Youngstown, OH: Center Junction: eight railroad routes; Hazelton (CH) Tower?

(Satellite)

Another reminder that a junction "tower" is sometimes just one story tall. (Update: see 'CH' Tower below for what may have been the tower. I'm still very confused by this junction.)

Bob Morley posted
I used to work in that little box shanty. It was for the Train Director at Center St. in Youngstown, OH. Back in the day, five different railroads converged on that one point. I don't know how true it is, but they say more tonnage crossed underneath the Center Street Bridge than any other points in the world. There was the B&O, P&LE, ERIE RAILROAD, PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD and NEW YORK CENTRAL all on the east side and the PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD, LE&E and the Y&S on the west side of the bridge.
Again it was claimed, Center Street was the only place in the country that you could receive a Red Highball. If memory serves correct, the Pennsylvania RR received its permission to move with a Red signal, the Baltimore and Ohio moved on Green, the Erie moved on White and the New York Central and the P & L E both use the same tracks and they would move on yellow.

Michael Tidrick shared
East Side Civics post
Ed Chaffee i had the pleasure of interacting with this switch shanty many times...either by waiting in a locomotive for a hi-ball signal to cross the B&O, or by walking in to the shanty to request permission to cross...pretty neat little place...
Karl Hartzell posted
Dakota Papsun shared

Jon Moody posted two photos with the comment:

Center Street Junction, Youngstown OH, then and now.

Until the 1970s, this was a place unique in the world of American railroads.  Five railroads merged and/or crossed.  Pennsylvania, B&O, Erie, New York Central, P&LE.  Railroad men of the day, like my dad, called it “Ulcer Gulch”.

The bottom photo shows the same location today.  (Seen from the opposite direction.)

A simple crossing of the CSX and NS

Gregory Lund: I believe the pics are in opposite directions. Original pic is looking south toward Haselton Yard (train in distance to center-right) which was PRR to Conway, NYC/PLE (Gateway yard) was to center left in distance, B&O crossed directly in front of "tower"/switchtender cabin, photog standing on B&O, left to New Castle, behind photog to Akron/Willard/Chicago. In the newer pic, train is on B&O headed toward New Castle, new connection is above 2nd unit (for trains coming south on Y'town line from Ashtabula to go east on B&O to New Castle). Y'town Line to Ashtabula is straight ahead, Haselton Yard behind Photographer.

Jon Moody: Gregory Lund I agree. Same location; camera pointed the other way.

Dan Carter: Wouldn't Griffith, IN in the old days be equal with the Erie, C&O, MC(NYC), EJ&E. and GTW all xing?

Vaughn Brothers: Outlawed there a few times.

Chuck McAbee: Worked the B&O Train Order Operator's position at Haselton in 1967-68 off the Extra List. All railroads had a Statutory Stop for the Center Street Crossings. The Train Director (a trainman) would flag each carriers trains over the crossing by use of colored hand signals - flags by day and lights by night. Each carrier had a different color to respond to. The wild card to the entire operation was the EIRE and their hot bottle trains. The ERIE bottle runs originated from a mill behind Haselton Tower and through a sets of hand throw crossovers moved to the tracks farthest from the tower which was the ERIE line to Warren and Cleveland. The ERIE did not have to ask for permission to cross - they just started throwing the crossovers.

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Jon Moody commented on his post

After I left the railroad I became an engineering draftsman and graphic artist. A few years ago I drew, from memory, this diagram (not to scale) of the 5 major railroads going thru Youngstown in the 1960s.

Can anyone verify its accuracy?

[Some comments verify it as accurate.]

Vinny Badagliacca commented on Jon's post, cropped, at Facebook resolution
Here is a signal blueprint for the Los Angeles River corridor from 1991- when the metrolink project began. 5 different railroads there. Railroading at its complicated best. If you could believe Santa Fe Mission tower, upstairs were the operators with the Armstrong levers, and downstairs were a gazillion old wabco and Westinghouse relays clicking picking up and dropping heels and fronts away at a million mph. Only a signalman would know what I'm talking about. The forgotten part of old railroading. Today it's all computerized.

Or was this the tower for Center Junction?

