NorthAmericanInterlockings: 1975 1973
Chicago and Northern Indiana Railroad Interlocking Towers (click the marker for the correct information)
Fort Wayne was the name used by GTW. NKP called it Spriggsboro and Pennsy called it Grand Trunk.
 |
| Ken Durkel commented on his posting |
Someone sent this to me a long time ago when they saw it on line. It is NOT my picture, and I don't know who to credit for it. But this is an eastbound passing the GTW tower west of Valparaiso, Indiana. It shows a date of June, 1973, so the tower existed at least that long.
 |
| 1 |
 |
| 2 |
 |
| Mark Hinsdale posted Time for a repost. In the 50's, 60's and 70's, eastbound Grand Trunk Western #392 was the hottest train on the entire railroad. The train's express purpose was to forward merchandise, including perishables, received in the morning ffrom connections at Chicago and Blue Island IL, to the Canadian National Railway at Port Huron MI by 11:00 pm the same day. In the era of calendar day per diem equipment accounting, only one day's per diem incurred on the mostly foreign railroad rolling stock that made up the train was of substantial and meaningful savings to GTW. Here, at then bucolic Fort Wayne Crossing, west of Valparaiso in mid morning, #392 is nicely into the 333 mile journey across northwestern Indiana and the width of Michigan's Lower Peninsula to keep its nightly appointment at Port Huron-Sarnia ON. Three of GTW best locomotives are leading the train, which includes the typical head end of refrigerated cars with meat and fruit from the west, destined to the Toronto and Montreal markets. June, 1973 photo by Mark Hinsdale Peter Zimmerman posted
Fort Wayne Crossing tower at Valparaiso Indiana controlled 2 separate interlocking's, the crossing of the GTW with PRR at the "Fort Wayne Crossing" proper as well as the nearby "Spriggboro" crossing between GTW and Nickel Plate Road.
Today the GTW is the CN Railway main line, the NKP is the NS Chicago District and the PRR is the Chicago Fort Wayne & Eastern.
The tower closed in the late 1970's.
Thanks to Howie Castellucio with historical information about this particular location.
|
 |
| Ken Durkel posted |
The PRR/GTW diamonds at Ft. Wayne Crossing in Valparaiso, Indiana. Taken in 1985. The tower was in the distance across the street from where my '76 Monte Carlo is parked. The Tower was a GTW tower, and was halfway between the PRR and NKP crossings. The NKP would be out of sight behind the small hill in the distance. The road is County Road 250 West, but the tower stood right next to the road, and locals have called this Tower Road forever, and it is called Tower Road today by most locals. People who have no idea why it is called Tower Road.
 |
| Satellite |
 |
| Ken Durkel posted Amtrak 41 heads west, just west of Valparaiso, Indiana, on the ex PRR Ft. Wayne Line. This was in early November, 1985, and though it looks like the train is running "Wrong Main", in fact the line is single track Absolute Permissive Block (APB) territory. This was taken shortly before the old westward main was removed, but it was out of service by this date. At East Hobart, or Ebony as it was known at the time, the train will cross back over to double track. At the extreme bottom of the picture is the GTW coming in at Ft. Wayne Crossing. |
 |
| Ken Durkel posted An eastbound CF&E crossing the CN's ex GTW west of Valparaiso on July 15, 2015. Taken from Tower Road. Train is on the ex PRR. Eric Powell You look at photos/videos from the late '60s and that area behind the train was wide open -- no trees at all. Incredible. |
 |
| Wayne Hudak commented Here's about 1979, Eric Powell. I was most likely standing by the line pole on the right of the lead engine. [Looks like BN has a couple of run-through engines on the train.] |
 |
| 1953 Valparasio Quadrangle @ 1:24,000 |
 |
| Wayne Hudak posted
Just west of Valparaiso Indiana.
Eastbound Broadway Limited on the former PRR at Ft Wayne Crossing of the Grand Trunk Western. Saw many an E8-9 powered Broadways and this day was an out of ordinary 4 E units, 3 were the norm. ©1978 |
 |
| Mark Hinsdale posted
Fort Wayne Crossing IN... June, 1973
Upon arriving at this interesting three railroad junction outside Valparaiso on a summer morning, a group of us asked the operator in the tower if anything was close. He said that eastbound Penn Central Mail & Express Train #8 was about ten minutes away, and coming fast. When I shot this view of it about to bang across the GTW, I remember being disappointed that the lead E unit had virtually no markings on it whatsoever. Somehow, the intervening 43 years have erased that sentiment, and it looks a lot better to me now!
