Rick Schroeder writes:
> Maybe some of you remember the demise of Glover Tower. The C&EI had the
> readout, like noted above, in the tower and the detector was some 2 miles
> north. Seems that in late December a southbound was approaching Glover
Tower
> (east of Urbana on the C&IE/P&E/exITC crossing) and crossed the detector.
> They had a hotbox but the operator, a young employee, was asleep in the
early
> hours. As the train "hit the diamond" the axle broke sending the cars
into
> the tower and the overhead bridge. The operator woke from the noise and
the
> next think he knew was on the ground with the doorknob in his hand. Tower
> was reduced to a pile of bricks and wood. A refer hit the bridge and
brought
> the span down about 4 feet. Two cars drove off into the depression with
> minor injuries to the drivers. About 20 cars were in the pileup and it
took
> months to replace the center span on the highway.
Rick:
If I am remembering my local railroad history correctly, the abrupt end of
Glover Tower came in 1964 or so.
I guess with no tower controlling the crossing, there was a mandatory stop
at Glover for all trains until such time as C&EI could hurriedly complete
design of an automatic interlocking to replace the manual interlocking
destroyed by the wreck.
Even if the operator had been awake and alert, would there have been enough
time for him to read the tape, note the defect, and stop the train? What
procedures (and what signaling) did they have in effect to notify a train of
a hotbox? Did they simply withhold clearing Glover's home signal? What
about for northbounds?
------------------------------------------------------
This is the Illiana Railroad Discussion List.
For more info visit http://www.railcenter.com/illiana
------------------------------------------------------
