Towns and Nature: Detroit, MI: Delray Tower: PM+Wabash vs. NYC

In addition to Wabash and NYC's MC+LS&MS, the Pennsy (CRSA) and GTW ran through here.

A bunch of railroads came together to share the Wabash Bridge over the Rouge River, which we see in the background, and then they split on the other side. This "joining" also effectively serves as a junction among all of these railroads.

Wabash and Pere Marquette joined to go east on the jointly owned Union Belt.

The connector comes in on the west side from a corridor that had Detroit and Toledo Shore Line (DTS), B&O, Lake Shore & Michigan Southern (LS&MS), Michigan Central (MC), and GTW/Detroit Toledo and Ironton. The DTS, in turn, was GTW-NKP joint, later GTW+CSX+NS/B&O+Big4+Erie+Pennsy. Now the two outer routes of this corridor are CN and the two middle routes are CRSA (Conrail Shared Assets).

Unlike a lot of railroads, all of these routes still exist. PM merged into C&O in 1947. C&O and PM merged into Chessie in 1972. That is why a WM engine could in this PM+B&O territory. Since NYC acquired control of LS&MS and MC in the 1800s, that would explain the Penn Central switcher. NS has the Wabash route on the west, CSX has the PM route going north on the east side of the river, and NS and CSX share the UB route. Unlike the Port Huron Bridge, this bridge is not locked in the upright position to rust away.

Richard Roberts posted
Conrail trains meet at Delray in downtown Detroit, MI in the 90's. From my 35 mm pics.

Mark Hinsdale posted

"Border Jumper"

CSX westbound Train R327 works its way through Delray Interlocking in southwest Detroit MI on a November, 1991 afternoon. The merchandise train has just arrived from Canada, after originating in Buffalo NY and crossing southern Ontario on the way to the Motor City. After a re-shuffling at Detroit's Rougemere Yard, it will continue on to Grand Rapids and Chicago. I began my railroad career as an operator for Chesapeake & Ohio here at Delray Tower, a bit over twenty years prior to this photograph, in June, 1971. November, 1991 photo by Mark Hinsdale

Craig Harris Get your photos of this while you can........things are planned to change this [2020] summer!

https://biglittlerr.blogspot.com/2012/05/1890s-railroading-in-2012.html
http://www.railfanguides.us/mi/detroit/map1/index.htm
Facebok page
Last tower in use comment (I added some comments about Chicagoland on a posting)

There is an older posting that I did not find when I came across Alex's posting.

Alex Bogert posted fourteen photos with the comment: "I'll probably get in some trouble for this, but I got a few photos with permission. Welcome to Delray railroad tower.... Her fate awaits. I used to watch trains here in the early 1990s. Carbon, and Dearborn ave."

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Peter Dudley This centralized switching point, where trains running to and from downtown Detroit and Fort Street Union Depot (FSUD) were dispatched in several different directions, made sense at one time. In today's mostly - north / south rail environment, we are left with the "Delray delay" (which will probably continue after the tower is eventually de-commissioned, if ever). Downtown is to the right (aka east), along the former - Union Belt of Detroit (UBD) double-track mainline.

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Larry Teresa Kaloian The timers do you know what they were for. I remember them and what they were for.Peter Dudley When tower operators "lock-in" a route through an interlocking plant, all other conflicting routes are simultaneously "locked-out". A timer regulates the period during which routes are locked-in. When the timer runs out, an operator can set up a new route through the plant. I expect that this over-simplification will be corrected by group members.Larry Teresa Kaloian Once you set the route and cleared the signal the only way to unlock the levers to change the route you put the signal lever back and ran the timer for that signal. We called it grinding the clock ( timer).

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Predecessor tower on the other side of the tracks.
Peter Dudley The photograph shows Pennsylvania Railroad’s westbound RED ARROW passenger train, steaming eastward over the Union Belt of Detroit (UBD) mainline toward Fort Street Union Depot (FSUD), as it passed the original, late-1800s-vintage wood-frame Delray Tower (left). The 4-6-2 Pacific was crossing New York Central System’s double-track Detroit Line, which originally consisted of two separate railroads -- the southbound Lake Shore, and the northbound Toledo, Canada Southern & Detroit Railway (TCS&D, part of Michigan Central Railroad), which had been combined under NYC management decades earlier. E.L. Novak shot this photo c. 8 am, July 29, 1941 – the image is now part of the Charlie WhippCollection.
This New York / Detroit overnight Pullman train, named in honor of Michigan’s "Red Arrow" Army Infantry division of WW I, was often headed by two heavy Pacific steam locomotives, but the first fifteen blocks of the train's eastbound trip were powered by smaller switch engines – PRR's K4s Pacific locomotives were too heavy for the 1892-vintage ironwork supporting the FSUD Viaduct.
When the eastbound RED ARROW consist came down the ramp (still-standing) from the long-gone elevated railroad (1893-1974) near 18th Street, the big 4-6-2 Pacific steamers were waiting for it at Union Belt of Detroit’s 21st Street Engine Terminal, completed in 1924. Part of this huge roundhouse was located under the Ambassador Bridge, completed in 1929. One of the bridge’s support piers had to be carefully-designed and installed, to avoid interfering with work inside the roundhouse – today, this odd-looking steelwork is the only reminder of what once was.
In the long run, the RED ARROW, running to New York City via Toledo, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, couldn't compete with New York Central’s Detroit / New York DETROITER overnight Pullman express. The DETROITER followed a shorter (and much faster) route through southern Ontario, on its way to Buffalo Central Terminal (BCT, built 1929, currently undergoing restoration) and New York's Grand Central Terminal (GCT, opened February 1913, preserved). The RED ARROW was discontinued in 1959.
In 1947, the eastbound RED ARROW was involved in a fatal derailment in Pennsylvania, east of Pittsburgh. The story of the disaster, which affected many Detroit families, is told in a recent book, The Wreck of THE RED ARROW

