Who names new NJT interlockings?

[Gruntled]

The three newest ones (I think thats right) all smell good: Laurel, Clove, and Cedar.

[pdman]

That's cool.

On the West Branch Valley line of Conrail there is a spot with a sign 'Obie." You'll hear it on scanners, and it is a point on the line. Obie was the last name of a long standing company employee who loved the area so much the story goes that his ashes were buried or strewn along the line. Some guys in the maintenace shop and Operating Department dignified the location with a sign and a rememberance to him.

Nice to know that there is some warm and human behavior going on in companies now and then.

[thebigc]

"Green" Int. on the M&E, in the vicinity of old Grove St. station, was named after a retired rules examiner. Or so legend has it.

[Lackawanna484]

NOTCH, at the west end of the Great Notch yard may have had the telegraph code GN in Erie days. I don't have my book handy. There was a tower there controlling the switch for the Caldwell Branch, and the yard track

CLOVE is almost directly above Clove Road, which runs from US 46, under the stone bridge, and alongside the college.

LAUREL is near Laurel Place, Upper Montclair

CEDAR prob has a link, but it isn't readily apparent.

GLEN for Glen Ridge

In that area, NJ Transit usually names track points for the cross streets. So, "Jerome" and "Lorraine" are near the cross streets with those names. When they were completing the electrification, one of the signals guys showed me the gates up / gates down charts and max speed.

It's pretty complex stuff, since the pols get very sensitive, and the stations are pretty close, so they have to minimize the gates down time.

[thebigc]

NOTCH, at the west end of the Great Notch yard may have had the telegraph code GN in Erie days. I don't have my book handy. There was a tower there controlling the switch for the Caldwell Branch, and the yard track.

I believe Great Notch was "GA". That's what was stenciled on the old relay case at the original interlocking.

[nick11a]

And incidentally, there is, I believe, an interlocking called "Karny" at Kearny, not to be confused with "Kearny" interlocking. Going to Hoboken, it can be seen on the right. I think I remember you saying to me once BigC that Karny Interlocking is no longer there (and that it was a freight interlocking) but I believe there is a Karny interlocking on one of the tracks that splits off and goes to the MMC. Could be mistaken though.

And one of my favorites is BUD interlocking at Budweiser. It is next to the NEC on the parallel freight track.

[Jtgshu]

My personal favorite was "HIGH" on the Coast Line, located now at the new platforms of the new Aberdeen Matawan station, on the west ends of them. It was an interlocking to access the Highlands Branch, hence, "HIGH". Its no longer there, but you can see the former location of the home signals in the catenary, and the automatic signals going east (numberplate escapes me right now) that were the former home signals.

BTW, There is still a "HIGH" interlocking, west of Hunter on the Lehigh Line connection, where track 6 and 7 converge into one before going onto the Lehigh line for the RVL trains

Essay and Rare make me chuckle too, as teh call letters for Essay were "SA" (south Amboy) so what word sounds like SA? Essay!!! ahaha

And with Rare, the former Raritan River RR interchange I remember that because the milepost is 2.0, so I learned it by thinking "oh boy, my steak is 2.0 Rare!!!"

I used a lot of those little tricks to remember things when I was qualifying (Pot, Ped, Pole at Lincoln, for example ) Whatever works!!!

[gravelyfan]

LAUREL is near Laurel Place, Upper Montclair

Isn't Laurel on the Main Line, just north of Laurel (Snake) Hill?

NJT's Cape Interlocking was named for Cape May Street in Harrison, the road that leads back towards the I/L

CP Karny is on the Conrail P&H Line; Kearny Jct is on the NJT Morristown Line.

The Conrail Center Street Industrial track begins at CP Karny, passes through Cape Interlocking, then through Kearny Jct. Interlocking before the track comes to an end near the Passaic River in Harrison.

[nick11a]

^Thanks for the clarification gravely.

[sullivan1985]

LAUREL is near Laurel Place, Upper Montclair

Isn't Laurel on the Main Line, just north of Laurel (Snake) Hill?

NJT's Cape Interlocking was named for Cape May Street in Harrison, the road that leads back towards the I/L

CP Karny is on the Conrail P&H Line; Kearny Jct is on the NJT Morristown Line.

The Conrail Center Street Industrial track begins at CP Karny, passes through Cape Interlocking, then through Kearny Jct. Interlocking before the track comes to an end near the Passaic River in Harrison.

Yes, Laurel is where the Bergen Line and the Main Line meet up just east of Upper Hack Draw before coming into ST...

[Jtgshu]

"Laurel" is also the name of the phase gap between Middletown and Hazlet on the Coast Line, which is located almost directly on the overhead bridge for Laurel Ave in Holmdel.

[thebigc]

Essay and Rare make me chuckle too, as teh call letters for Essay were "SA" (south Amboy) so what word sounds like SA? Essay!!! ahaha

Same for "Excee" at Cranford. XC=Excee. That was a fairly big interlocking at one time. I think its all gone now.

And incidentally, there is, I believe, an interlocking called "Karny" at Kearny, not to be confused with "Kearny" interlocking. Going to Hoboken, it can be seen on the right. I think I remember you saying to me once BigC that Karny Interlocking is no longer there (and that it was a freight interlocking) but I believe there is a Karny interlocking on one of the tracks that splits off and goes to the MMC. Could be mistaken though.

Nick, the tower's gone but the interlocking remains.

[Lackawanna484]

"X" was sometimes used by the DL&W to identify a bridge. Newark's Passaic River bridge was NX. Erie's bridge over the Hackensack River was HX, too. Makes sense as the letter itself is a crossing of two lines.

I think the NJT protocol for phase gap names, crossing circuit names, etc is unique to each line, which would allow a Laurel on different lines, one of which is on something not usually visible to paying customers.

[sullivan1985]

"X" was sometimes used by the DL&W to identify a bridge. Newark's Passaic River bridge was NX. Erie's bridge over the Hackensack River was HX, too. Makes sense as the letter itself is a crossing of two lines.

I think the NJT protocol for phase gap names, crossing circuit names, etc is unique to each line, which would allow a Laurel on different lines, one of which is on something not usually visible to paying customers.

NX was an Erie bridge though. Its part of the Newark Industrial Branch (It's the bridge that is left in the open position along Rt. 21). It spured off the NY & Greenwood Lake Line in the meadows just west of DB Draw, crossed the Passaic River via NX Draw and later reconnected with the Erie Main Line in Paterson (Now with NJT's Main Line in Clifton).

Erie was known for using two call latters, the DL&W more commonly used names for their bridges, like Upper Hack, Lower Hack, Lyndhurst Draw, etc...

[Lackawanna484]

I went back to look at Sheppard's Schematic Track Diagrams of the Erie Lackawanna. Newark Draw on the Erie Newark Branch, and Newark Tower on the Morristown shared the same telegraph ID. By 1974, I doubt much was done exclusively by More code, though.

Here's the east end of the Morristown Line

Grove Street Tower Z
West End WD
Harrison was HA
Newark Tower was NX (controlled swing bridge and Kearny)
Newark Station was ND
Roseville was RI (also controlled Orange Street yard?)
Grove, EO, and Brick didn't have call letters at that time (1974)
Orange was R
Highland and Mountain Sta didn't have call letters
South Orange was C
South Orange Yard was X (but was already closed)
Maplewood was MP
Millburn was D
Short Hills was SH
Summit was ST (Sheppard doesn't have a sep call sign for the station, I think there may have been one previously)