Darren Reynolds posted three photos with the comment: "B&Os 'CH' tower (Haselton) Youngstown, Ohio."

Ronald Slivka: CDid it actually control the switches? I remember some of the old heads talking about the Erie stealing switches.

Michael Morley: Ronald Slivka I think it was just a train order station; the Center Street diamonds weren't interlocked and the switches there were hand-throws.

Chuck McAbee: Haselton was not an interlocking. All crossovers were hand throw - within an area of Statutory Stops for all carriers. ERIE was the prior rights carrier at the location - as such, they could open up the crossovers for their movements whenever the track was clear of moving trains.

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"CH" tower had no interlocking..it had a train Director but I'm not sure how it works?

Photo by: David P.Oroszi May 30,1976

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You just see "CH" tower but big Eng-6204 is right in Front. 

May19,1936

Photo by: RCL

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Nature's taking it back. "CH" tower now closed.

Photo by: Bob Allen ( no date)

All images from North American interlockings States A to Z and Canada..

Photo by: Unknown & no date

1953 Campbell and Youngstown Quads @ 24,000

Detroit, MI: Belt Line Junction: CRSA/MC vs. CN/GTW

(Satellite)
The is a significant rewrite because the original Aug 2018 version was wrong because the 2005 SPV Map labelled the Forest Lawn Junction as Belt Line Junction. Peter explains that the Belt Junction was much closer to the Milwaukee Junction.

Charles Geletzke Jr. posted
NYC-PC-CR Belt Line Jct. tower in Detroit, Michigan on March 21, 1978.  This tower controlled a crossing of the GTW's Mount Clemens Subdivision. (C. H. Geletzke, Jr. photo)
Tim Shanahan shared
A Charles Geletzke Jr Photograph
Charles Geletzke Jr. also posted
Charles Geletzke Jr. also posted

Wayne Koch posted
Peter Dudley: Belt Line Junction is located on Detroit's east side, just north of the Dodge Main site (today's GM / Cadillac Assembly "Poletown" plant).
The Michigan Central / New York Central Detroit Belt Line diverged from the M.C.R.R. / NYC Bay City Division, and crossed the parallel Grand Trunk tracks here. The tower is long-gone.
The Belt Line once extended all the way to Detroit's east riverfront, connecting with Detroit Transit Railroad (another M.C.R.R. / NYC line). Today, the line ends just north of Gratiot Avenue (where a M.C.R.R. freight station once stood). It served many factories, including Packard Motor Car Company's plant (1906-1956).
Peter Dudley shared
Nhat Quan V. Do What intersection was this tower closest to?
Peter Dudley The tower must have been located east of St. Aubin (within shouting distance of Milwaukee Junction), and west of Joseph Campau. The area has changed, as a result of Poletown plant construction (Hamtramck Drive is new -- the Belt Line no longer directly connects with the North Yard Branch at the former - tower site).
http://www.michiganrailroads.com/.../2149-belt-line...
For some unexplained reason, these "Belt Line Jct." tower photographs don't match. Did a brick tower replace the frame tower, at some point?
Nhat Quan V. Do Is it (apprx.) here? https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sD-o...

Peter Dudley commented on his share
The attached Google street view looks east from the "intersection" of St. Aubin Street and Clay Avenue -- Belt Line Junction Tower would have been visible from here (Google coordinates 42.381237, -83.055914).
The track crossing over Hamtramck Drive on the CN overpass (visible in the distance) no longer connects with ANY of the High Line tracks (foreground).

Dennis DeBruler commented on Peter's share
While checking out the location of this junction, I discovered another roundhouse. Was this GTW?
1940 Highland Park Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Dennis DeBruler commented on Peter's share
You can still see part of the foundation of the west wall. And I think the big green glob is in the turntable pit.
https://www.google.com/.../@42.3787593,-83.../data=!3m1!1e3

Peter Dudley commented on Dennis' comment

That was Milwaukee Junction Roundhouse -- the entire footprint of this structure is almost-traceable in current Google satellite views.

