New York Central Switch Tower Mothballed – 1962

My post about the Sept. 1962 New York Central derailment at the Cooper Foster Park Road crossing reminded me that I had this NYC news item, also from 1962. It's about the New York Central switch tower at N. Lake Street in Amherst, sitting forlorn and empty.

The article ran in the August 6, 1962 Lorain Journal. As the article notes, "The switches have been ripped from the floor and the electrical instruments pulled from the wall panels. The telephone and the wire key are both gone, signaling the end of messages and of operating life at that station.

"Crews have been busy during the past year ripping up the slow-speed, outside tracks of the four-track Big Four system and upgrading the two remaining high-speed tracks."

But rather than signaling that the railroad was doing poorly, the closing of the tower and removal of tracks was all part of the modernizing of railroad operations, according to the article.

"The two tracks are only part of the longest, most modern stretch of electronically controlled double track in the world," the article noted. "When Alfred E. Perlman, NYC president, pressed a button opening the first segment of electronic track back in 1957, it was only a matter of time until the entire New York Central line was put under the central traffic control system.

"Under the CTC system, both freights and passengers run on the same tracks at a higher rate of speed than before. Freight trains speed along at 60 miles an hour and crack passenger trains do 80.

"The trains are controlled by two dispatchers in Erie, Pa. One dispatcher is in charge of traffic from Buffalo to Erie. The other guards the train movements from Erie to Cleveland.

"The control panels show the dispatchers all of the tracks, switches, cross-overs and sidings under their jurisdiction. A system of lights indicates each train and its progress over the division.

"By operating selector buttons at his control panel, each dispatcher is able to move tracks from one track to another as the situation demands.

"The new system is said to give New York Central one of the safest railroad systems in the world."

It all sounds very modern. Nevertheless, for those who enjoy the romance of the heyday of rail travel, it's all rather sad – like the photo of the empty switch tower in Amherst.

Another photo of the long-gone tower, courtesy of eBay.