Valley Tower remoted to JCC

Today was the last day Valley Tower moved trains, it was cut-over to JCC around 9:00 am. This leaves Lead, Brook, West Side Yard and Mid-Day Storage Yard. There's plans to eventually put Lead into Jamaica, but for now they're keeping it where it is.

The existing Valley Tower was put into service 1933 after they elevated the tracks in the crossing elimination program. It had a Model 14 EP interlocking machine which was used until 2004. It also controlled Rocky and Port, and shared control with Wantagh and Amityville until around 2004, I believe. It also controlled the Far Rockaway and West Hempstead Branches, and eastward movement to Lead, and westward movement to Hall on the Atlantic and Montauk Branches. So, the joke was for the posters you had a 1 in 2 chance of getting it right at Queens (Mainline or Hempstead), but at Valley, it was 1 in 4, going east.

What about Babylon Tower? Is that still in operation?

That was last year. Originally, the plan was for Valley to go before Babylon but the situation changed and Babylon went first.

Spent many a winter night up there with George Georke in the 1970s.

george, a man who could make you feel good on a bomb far rock job. "you have a good night now"

Obviously, with this being a sad moment, what is the fate of the tower? Is the tower going to be slated for demolition before 2025, or just outright abandoned?

Not abandoned, just ask any track/signal or ET gang looking for better digs than a drafty firebox of a trailer. However Transportation has been keeping some of the towers in place "just in case", pandemic (which did reopen Queens for a while, also Queens gets used during Belmont Stakes). They're secured and often staffed, so don't approach. Valley was a tad challenging at times due to it's location, a few had some scares with either the myriad third rail cables poking out to the Sub or speedy Long Beaches passing, so again, don't...

Lead would be the last remaining "tower" with a block operator.

Places where we have operators outside of JCC like West Side Yard, Mid Day Yard, Brook, Grand Central, etc.. are all located in crew facilities. As an example, the operator and yardmaster for Brook are no longer in Brook Tower. They are in a small room inside the crew facilities of Atlantic Terminal station.

gamer4616 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 3:06 pm Lead would be the last remaining "tower" with a block operator.

Places where we have operators outside of JCC like West Side Yard, Mid Day Yard, Brook, Grand Central, etc.. are all located in crew facilities. As an example, the operator and yardmaster for Brook are no longer in Brook Tower. They are in a small room inside the crew facilities of Atlantic Terminal station.

The Mid Day Yard Operators are they co-located within the LIRR Grand Central Operations Center or do they have office out in the actual yard?

Mid Day Yard block operator and yardmaster are located in Mid Day Yard

Some Information for those interested:

Valley Tower was closed in conjunction with GN 2-21 (dated Sept 23, 2023 at 10:01 am) and all operations moved to JCC in Jamaica.

As far as the actual time the cutover was done...

Cutover Started: Sept 23, 2023 8:32 am
Cutover Completed: Sept 23, 2023 9:00 am