The labels in the attached Google satellite view were applied by yours truly (Peter Dudley). The "Milwaukee Junction Depot" label refers to the depot's original location, which may have been built when Grand Trunk Railway of Canada (GTR) acquired Great Western Railway of Canada (GWR) in 1882. Later, the depot was re-located farther south, along the Holly Subdivision's west edge.

GTR's original Detroit-area "Engine House" was completed c. 1859, north of "Grand Trunk Junction" (re-named West Detroit in 1887) -- the approximate Google coordinates are 42.329524,-83.104776. This rectangular structure included an enclosed turntable.

I'm still looking for information about the roundhouse and depot at Milwaukee Junction, and the "Grand Trunk Passenger Station" (1859 - 1907?) at West Detroit.

Charles Geletzke Jr. posted
NYC's (PC-CR) Belt line Jct. in Detroit, Michigan on March 21, 1978.  Here we see the NYC's line crossing six tracks of the GTW to get back to their own Bay City Branch just south of North Yard. (C. H. Geletzke, Jr. photo)

Battle Creek, MI: 1887 NYC/MC Depot and Hinman Yard

Depot: (3D Satellite)

Yard: (Satellite? My guess based on this post.)

Jim Arvites posted
Postcard view of a passenger train making a stop at the Michigan Central (NYC) station in Battle Creek, Michigan in the early 1900's. The depot was opened in 1888 and is still standing today.

Benjamin Gravel posted five images with the comment:

Designed by Rogers & MacFarlane. Michigan Central Railroad Passenger Depot, 44 McCamly Street built in 1888 Battle Creek, MI.

1) Image of the depot from Wikipedia, date unknown.

2) Image of the depot from Clara's on the River's website, date unknown.

3) Image of the depot from Wikipedia, date unknown.

4) A rendering of the depot from an 1889 issue of The Engineer & Building Record.

5) A rendering of the depot from an 1887 issue of Engineering News.

Currently: Commercial space

Jim Kelling shared with the comment: "Michigan Central station in Battle Creek, Michigan (1887)."

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Tim Shanahan posted three images with the comment: "Battle creek."

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Baltimore Chapter, National Railway Historical Society posted
Jim Kelling shared
Battle Creek, Michigan (Michigan Central station)
It’s now a restaurant with an outdoor terrace where the tracks were

 

Charles Geletzke Jr. posted
NYC Train 355 with the 4051 & 40__ at Battle Creek, Michigan on August 31, 1967. (C. H. Geletzke, Jr. photo)

The MC route now shares the GTW route through Battle Creek, so the tracks by the depot are gone.

1947 Battle Creek Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

But the depot has been repurposed.

Street View

Marty Bernard posted two photos with the comment: "2 of Michigan Central's Battle Creek, MI Outstanding Depot, Duane Hall photos, May 1985."

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Dennis DeBruler commented on Marty's post
The tracks became a trail and the depot has been repurposed.
42°19'16.2"N 85°10'53.8"W

Wanatah, IN: Monon Depot and Junction Tower: Monon vs. CFW&E/CSX/Pennsy

(Satellite)

John Eagan posted
 found this postcard of a lake in Wanatah, IN and it shows the PRR tower at the crossing with the Monon...that's the Monon's depot with a car on the interchange track. The lake is a problem since you could not find it today: the dam was removed and the lake drained. The now "undammed" creek still runs through the area that today is a park with an old relocated bridge.
Peter ZimmermannPeter and 1 other manage the membership, moderators, settings, and posts for Ghost Railroads of the midwest, west and south. Monon abandoned in 1980 by SBD.
John Eagan At one time the 4th longest tangent track in the world from Michigan City to Battleground.

1972 Flickrs: trackside of depot, L&N dropping hopper on interchange track

Fort Wayne, IN: Philo Farnsworth invented electronic television

(More photos of old TVs are in "Don't touch that dial."

bonnie Keefe posted
Published by Brian Thornton
Philo Taylor Farnsworth (August 19, 1906 – March 11, 1971) was an American inventor and television pioneer. He made many contributions that were crucial to the early development of all-electronic television. He is perhaps best known for his 1927 invention of the first fully functional all-electronic image pickup device (video camera tube), the "image dissector", as well as the first fully functional and complete all-electronic television system. He was also the first person to demonstrate such a system to the public. Farnsworth developed a television system complete with receiver and camera, which he produced commercially in the form of the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation, from 1938 to 1951, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.[I remember hearing that one of the things he invented was the CRT (Cathode Ray Tube). Other TV systems had mechanical components. He developed the all-electronic system.]

