Bye Bye Dock Tower

Effective Monday Nov 13th, the lights will be turned out at the venerable Dock Tower (just east of Newark Penn Station). Its function will be moved to CETC Section B at the New York CETC housed with the Penn Station Control Center (NYPSCC) in Manhattan, close to NY Penn Station. This is one of the last towers on the Amtrak controlled part of NEC to get decommissioned.

At present, in addition to controlling its own territory, it remotely controls Rea, Cliff, Hunter and Haynes, one of the busiest piece of main line railroads in the US. All of that will naturally move to CETC Section-B with Dock.

One of the last? What's left?

K Tower in Washington, D.C. ?

jb

Yup K Tower in DC is the only one on NEC controlling any part of the NEC.

Zoo still has part of the Harrisburg side, but that is strictly speaking not the NEC.

jis said:

Effective Monday Nov 13th, the lights will be turned out at the venerable Dock Tower (just east of Newark Penn Station). Its function will be moved to CETC Section B at the New York CETC housed with the Penn Station Control Center (NYPSCC) in Manhattan, close to NY Penn Station. This is one of the last towers on the Amtrak controlled part of NEC to get decommissioned.

At present, in addition to controlling its own territory, it remotely controls Rea, Cliff, Hunter and Haynes, one of the busiest piece of main line railroads in the US. All of that will naturally move to CETC Section-B with Dock.

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Dock hasn't controlled Rea, Cliff or Hunter in years. All of that was transferred to Section B quite some time ago. It will still be manned by C&S who will also control the bridge.

Effective this evening, Dock will no longer operate as a block station. Additionally, the last section 251 territory east of Elmora (1 track Dock&Cliff east) is now eliminated

Ah thanks for the clarification. I was not sure whether Rea, Cliff, Hunter and Haynes had been previously transferred. Also you answered my other question about the bridge tender function even before I asked it here.

I read elsewhere that Amtrak has obtained a waiver so that now there will be a 24hour notice requirement for opening the Dock Bridge? Was this waiver already in place? Or is this something new?

BTW, what does Zoo still control on the Harrisburg side?

What is the current status and the future of K Tower in Washington DC?

As you mentioned, Dock controlled Hudson,Rea,Dock,Cliff,Hunter,Haynes and Lane. When Union Tower closed and CTEC 9 was finally implemented, they took control of Lane and Haynes. That ls when Section B started taking control of the other interlockings until Dock was back on its own.

Personally, I think that is an incredible amount of movement for Section B to control during rush hour and I thought it should be split. However, even the operators/dispatchers themselves basically stated too many chefs will spoil the kitchen. I guess we'll see how it works.

As for the bridge, there is a new waiver not that it really matters. Dock rarely opens for river traffic. It opens more for testing than anything else.

Zoo still has control of the "K" ladder area, the Berries (down to #2 Berry which connects to the NYP Line), the NYP-PGH subway, what's left of the EJ and WBY as well as the associated route from "K" to 44th street (Stiles). Additionally, they control Paxon and Woodbine interlockings. They still have a bit to do!

K Tower has been hooked up to CTEC in Wilmington for years. If they so desired, they could control WTC from there. However, with all of the movements and a few bugs in the system, they have successful argued for a set of eyes and a "hands on" presence. So far, it is working. However, no one knows what the future will bring.

Thanks.

So Section B has the gaggle of interlockings around Secaucus (Portal, Erie, Lack, Allied IIRC) together with Swift and Bergen too? That is indeed a lot.

At the Washington end then Avenue is the last interlocking under CETC?

I read somewhere that the PRR had 100 towers on the route of the former Broadway Limited from 'A' Tower in New York to Chicago...

So besides the NEC portion mentioned, how many other's, if any, remain in service?

railiner said:

I read somewhere that the PRR had 100 towers on the route of the former Broadway Limited from 'A' Tower in New York to Chicago...

So besides the NEC portion mentioned, how many other's, if any, remain in service?

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A total of 4 that I know of. All on the PH Line. Recently reduced from 5. Zoo, Overbrook, Paoli, and Thorn. State tower closed last year in Harrisburg. State tower went to CETC. As well as upgraded interlocking speeds. Slow to Medium now. Alto tower in Altoona closed about 5 years ago and is now CP Altoona controlled by the Altoona East Dispatcher in Pittsburgh.

I'm rather surprised that when PA paid for the improvements on the PH Line that they didn't pay for upgrading the line to CETC.

jis said:

Thanks.

So Section B has the gaggle of interlockings around Secaucus (Portal, Erie, Lack, Allied IIRC) together with Swift and Bergen too? That is indeed a lot.

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To clear the confusion, Section A controls from Bergen(exclusive) to Hudson (exclusive) on the High Line, The Hell Gate Line and the towers in Sunnyside Yard while Section B controls from Hudson (inclusive) to Hunter (inclusive) and Hunter (inclusive) to NK(exclusive) on the Lehigh Line Connection.

This effectively means Section B has to deal with Conrail at NK (Lehigh Line), NJT at Cape (Waterfront connection), both ends of Hudson Yard, Newark station (and all of the associated passenger service requests in addition to the Raritan trains) and through running from Section A and Ctec-9.

I wouldn't want to B trick!

jis said:

At the Washington end then Avenue is the last interlocking under CETC?

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Technically, CTEC-1 controls CP Avenue, which are northward control point signals for entrance into their territory. The opposing (southward) signals on the same bridge hold the home signals for "C" interlocking, which is controlled by "K" tower.

Acela150 said:

I'm rather surprised that when PA paid for the improvements on the PH Line that they didn't pay for upgrading the line to CETC.

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The upgrades were for high speed operation which occurred mostly on the west end. They did CTEC/562 the territory. There is only some much you can squeeze out of the rest, particularly with the Septa slowcals. Once they finish work on Paoli and Bryn Mawr, we'll see what remains.