Harold J. Krewer Ex-PRR E unit in the lead. By thy lift rings shall ye know thee.... James L. Ludwig Funny how it had three different names for the three different railroads-Grand Trunk called it GT called it Fort Wayne, Conrail's ex-pennsy called it C Valpo and Norfolk Southern's ex-Nickel plate called it Spriggsboro. |
 |
| Mike Snow posted
Grand Trunk Western U-4 4-8-4 No.6410 at Fort Wayne Tower west of Valparaiso Indiana October 14th 1952.
Proud Queens of Grand Trunk Western's steam passenger fleet were the six 4-8-4s in class U-4-b, Nos. 6405-6410. These Lima-built locomotives closely resembled Nos. 6400-6404 of parent Canadian National. The GTW and CNR class U-4 locomotives exemplify, to a degree, the "upside-down bathtub" look in streamlining, as opposed to the "bullet-nose" style of the examples mentioned above. Their streamlining did not extend to the tender which, typical of newer Canadian National Railways power, was in the Vanderbilt style with a cylindrical water tank. The main visible difference between the CNR and GTW classes was the design of the air intake ahead of the stack. Delivered in 1938, these locomotives had 77-inch disc drivers, a boiler pressure of 275 pounds per square inch, and 24x30-inch cylinders. They developed 52,457 pounds of tractive effort and weighed 382,700 pounds Photo by Sandy Goodrick from my collection.
|
 |
| Wayne Hudak posted Known as Grand Trunk Crossing to the Pennsy, this Conrail freight is running west via the eastbound main on the Pittsburgh Ft Wayne & Chicago line west of Valparaiso Indiana. The Grand Trunk, on the other hand, called it Ft Wayne Crossing. Photo October 1978 Wayne Hudak. Ken Durkel Now called just "WAYNE" by CN, and CN Crossing by NS and the CF&E.
[I started quoting more comments, but there are a lot of interesting ones. Since it is a Public Group, it is worth clicking the "posted" link.]
|
West of Valparaiso, IN is a location where the GTW x/o the CSX (CR, Ex-PC, former PRR, nee PFtW&C) and the NS (Ex-N&W, former NKP). The Nickel Plate referred to this place as "Spriggsboro," while the GTW referred to it as "Ft Wayne Junction" (what did the Pennsy call this place?).Art Wallis It was simply called Grand Trunk.
Here are three photos of the (now long-gone) tower there -- all taken by a long-time friend of mine, Dr. Robert F. Breese, on July7 13, 1974. Bob was heading east on Amtrak's BROADWAY LIMITED and took these pix off the rear end of the train. Posted with Permission.
William Shapotkin also posted
 |
| 1 |
 |
| 2 |
 |
| 3 |
William Shapotkin posted two photos with the comment:
We are at Spriggsboro, IN (the NKP name of the GTW/NS(NKP) xing west of Valparaiso) on June 24, 1999 as an E/B NS frt heads E/B on the former NKP (having just come off the former PRR) and x/o the GTW.Mark Egebrecht They purchased it from Conrail in 1993-1994 to relieve congestion on their NKP line. A connection track between the two lines just past the signal in the first photo was installed so the PRR could be used as a long passing siding between Ebony and Spriggsboro.
If memory serves me correctly, the NS either gained ownership (or at least control) of the former PRR betw East Hobart and a point west of Ft Wayne, IN -- thus establishing a "second main" of its line betw those two locations. Wm Shapotkin Photos.
 |
| 11 |
 |
| 12 |
William Shapotkin posted three photos with the comment:
Time out for one last thread on Ft Wayne Crossing (GTW name)/Grand Trunk (PRR name)/Spriggsbor (NKP name) west of Valparaiso, IN.
1. It is July 1969 and an E/B N&W frt is seen x/o the GTW. View looks west from Ft Wayne Crossing Tower. Robert Sidney Barth Photo/Wm Shapotkin Collection.
2 and 3. These two pix (which may/may not be from a book) were sent to me a long time ago by a friend -- showing Conrail trns on the still double-track one-time PRR, at or about to x/o the GTW. Understand both photos are from late 1970s.
 |
| 1 Bob Finan  Pretty rare to see TWO ex-NKP Geep 30’s in a consist! They only had ten IIRC..... |
 |
| 2 |
 |
| 3 |
No comments:
Post a Comment