AJ BonDurant "published by Brian Thorton"
LITTERALY copy and pasted from Google and wiki. 
I am in no way taking away from how neat this bit of trivia is and how it applies to the awesome history of our city. 
But Thornton is a hack and a media bozo of Fort Wayne. I wouldn't credit him with anything, as he deserves nothing.Nick Bobay This is what ITT bought and became the beginnings of SINCGARS and night vision based on FF work. The basic CRT is his legacy. His work was done at his Pontiac St facility next to IH. Most Ft Wanye residents are not aware of the technological genius we had in our midst. He also provided the communications system for the Apollo program. Thus at the time I started with the company x USAF every handset and comms system for our space exploration was from him in Ft Wayne.Robert Bynum Farnsworth merged with Capehart I believe.Marcos Espinosa What used to be the Farnsworth museum is my office.

Craig Sedery For those interested there is a small Philo T. Farnsworth museum in the lobby of the Harris Corporation building at 1919 W. Cook Rd. Ft. Wayne, (ITT bought Farnsworth Capehart and Harris bought Exelis part of the ITT company breakup)
Joel K Butler Grew up in the era . Right off of State St. Across from the old state school there is a historical monument . It says it all.[This was his house.]

Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana
Capehart-Farnsworth assembly line in the early 1950s, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
[It was on East Pontiac St. and became the I,T.&T. Building. They made the Zuddas Radio.]

Jeff Landis posted four photos.

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Update:

Brewminate posted
TODAY IN HISTORY: September 28, 1927 - The first successful television transmission was made by Philo Farnsworth. He is best known for his invention of the first fully functional all-electronic image pickup device (video camera tube), the image dissector, as well as the first fully functional and complete all-electronic television system. He developed a television system complete with receiver and camera—which he produced commercially through the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation from 1938 to 1951, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In later life, Farnsworth invented a small nuclear fusion device, the Farnsworth Fusor, employing inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC). Like many fusion devices, it was not a practical device for generating nuclear power, although it provides a viable source of neutrons.
John Willetts: So just one year after British inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated his TV in 1926, this followed his first broadcast image in 1924. In 1928 Baird made the first transatlantic TV broadcast from London to New York and the first colour transmission the same year. The BBC became interested and was the first corporation to broadcast TV shows as we know them today in 1936.
Marty Hoenig: March 25, 1925, the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird made the first-ever public display of moving visuals on television.
Tom Frith: Philo figured out how to make it work - when looking behind him at the furrows behind him while plowing the field -with a tractor .
Dennis Sayles shared
Trevor Kent: No mention of John Logie Baird who patented TV at least three years earlier having demonstrated TV in 1923.
Melvin Gerson: Trevor Kent mechanical tv which was a dead end.
Christopher Campbell: Farnsworth's invention actually predates Baird's. He designed the thing while he was still in high school in 1921, just before his fifteenth birthday. One of the drawings he did on the blackboard for his chemistry teacher was recalled and used in his patent infringement case against RCA, which he won.
Mike Ellenwood: Ft. Wayne was the birthplace of one of the first electronic calculators also. The Bowmar Brain. It is also the birthplace of what is now known as The Detroit Pistons, formerly the Zollner Pistons. Zollner was a manufacturer of pistons in Ft. Wayne. The original basketball floor is stored at The National Truck and Automotive Museum in Auburn, Indiana, just North of Ft. Wayne.
John Michael Leslie: I watched this about three weeks ago and it is very interesting on the History of TV... a lot of stuff happened way earlier than most people think... Also, as people have said, John Logie Baird was probably the first to do a system that got reasonable amount of use in people's homes... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4UF9gMHYYk
Mr.Mathgamer posted
September 28, 1927 - The first successful television transmission was made by Philo Farnsworth. He is best known for his invention of the first fully functional all-electronic image pickup device (video camera tube), the image dissector, as well as the first fully functional and complete all-electronic television system. He developed a television system complete with receiver and camera—which he produced commercially through the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation from 1938 to 1951, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In later life, Farnsworth invented a small nuclear fusion device, the Farnsworth Fusor, employing inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC). Like many fusion devices, it was not a practical device for generating nuclear power, although it provides a viable source of neutrons.
Jim McConnell shared

