NS Chicago District

[RDJ]

Construction on the Chicago District.
Photo taken at Scott Rd grade crossing.

Has anyone heard anything about adding a second track?

RD.

[Steve Bryan]

I read on another thread somewhere that they are extending the end of the double track at Hadley to the siding at Dunfee.

[Bob Durnell]

By the looks of the roadbed they put in, it appears to me that the extended Hadley Siding will stop a little short of East Dunfee. This picture is looking west From West Hamilton Road, and it looks like the siding will end between there and Noyer Road, one road west.

[rrnut282]

... it appears to me that the extended Hadley Siding will stop a little short of East Dunfee.

About how short? It would make little sense to have a short stretch of single main, depending upon that length and geological obstacles.

[Bob Durnell]

I would say it's about a mile. Maybe they want to keep the two sidings distinctly separate.

[JBlauz]

Update on the track work.

[JBlauz]

New additions.

[RDJ]

New signal tower appeared at Thomas Rd grade crossing.

RD

[Bob Durnell]

There is a new one on the ground at Junction awaiting installation too. Curiously, NS has had a couple of what appear to be brand new signals of the older type in storage at East Wayne. One wonders if these won't eventually go to scrap without ever being installed. I guess they could be used in a non-main line location.

[alcochaser]

New signal tower appeared at Thomas Rd grade crossing.

RD

Not surprising. Even though those are relatively new signals. They have been found to have a critical defect.

These used a cable system to crank up and down the heads. The maintainer would keep a drill like device which would insert in a hole at the bottom. This would engage a lug to run the cables to bring the heads down to the bottom.

However before long, corrosion would cause the cables to snap.
Since the cables are what hold the heads in the up location this would cause the signal heads to come crashing down. Trains have come on these setups and found all the heads (still functioning) at the bottom of the crank up mast.

This is obviously a serious issue. And since there is no way to remotely sense when this happened, the FRA ordered NS to WELD the heads in the up location. So now you need a bucket truck to service the signals.

This combined with the fact the system could never support three signal heads, has lead to their demise.

Cranking the heads down would also require the signal be taken out of service. So instead of climbing up and replacing a burnt bulb under traffic, the maintainer would need the entire track section OOS.

I think the ones in East Wayne were removed from Four Mile. Maintainers keeping parts you know.

[alcochaser]

Any more pictures/construction updates?

[JBlauz]

Went out tonight and there was a lot of work going on. I was going to walk up to the Scott Rd. crossing (road is closed) to take pictures, but a Ft. Wayne police officer was sitting at the crossing. The second intermediate signal was up between Scott and W. Hamilton Roads. They were working on the new track at W. Hamilton Rd; lots of NS/contractor vehicles out there. A westbound train rolled through the new crossing on a slow order. On the previous post about the Thomas Rd signals, even with the safety concerns with the old signals, I'm guessing they were replaced to upgrade the signals for medium position aspects approaching the new crossovers.

[RDJ]

Second track installation update:
Hadley grade crossing: Installation of two single crossover turnouts (maybe difficult to see second turnout) and signals.

RD

[RDJ]

Update on Scott road area.

RD

[alcochaser]

Thank you very much!

If I had to guess. it looks like they will activate the new double crossovers first, Then they can yank out the existing hadley and work on the double track.

Curious the signal head replacement at the Dunfees, they didn't replace the interlocking machines as the ATCS bit patterns are the same.