DV Tower FLATTENED

Word from some FB posts is that DV Tower at Spuyten Duyvil has been demolished in the last day or two. Why did MNCR feel it was necessary to do this after all these years? That little brick tower was a landmark and a reminder of the past heritage of the Hudson Division. Sad to hear of it's passing. Some very good days and evenings were spent there as a teenager learning about railroading, 45+ years ago.

Sometimes energy conservation and needs of current employees trump the need of rail buffs.
hope you took pictures.

For a photo of DV tower in 2010, scroll down to the seventh (7th) and eleventh (11th) photos.
http://www.subchat.com/read.asp?Id=884800" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Energy Conservation"??? I doubt the building was being heated......

"Needs of current employees"? What do you mean? Will there be a new/modern structure to replace DV? Was it being used for any purpose?

I expect the long-boarded-up MO will be next.

Was the tower totally abandoned? If it was,the legal beagles wanted it torn down for liabilty reasons.

It still housed the signal maintainers.

DutchRailnut wrote:It still housed the signal maintainers.

Signal Maintainers moved to a trailer in the Riverdale parking lot about a year ago, the tower was empty.

It's a bit of a stretch to call that a "Tower".

But I suspect that demolishing it had more to do with liability. If some tresspassing loon drank himself to death in that building his relatives would sue the railroad before the ambulance got to the morgue.

Rumor is trailer in parking lot is temporary solution, watch DV in future.

When was the last time DV was in use as an actual signal tower? Did Metro-North use it as a signal tower?

long before empire connector was activated, dv
bridge was out of service for years and years.

It appears to be in service in a 1985 head end video.

DutchRailnut wrote:long before empire connector was activated, dv bridge was out of service for years and years.

I forgot the West Side Line itself was inactive for several years (roughly about 1983 to 1991). During that period I think the bridge was maintained -- probably by Conrail -- in the open position. One afternoon back around 1990 a Hudson Line trainman told me, as we went through there, a replacement bridge (from the old West Shore) would soon be floated in, that Amtrak had decided to reopen the route for Empire Service trains.

Besides the bridge, did DV ever control any of Metro-North's switches at the interlocking? When did that end I wonder?

the Empire connector was planned and mandated by Congress in or around 1980 with original acts on Amtrak.
the bridge was never replaced but it was floated out and send to dry dock company in New Jersey for sandblasting, repairs and reinforcements, then brought back.
while the Bridge was in Joysey Amtrak repaired the center column, bearing and machinery and abutments the project as you say finished around 1990.

There will be numerous buildings demolished with Federal Monies, including MO. How do I know? Was contacted to remove any radio equipment and antenna's we want to keep from lots of locations. Like I said just the start there will be others up and down all the lines in a quote "beautification project".

BTW Where the pictures go, I get an error.