Denville Tower

I am looking for any pics or info on the inside of the tower and the outside of the tower. If you have anything a long that lines that would be great Thanks Phase Gap

I consulted Track Charts of the Erie-Lackawanna Railway and Sheppard shows Denville tower as an EP. This means that the control machine was Electro-Pneumatic--signals operated electrically and switches thrown with compressed air. A good picture of an EP machine appears on page 83 of a book called Railroad Signaling by Brian Solomon. Place that machine instead of the armstrong levers as viewed in the color picture of Dover Tower on page 53 of Lackawanna Railroad in color Vol 2 and you would have a pretty good idea of what the inside of Denville tower looked like. I know good pictures exist of the exterior though I can't ever recall seeing one in color.

I recall there being an interior photo of the tower posted to the Erielack email list photo page within the last 12 months. I believe the discussion was about one of the former operators (Ray Ruff) who had recently passed away. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find it in a quick search.

There was an operator Russell Ruff who worked in Dover Tower. The color picture I am referring to of Dover Tower has a good picture of him.

Previous post mentions Ray Ruff which could be? Maybe he was a relative. Can't help there I don't have any old DLW or EL senority rosters where I can look that up I do know someone who work for EL as a Tower Operator though and I will run both these names by him. If this Ray Ruff did not exist than try your search on Russell Ruff that might help you find the picture you were thinking of.

If an interior picture should exist of Denville Tower by all means use it.

I offered the suggestion because such a picture may not exist.

Howard

I know I have a few of the outside... I'll dig 'em up.
Here's one I found I had with it in the backgroud.

At night you can see some of the inside, but not enough for what you want, I'm sure.

If I can't find any decent, I'll try to stop one of these days... (outside only, sorry).

Any specifics you'd like to see?

Did a little research and found the photo at this link, the caption says Dover but there was discussion that it actually was inside Denville. I've never been inside either place so I can't comment.

I believe Ray and Russ were brothers.

Ray passed away in February 2006. He had retired from NJT in 1997 after 48 years of service. He worked in station maintenance towards the end of his career.

http://lists.elhts.org/erielackphoto.cg ... Young_.jpg

Yeah, Gravely, that is Ray Ruff in Denville. And, yes, Russell was his brother. I "grew up" in Denville Tower in the late to mid 50's thanks to the likes of Jimmy Morris (2nd trick Tue-Sun) and Joe Monahan (relief). Jack Swinson was 1st trick and provided a lot of information and pictures. There were other operators there at vacation time such as W.A.Grimm (had a nickle plated DL&W lantern which he guarded closely), there was a Vechione or something like that and a couple of others from time to time who I can't remember. I remember Ray holding down 2nd trick at Milburn and later Mt. View towers before they were dismantled. Denville was electro-pnumatic with 70 odd levers on the board inlcuding signals, switches, derails, and three traffic controls (changing direction of traffic and signals on track 2 east on the Boonton side and tracks 1 and 2 west).
Dover was a strong arm plant converted to electric using the same levers. Much smaller than Denville but important and busy especially during A.M. and P.M. rushes through the 3 track station and in and out of the yard. Walter Helriegle (sp?) was the 2nd trick and a Geary (Kermit Sr.?) on one. As a youth I spent many hours in both towers and was able to actually operate a trick (well, I felt I could do it if needed anyway). Seriously though, I understood the operations of both towers and how to operate the machines and was fascenated at listening to the dispatchers' lines and how trains were moved! I do have pics and slides of both towers inside and out that I took from the late 50's to mid 60's but cannot produce them on line.

Speaking of Tower Operators, does anyone remember or heard of Gary Kuipers?? He was hired in 1970 or 71 as a tower operator and worked Dover and UN towers... I think he still works for NJT, but as a conductor! In my opinion, he is one of the better conductors on the system!!

The picture on the link to the website is not Russell Ruff and the control machine pictured is definitely an EP-Electro-Pnuemautic. So that could be an interior shot of Denville Tower. It is definetly not Dover Tower. No possible way it could be the control machine in Dover was Armstrong levers electrically operated.

Howard

I forwarded the Ray Ruff Picture to a friend of mine here is his reply:

The picture is definitely Ray Ruff, and is definitely Denville Tower. Although it is too dark to see the model board, the picture above it is the catenary diagram. At Denville the electrified Morristown Line (M&E) joined the non-electrified Boonton Line. The route was “straight” from the Boonton Line West toward Dover. The M&E was the diverging route. Only the electrified tracks are shown in color on the diagram.

I broke in at Denville during my first E-L summer, 1968, but then wound up working on the Erie side most of the summer (WJ, HX, WC). I did put in quite a bit of time at Denville during the summers of 1969 and 1970. At that time, there were 3 main Tracks coming off the Boonton Line from the North numbered 3, 1 and 2. Track 2 ran directly in front of the Tower and all of the Greenwood Lake/Boonton scoots that stopped at Denville had to use Track 2 as it had the only platform. Tracks 1 and 3 were through tracks and were separated from 2. The M&E had 2 main tracks 1 and 2. The M&E was double track ABS. West of Denville, as far as Dover, there were 2 Main Tracks CTC (TCS as the EL called it). There was also a wye track which came off Boonton Main 3. It was a remnant of the old Rockaway Branch, and all of the switches on both ends of the wye as well as the stub of what would have been the Rockaway MT were powered. I did not work at Denville during my other summers (1971, and 1972) and during one of those years Boonton mains 1 and 3 as well as the wye were all removed.

The plant was simplified to 1 Main Track coming off the Boonton Line which connected to the 2 mains of the M&E with a pair of crossovers West of that. In the picture there are many white levers. These are all of the former switches which were retired when the rest of the original plant was removed. The picture would have been taken sometime after the mains and wye came out.



I did not know Gary Kuipers, but I did get to know the Ruff brothers pretty well. I’m sorry to hear that they passed away. Ray Ruff (in the picture) was the quieter of the brothers. He was very nice but did not do much talking. He worked the Swing (Relief) job at Denville all of the years that I worked for the EL. Russell, on the other hand, loved to tell stories. Before working in the towers he had been in Train Service on the EL and gave some chilling renditions of trying to pilot a switch job that was being shoved through the Jersey Meadows in a deep fog, and trying to remember where the absolute signals were before it was too late. Russell worked a real interesting Tower job which was commonly called “The trip around the world”. It basically picked up the tag days from various Towers, plus sold tickets at Mountain Lakes on Mondays (the only day the ticket office was open).

HSSRAIL wrote:I forwarded the Ray Ruff Picture to a friend of mine here is his reply:

There was also a wye track which came off Boonton Main 3. It was a remnant of the old Rockaway Branch, and all of the switches on both ends of the wye as well as the stub of what would have been the Rockaway MT were powered. I did not work at Denville during my other summers (1971, and 1972) and during one of those years Boonton mains 1 and 3 as well as the wye were all removed.

The picture would have been taken sometime after the mains and wye came out.

Thanks for the neat info.

Just to clarify, the wye still exists and is used once in a while by NJT to turn coaches, or NS to turn freight cars. I think the reference above to "wye came out" means when the switches were converted from control by Denville tower to hand throw switches.