Peter Dudley Here's another pre-1945 view of the previous wood-frame Delray Tower, looking due south from Dearborn Street. Note the streetcar / interurban tracks (foreground) -- tower operators also controlled DSR's level crossing at Delray Junction (William J. Miller photo, David J. Mrozek collection).

Rodney Lappin shared the posting and there are some more comments of interest:
Peter Dudley The current brick tower replaced the previous wood-frame tower in 1945. Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad (F&PM), a distant-ancestor of today's CSX Transportation, probably built the tower c. 1892 when F&PM's new Oak / Delray Cut-Off opened. Delray Junction was created c. 1881, when Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad (aka Wabash) crossed the Detroit / Toledo Lake Shore and M.C.R.R. mainlines.
Ed Perkins Thanks for the info. I knew the current tower replaced an older tower from the late 19th Century. My great grandfather had started working for the DL&N in 1885, before they merged with the F&PM around 1900. I heard this tower mentioned many times as a kid, as my grandfather had worked for the PM, and later C&O. Are they tearing it down?
Peter Dudley Ed Perkins: That's a good question. Supposedly, the railroads that cross and interchange at Delray Junction would like to dispense with the tower, but they have been unable to agree on how to accomplish that. If and when CSX Delray Tower closes, I hope it will be moved to Greenfield Village and preserved. Consider "liking" this FB page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/CSX-Delray-tower/259977250787940).

CSX Delray tow

Update:

Bryan Layton Sr. posted

When I was a kid, the guys in the RR tower at Dearborn and Carbon used to let us in and show us the switches and told us how things worked. Had candy they would give us too.

My grandmother lived at the corner of Graham and Carbon so it was a short walk for us to get to the tower.

Very good memories of that time in my life.

Anyone else ever go in there?

Albert Ikie Grablick commented on the above posting
Just by there last Friday, on way to Kovacs bar,use to ride bikes in the woods before I-75 was built, lived on waterman.

Karl King posted
2020 Delray tower, sign now gone. Anytime I've been here, I see CSX drill a train out to about here then disappear back into the yard - never seen a road train operate thru.
Tim Shanahan shared

Deb Potter posted four photos with the comment: "CSX Delray Tower November-2017
DETROIT, MI
Still in operation."
Deb Potter They can't do PTC, as of now, at our location. The cost is too much and no one can decide who will own the territory after. Since its shared assets.

Deb Potter I know of the manned bridge in Toledo. But that's NS.
I'm 33. I've worked for csx for 6.5 years now. I started at F tower in Fostoria, OH. Then worked at the Lower River Bridge in Toledo. Next to the ore docks.
Manned towers are few and far between anymore. Especially ones that you direct train traffic, like Delray. I've worked at Delray now for 5 years. Love the job. Always something new/different every day.
Railroading goes back several generations on both sides for me. My dad and grandpa were electricians for csx. My grandma work for Pennsylvania Railroad during WW2 in Toledo. Her dad was a General Yardmaster. Her grandfather also worked for the railroad. I have so many cool railroad pictures from P.R.R. that my grandma had given me. I'll share them on her sometime.

Peter Dudley shared
An aerial photograph looks southwest along Detroit's future Fisher Freeway (I-75), under construction in 1965.
Delray Tower is visible near the center of the image, where diagonal Dearborn Street crosses from left to right. West Fort Street is also visible (lower-right corner).
The freeway went through the site of the 40-stall Wabash roundhouse (lower-left corner), which had been demolished during the 1950s.
The 1921 Michigan Central Railroad (M.C.R.R.) Rouge River Bascule Bridge and the Wabash Bridge (located just upstream from the incomplete I-75 bridge) are visible in the distance (photo retrieved from the Online Collection at www.DetroitHistorical.org).

Mide Delaney posted
Delray, Detroit, Michigan original tower, WJ MIller photo.

Craig Hensley Photography posted

Something Old & Something New

The CSX OCS P001-25 passing the old, and now closed Delray Tower. One of the busiest interlockings in Michigan, and the last tower to use strong-arm levers was switched over to control of the CSX RN Dispatcher in Jacksonville, Florida last year. I thought his shot would be unique, albeit not the best with the sun, but as a preservation of history. 

Tech: Canon 5D Mark III + Canon 70-200mm f2.8 is ii
Symbol: CSX P001-25
Date: 8/25/21
Location: Delray Junction, Detroit, Michigan

Mike Steltenkamp posted a video with the comment: "Inside Delray tower in Detroit before it was retired."

Jim Kelling: What’s happening with the tower now?

Mike Steltenkamp: Jim Kelling hard telling. It was in a very bad area and was dangerous for the the workers in the tower. Like most will probably torn down or set on fire.

Mike Steltenkamp added six photos to his video post as comments: