this topo excerpt.

• Blue: Pennsy
• Yellow: C&O/Hocking Valley
• Green: NYC/Toledo & Ohio Central

1923 West and 1925 East Columbus Quadrangles @ 1:62,500

Below is a copy that has not been marked up.

1923 West and 1925 East Columbus Quadrangles @ 1:62,500

Today, NS owns the Pennsy. CSX owns the HV to the north and a shortline (IOCR) owns it to the south. Likewise, TOC has been split with NS owning the north part and CSX owning the south. I don't know where the boundaries are on the HV and TOC for the ownership change.