Erie, PA: NYC Dock Junction (DJ) Tower and NKP Street Running

(Satellite)

Dave Trenn posted
"DJ" Tower mp 89 Erie Pa 4-28-98 [Ross Jack image, part of my collection]
Any background info on this tower would be appreciated.
Ron Stafford: Originally known as Dock Junction. Was open by March 18, 1886 and closed on January 16, 1957 when control of the interlocking was transferred to Cleveland.
Douglas Woodard: The relocated NS main thru Erie goes right where the tower was.
Just west of Pittsburgh Avenue and actually in Mill Creek township. Where the NS swings over to run parallel to CSX.
[CSX/NYC went from 4 tracks to 2 tracks so the south part of the RoW is now used by NS/NKP. And NS abandoned its NKP route through town, which was street running on 19th Street.
The railyard is now gone. Part of it is being used for material storage.]

Larry Candilas commented on Dave's post
1950 diagram from Trains Magazine map

1957 Swanville and Erie South Quads @ 24,000

I downloaded an aerial photo. But the scale was just 60,000, and it didn't help to determine the exact location. But Douglas' comment about NS's crossover track is fairly precise.

Dave Blaze Rail Photography posted

For today's IG post and FB repost here is one from the files of that which was lost. 

From 1882 until October 12, 2001 Norfolk Southern and predecessors N&W and Nickel Plate ran right through the heart of downtown Erie, Pennsylvania on a residential street. 

Because the city of Erie would not give the Nickel Plate permission to complete the line through the city, the railroad chose to construct the approximately ten blocks of in-street track on a Sunday, since the courts would be closed, and there would then be no legal way to stop the work. The most feasible solution for the railroad was to lay the track down the middle of 19th street for two and half miles, where the tracks remained for 118 years! 

In the modern era 12-15 trains a day would traverse this bottleneck at 10 mph. The end came as a condition of the Conrail split. Even though CSXT was given ownership of the ex NYC grade separated mainline they were required to grant NS an easement to relocate their mainline away from 19th street parallel to CSXT (which had more than enough room considering the water level route was once four main tracks). 

I am not sure of the year of this image but my best guess is the summer of 1998.  This is a westbound train at the intersection of 19th and Chestnut Streets. 

Erie, Pennsylvania 

Jerry Bower: I worked as a safety conductor on two NRHS NS steam specials that utilized this track in the 70's. One was behind number 1218 and the other 611. Those were the days!