B towers Last Day in service

Found an old friend online, He has some RR photos he allowed me to share.
He is Jay Bendersky, Current LIRR Engineer.
He took these on the occasion of B-Towers last day in service. At the Time he was a Block operator.



Bonus, 1986 Fan trip, Jay Handing up the orders, Don Bender at the Throttle..

Thanks for sharing, Doc. Great pictures, Antin.

is that jay hooping orders?

Yes thats Jay hooping them up, Don Bender at the throttle

Doesn't look like him. Jay has blond hair and about 6' 5".

That is the late "Radar Don".

In the original photo it is a bit larger. He is wearing a dark baseball cap. and you can see his light hair under the back of the cap. I got the picture From Jay, as explained. HE says its "yours Truly" handing up the orders.
Why must everything in here be disected and questioned? They were rare, nice photos most of us had never seen before. a nice addition to the forum, and the history of the LIRR.
Its Jay and Bender.
This from the same group of photos, also jay. ( nassau tower 1986)

Slightly larger version.. note the dark baseball cap, and the same brown work shoes as in Nassau, also note its a dark picture, in fact its difficult to see that the lead coach is a parlor with a red stripe, and some other coaches have blue stripes. Nothing wrong with correcting locations or dates on pictures. But when I get a photo from a person IN the photo, and Im NOT Guessing, its kind of a slap in the face to question it.
Its also a major reason why some people who have a lot to offer don't bother posting in here.
Jay has written books on Railroad operations, he being a contributer in here would be a nice addition.
But the constant snipes that go on have kept many away, who could bring a lot to the table.
Here is Jay's comment on the photo cut and pasted..
"Yours truly delivering the orders on the stick to a L-2 Fantrip special at B-Tower in 1986. The L-2's were used primarily on freight this late in their career. The late Road Foreman Don Bender was the engineer."

When did Nassau have the armstrong machine removed? Were there any machines or systems in there after the armstrong was removed, and the current system?

1996 was when the armstrong in Nassau was decommisioned. Krispy am I right??? Doc(Hammertime) great pics to post!!!

Love the Alco Century 420's !!!!!

Great photos, thanks for sharing!

Sounds right to me, and Nassau looked the same when they took the machine out 10 years later. Nice to see the walls uncluttered too. All of the white levers are dead levers, which speaks to how much Nassau changed from when they put the tower in. Great pics, thanks for posting. B was a unique tower thanks to R. Moses, one of the few good things he did for the LIRR. Some of the old timers said it was a great job during the day, but could be really hairy at night if you had a couple of freights running around and the block stations east of you closed.

I didn't know Don B. had passed on, RIP. I always enjoyed riding with him home from Brooklyn, and I wish I remembered half of what he told me. Tnx for posting...

If the white levers are not used. What are the Blue, Black and Red levers for?
Does it have to do with the signals, switches and route locking?

If memory serves me, the red levers were the signals. The blue were the unlocks
and the black were the switches.

Thanks, I recall seeing something similar on the Model 14 at Jay and Hall. They had colored levers.

uptown wrote:If memory serves me, the red levers were the signals. The blue were the unlocks
and the black were the switches.

Also, go to "new LIRR towers page completed", page 2, and see krispy's post of Jan. 17 -- really a full explanation.