 

Sean Brady posted

Philo Farnsworth Explaining to his wife

(Original Caption) Philo T. Farnsworth, 28-year-old inventor, and scientist, explaining to his wife the intricate details of the television apparatus on which he has worked since the age of thirteen. With this super-sensitive televisor-camera, Farnsworth has photographed the moon and transmitted the picture to the radio receiver. This is the first time scientist promises a "return engagement", for the public, on the next clear night. 1934

James T. Billings posted
LIFE, July 26, 1943.
James T. Billings shared

 

Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted
Farnsworth Electronics in Fort Wayne, Indiana

 

Ron Blanchard commented on Tommy's post

I have his book

Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted

Philo Farnsworth, in full Philo Taylor Farnsworth II, (born August 19, 1906, Beaver, Utah, U.S.—died March 11, 1971, Salt Lake City, Utah), American inventor who developed the first all-electronic television system.

Farnsworth was a technical prodigy from an early age. An avid reader of science magazines as a teenager, he became interested in the problem of television and was convinced that mechanical systems that used, for example, a spinning disc would be too slow to scan and assemble images many times a second. Only an electronic system could scan and assemble an image fast enough, and by 1922 he had worked out the basic outlines of electronic television.

In 1923, while still in high school, Farnsworth also entered Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, as a special student. However, his father’s death in January 1924 meant that he had to leave Brigham Young and work to support his family while finishing high school.

Farnsworth had to postpone his dream of developing television. In 1926 he went to work for charity fund-raisers George Everson and Leslie Gorrell. He convinced them to go into a partnership to produce his television system. Farnsworth moved to Los Angeles with his new wife, Pem Gardner, and began work. He quickly spent the original $6,000 put up by Everson and Gorrell, but Everson procured $25,000 and laboratory space from the Crocker First National Bank of San Francisco. Farnsworth made his first successful electronic television transmission on September 7, 1927, and filed a patent for his system that same year.

Farnsworth continued to perfect his system and gave the first demonstration to the press in September 1928. His backers at the Crocker First National Bank were eager to be bought out by a much larger company and in 1930 made overtures to the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which sent the head of their electronic television project, Vladimir Zworykin, to evaluate Farnsworth’s work. Zworykin’s receiver, the kinescope, was superior to that of Farnsworth, but Farnsworth’s camera tube, the image dissector, was superior to that of Zworykin. Zworykin was enthusiastic about the image dissector, and RCA offered Farnsworth $100,000 for his work. He rejected the offer.

Instead, Farnsworth joined forces with the radio manufacturer Philadelphia Storage Battery Company (Philco) in 1931, but their association only lasted until 1933. Farnsworth formed his own company, Farnsworth Television, which in 1937 made a licensing deal with American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) in which each company could use the other’s patents. Buoyed by the AT&T deal, Farnsworth Television reorganized in 1938 as Farnsworth Television and Radio and purchased phonograph manufacturer Capehart Corporation’s factory in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to manufacture both devices. Production of radios began in 1939.RCA had not taken Farnsworth’s rejection lightly and began a lengthy series of court cases in which RCA tried to invalidate Farnsworth’s patents. Zworykin had developed a successful camera tube, the iconoscope, but many other necessary parts of a television system were patented by Farnsworth. Finally, in 1939, RCA agreed to pay Farnsworth royalties for his patents.The years of struggle and exhausting work had taken their toll on Farnsworth, and in 1939 he moved to Maine to recover after a nervous breakdown. World War II halted television development in America, and Farnsworth founded Farnsworth Wood Products, which made ammunition boxes. In 1947 he returned to Fort Wayne, and that same year Farnsworth Television produced its first television set. However, the company was in deep financial trouble. It was taken over by International Telephone and Telegraph (IT&T) in 1949 and reorganized as Capehart-Farnsworth. Farnsworth was retained as vice president of research. Capehart-Farnsworth produced televisions until 1965, but it was a small player in the industry when compared with Farnsworth’s longtime rival RCA.Farnsworth became interested in nuclear fusion and invented a device called a fusor that he hoped would serve as the basis for a practical fusion reactor. He worked on the fusor for years, but in 1967 IT&T cut his funding. He moved to Brigham Young University, where he continued his fusion research with a new company, Philo T. Farnsworth Associates, but the company went bankrupt in 1970.

