Shore Tower and Ford Tower History

Hey, Does anyone know when Shore Tower and Ford Tower was closed?
Anyone have photos of what the insides look like or what lies for the future of shore tower. There was rumored that shore tower would be moved to the PRR museum in Strasburg.

Moved to Pennsylvania Railfan Forum.

-otto-

I believe that FORD was torn down & its interlocking remotely operated from SHORE prior to the Penn Central era. I will have to check my PC employee timetables and see. SHORE lasted so long in part because of the Atlantic City service which (for a short time, anyway) featured AEM7s with an Atlantic City-bound push-pull consist stopping on the NEC main (!!), uncoupling & running onto a pocket track, then a F40PH diesel backing down & coupling up, and the train reversing onto the Delair Bridge for its trip to the seaside resort. A.C. service opened in the summer of 1989. I am not certain when after that time SHORE was finally closed and the interlocking taken over by the CETC facility at 30th St. Station.

I took many photographs of and around SHORE in early 1995. Though it was closed by then as a block station & trainorder location, the old wooden tower still looked decent (though not great) on the outside. Now, 12 years later, it is a graffiti-coated eyesore.

Not sure where you heard the rumor about it being moved to Strasburg - to the steam railroad, or to the RR Museum of PA? Strasburg already has J Tower (from Lemoyne) at the west end of its boarding platform. They restored it at considerable cost and is open for tours for an extra admission fee. For that reason alone, I have my doubts that they'd be looking for another such crumbling ruin to sink $$$ into. As for the museum, they appear to have their bucks stretched pretty thin these days, what with the renovation of the outside display yard and the "musical chairs" nature of multiple car/engine restorations going on. Did you read this in a railfan publication, or was it passed to you via word-of-mouth?

Shore Tower is in pretty bad shape. I am surprised that David
Gunn did not order it's demolition during his tenure. He wasted no time
in having "R" Tower in Sunnyside yard and "F" Tower in Long Island
City razed. My only guess is maybe C&S or B&B uses the building
for storage or as an office.

Why wouldn't they just run diesel only from 30th Street to Atlantic City? That seems like a waste of time.

Speaking of which, the next incarnation of the Gambler's Special is going to run from NYP to AC via Frankford Junction. This makes more sense to have an engine change.

Are the tracks over the bridge still wired? They could change engines in Jersey.

The tracks over Delair still have the Pennsy catenary poles, but no catenary strings.

This photo at Frankford Junction illustrates the absence of catenary over the Delair branch.
http://chuchubob.rrpicturearchives.net/ ... ?id=636822

Are you sure that R tower was demolished? According to the most recent Amtrak timetable R is still in service as a "switching station" (an interlocking all but in name) with an operator on duty 24/7. Where would the operator sit if not in R?

chuchubob wrote:This photo at Frankford Junction illustrates the absence of catenary over the Delair branch.
http://chuchubob.rrpicturearchives.net/ ... ?id=636822

Much of the catenary is still intact on the Delair branch North of Frankford Junction and North Philly station but long since de-energized I'm sure and badly out of alignment.

I specifically took note of the catenary on the Delair branch when working the coal trains from Abrams to Carney's Point, Beesley's Point, and the occasional Camden (Pavonia) run.

Shore tower does look to be in very poor condition but it does still serve a purpose for C&S as a radio and microwave shack. Not sure how much longer it will remain in service as such but it's still there...

The old "R" tower was demolished last year. The R operator was moved
into the S & I building behind the yardmaster in the same room. So R still
exists but not in its original form.

Looks like overnight there was a decent fire at the old SHORE tower. Photo and video from PhillyFireNews Facebook site.

I pass by the interlocking tower every day to and from work. This morning, I stopped by for a few photos. Although still standing, the tower has been severely damaged. I am not aware of the cause of the fire.

Built in 1896, SHORE Tower is the oldest, still extant tower along the mainline from Washington DC to New York.

From Pacific Ave:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5591164

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5591165

Across the tracks, from along Kensington Ave:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5591166

Ben