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Back in May of 1988, I went out to shoot photos of the interlocking tower in the Metro Detroit area. Sadly, I can't remember where this location is at. If I post some photos on this board, can anyone here shed some light on where this tower was located? I remember catching a Bluewater NRHS excursion train in Plymouth and then driving to this location. I believe it took 45-60 minutes to reach this location.

Thank you!

Ron

Are you certain this is in the Detroit area? Possible is it in Ohio?

Pennford?

I am almost positive that it is in Southeast Michigan. I have a feeling that the tower is now gone, and maybe some of the tracks are torn up. For some reason, the Detroit Terminal Railroad comes to mind, but I am not certain that this is their trackage.

JustinB wrote:Pennford?

No, its not Pennford. If it was, you would see a lot of the old concrete arches along the old DT&I. For the life of me, I can't remember where this place was.

Do you remember the railroads? That may help.

Just a random guess...the diamond south of Dundee? Looks to be a highway overpass in a couple of the shots, which could be US 23.

Nah, that can't be Diann. Because there isn't a high voltage tower anywhere near the tower but it almost looks like Diann

CamasChris wrote:Do you remember the railroads? That may help.

I wish I did. For some reason the Grand Trunk & Western and the C&O also come to mind. However, for the life of me, I had completely forgotten about going to this place, until I found the slides that I shot buried in the closet last week. I have a feeling that this area is probably very different in appearance today.

I thought about Diann Tower, which is located south of Dundee. However, in comparing images found on the Internet of that structure, it is definitely not Diann. Likewise, its not Annpere in Howell, as that tower has been gone since the 1960s.

Looks like ex NYC - PC - CR North Yard Tower had 2 track north/south CR main x-ing single track DTRR main with a connection from the CR to the DTRR to go for interchange. Today since CR took over the DTRR the diamond is gone & switches off the CR main north of where the diamond used to be allows the CR yard jobs to east on the former DTRR now referred to as The Terminal East Industrial.

I will add four additional photos. Hopefully, they will help jog someone's memory about this location.

It is not: Penford, Diann, North Yard, Forestlawn..... also not AnnPere... The 2 tracks involved are secondary tracks (based on signals), and it is single track (with siding) crossing single track.

Signals are NOT PRR.

You said 45-60 minutes from Plymouth. ARE YOU SURE?

Any chance you made it as far as WANATAH, INDIANA that day?

RRTTF wrote:It is not: Penford, Diann, North Yard, Forestlawn..... also not AnnPere... The 2 tracks involved are secondary tracks (based on signals), and it is single track (with siding) crossing single track.

Signals are NOT PRR.

You said 45-60 minutes from Plymouth. ARE YOU SURE?

Any chance you made it as far as WANATAH, INDIANA that day?

No. We never made it down to Wanatah, Indiana. That same location was suggested by a friend of mine from South Bend who saw these photos. However, that is not the case.

I am thinking that this is someplace in Macomb, Oakland, or Wayne Counties. I remember we stopped off at the McDonald's drive through in Plymouth and headed east from there. Since I had been up all night and my stomach was growling, I was more into eating my Big Mac than watching the roads we were on. Now I wish I would have paid more attention. Usually I take notes on everything, but the notes from this day, May 14, 1988 have vanished.

As a farfetched guess, could it be Romulus? 88 was well before my time of getting out and going railfanning, but my aunt who live in Taylor used to take me to Romulus in the mid-nineties to trainwatch. Of course it looks vastly different now, with the airport annexation and whatnot. Plus, I never seen any evidence of a connector train as it appears to be in the photos. The overpass in the distance reminded me of Romulus, with I-94 in passing overhead nearby. It looks really brushy and tree-line to be Romulus but I guess a lot could happen in 10-15 years.
Romulus would be about a couple Big-Mac's worth of ride from Plymouth.

Nah, the 94 bridge is really close to the Diamond, >1000 FT. Not to mention I have never seen an evidence of a Wye. and the Signals are all wrong. The C&O signal bridge would be appearent in one of the photos...

Couldn't recall how far off the 94 overpass was. And you're definitely right about that, a signal bridge would be evident. Anyway, I haven't been there in quite some time to watch trains. Last time I was in Romulus was back a few years, and that was at night, to pick up my drunk cousin at a near by..ehmm.."establishment." Haven't been out there to visit since.

Could that location be North of Plymouth? Because I cannot think of any Diamonds with towers SOUTH of Plymouth that have not already be mentioned. I know its NOT Carleton. Could it be near Kearsley? That was a GTW/C&O Diamond, and it has a wye....

It is not Romulus (Romulus was not brick). It is not Kearsley, either North or South.
This one is intriguing. I thought that I had been to every interlocking tower in SE Michigan, but I have never been to this one. The construction is not typical of those in SE Michigan, either. I am still betting for outside of Michigan, or leastwise not within Metro Detroit area.

From Detroit to Toledo: It is NOT:

15th Street (Torn down before 1976)
21st Street (Torn down before 1976)
Bay City Junction (Torn down before 1976)
West Detroit
Delray
Bridge
YD (burnt down 1967)
FN
Alexis

From Detroit to Montpelier: It is NOT:
6th Street (Had no crossing)
Delray (obvious)
N&W Bridge (or Victoria Avenue or Ecorse Jct.)
Oakwood Junction (OJ) Gone well before 1980.
Romulus
WB (Adrian) Gone in mid 1960s.



From Detroit to Kalamazoo, it is NOT:
Town Line
Wayne Jct.
OD (south side of Jackson Yard)
XN (Jackson depot)
Nichols
BO

TrainWatcher wrote:Could that location be North of Plymouth?

It's very possible that this could be someplace in Macomb or Oakland Counties. I remember going here because my friend had a hot tip this tower going to demolished shortly. So we went there to take photos of the layout of the tracks, and the tower for a potential HO layout that was planned. However, that aspect never materialized. Nonetheless, I still have the slides of this place.

I said it might have been North Yard Tower, track plan is similar, but perhaps too much greenery. Don't remember enough about GTW's Forest Lawn Tower (GTW x-ing DTRR) to guess.