Erik Gregersen

Linda Graham LeSure My Mother-in-law Phyllus Fogg started work for Farnsworth as soon as he came to FW (after WW2) and retired from ITT about 30 yrs later. She would always point out his homestead (directly across from old State School) on State Blvd when ever we passed by it.

A video of his appearance on "I've Got a Secret" His secret was "I invented electronic television (When I was 14 years old - 1922)" The Winston Cigarette commercials were also history. For one, they were the only advertiser of a half-hour show. Secondly, I remember their slogan real well: "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should." And I remember an English teacher saying that the use of "like" was bad English. They should have used "as."

Tommy Lee Fitzwater posted

Capehart-Farnsworth

661-P Television

(1948)

Linda Stewart

I didn’t remember the Farnsworth water tower (I started there as ITT in early 70’s). Retired in 2010

Kirby Volz

Where was this?

Pamela Wuellner Wolfe

Kirby Volz

 Pontiac St. by International Harvester.

John Hume

My father worked at ITT in the '50's, '60's, and early 70's. He was a tool & die maker. Farnsworth used to come to our house and pick my father up when he needed a part made on the weekend.

Steve Tiny Michaels posted
September 7,1927 – The first fully electronic television system is achieved by Philo Farnsworth.

Ron Schoenle shared

Laura Cato

As I was moving my ”smaller” 32inch tv into my bedroom I had to laugh remembering when a 17” or 19” screen was considered huge.

Bob Lalich commented on a post
Here is a 1949 Charles Cushman photo of Frank Kralj's tavern. Television!

Dennis DeBruler

Thanks for pointing out the TV sign. I would have missed that. I can remember when motels used to advertise Color TV.

20190925 9471

Shawn Carroll posted
Capehart-Farnsworth ad 1950. Anyone else own one? Ours was mahogany. Had a radio and record player also. Did you know anyone who worked there?
David Henry: A lot of people don't know the tv and the calculator were invented here.
David Gerlock: David Henry both of my parents and myself worked for Magnavox. My father also had worked at Bowmar Instruments as an engineer, and was one of the engineers involved in the design and development of the first handheld calculator. Being employees of Magnavox, we were always able to get the latest and greatest of new things. The very first video game was invented by Magnavox, the game called PONG. Mom and dad bought each of us kids the game, and to this day, I still have mine, and still in it's original box. I also still have one of the very first hand held calculators that came out. I just can't part with some things, especially when where they came from has so much personal meaning.
Sharon Slough: Capehart-Farnsworth , ITT Telephone and Telegraph, ITT Industries, then Harris and some other names. I retired from ITT after 25 yrs service in Fort Wayne IN. We made SINCGARS hand-held radios for the Army and NOAA Weather Satellite Systems. There used to be a room (museum) of old radios, TV’s and historical information at ITT building in Fort Wayne.
 I worked in Engineering at all the ITT Fort Wayne buildings, main Pontiac Street, East Pontiac Street, Industrial Park, then new buildings on St Road 3, TAC I, II, III. My mom worked at the Pontiac Street building back during WWII . Their policy back then was no relatives were allowed to be employed. An aunt and uncle also worked there at the same time. They all had different last names, would see each other on weekends, then work go to together...Greeted each other on Monday with a “Hi, how was your weekend?” !
John Hume: My father was a tool and die maker at IT&T. Farnsworth went to my father when he needed something made. I can remember him picking my dad up on a Sunday in his Cadillac in deep snow to have a part made.