Olentangy Interlocking Tower located on the
east side of the Olentangy River not far from Spruce St. The camera
is pointed southwest. The NYC (Big Four) is crossing, first the
PRR's Bradford line and after passing the tower, the C&O. The bridge
in the background is over the Olentangy river. It carries the
C&O/PRR interchange know as the "Adams" track. Just west of this
photo the C&O crosses the PRR then the Olentangy river. Photo by Bob
McCord from the John Fuller Collection.
Olentangy tower must have been a very busy place especially during World
War II. All three railroads - NYC, PRR and C&O had passenger trains
that no dispatcher would want stopped at the crossing. The NYC line
also carried the B&O traffic from Columbus Union Station to just
south of the tower and they had passenger trains as well. This
tower and Miami Crossing, both NYC towers were built on open lattice work.
The C&O referred to Olentangy tower as HV cabin. Another detail to
keep the operator on his toes.
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South side of the tower. Photo by Galen
Gonser |
East, the side with the stairs, and north side of the
tower. Photo by Galen Gonser |
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Photo taken from the tower looking north. B&O train #233
on the Big Four line is crossing the PRR. The Big Four
ran along the north side of the PRR's Spruce St. Yard before turning
south and crossing the PRR main show here. Rubble from
the Spruce St. round house can be seen around the smoke stack in the
background. Photo by Galen Gonser taken July 1955. |
The camera is looking west-northwest. The tower stairs are on the
east side of the building. The C&O is on the left and the Big Four
on the right. Photo by Galen Gonser taken Dec. 1970. |
Photo by Galen Gonser
It's 1950 and a west bound manifest with J1 #6467 has just passed Olentangy
tower (on the right) and is approaching the C&O crossing. The
photographer has his back to the Olentangy River looking east. In
the background can be seen the top of the water tower and coal dock at the
Pennsy's Spruce St. facilities. The crossing had been beefed up to
handle the pounding of those big steam locomotives including the C&O's 600
ton 2-6-6-6 Alleghany Photo from the Jay Williams Collection.
