Worthington tower in the 1950's.
A suggestion of paint is still showing with a faded "Worthington" sign.
Photo by Ryan Hoover
Worthington tower was located at the crossing of the NYC (Big four) and
PRR (Sandusky Branch) just south of SR 161 on the east edge of
Worthington. It was 9.8 miles from Columbus Union Station. On
the PRR the first operator to the south was located at Fields Ave which
was the entrance to Grogan Yard. On the BIG Four the tower to the
south was CD tower located in the NYC yard office.
It had an Armstrong manual lever plant. In addition to controlling the PRR/NYC crossing,
also controlled crossovers, on the double track Pennsy and a passing siding on the
single track Big Four. The north end of the passing siding was
electronically controlled as were the NYC signals. The Pennsy
semaphore signals were manually controlled with the Armstrong levers.
When the N&W purchased the Sandusky Branch in 1964 the semaphore signals
were replace with standard N&W signals and the jointed rail with welded
rail through Worthington.
Pete
White of Delaware, Ohio, was the last operator at Worthington when the
switch controls were automated and the tower closed. He reported
that the tower was staffed by the Pennsy and the machine was maintained by
the Big Four.
