Station: Romulus, Michigan
Michigan's Internet Railroad History Museum
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Above, an old view of Romulus depot and interlocking tower, when the Wabash line was single tracked east and west. [Alan Loftis Collection] Below, a later view. Note that the depot has been moved slightly south to make way for the second main track. An eastbound Norfolk & Western general merchandise freight heads past the home signal at the Romulus interlocker. Note the pipes coming from the base of the tower which controls switches and signals. The train order board indicates no train orders for the N&W in either direction. 1977. [Charlie Whipp photograph]. |
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Above, Romulus Interlocking Tower was the crossing of the NS Chessie System and the E-W Norfolk and Western Railroad. In the days of Toledo to Detroit passenger trains, the Pere Marquette changed lines here for a quicker trip to Fort Street Union Station using the Wabash tracks. The tower was photographed by Charlie Whipp in the February, 1977. Below, this is a March, 1977 photo of the Romulus Interlocking Tower and the Wabash passenger station. [Charlie Whipp] |
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Comments from Doug Hefty on 3/28/2006: The office call for Romulus tower was "MU", but it was just known as Romulus Tower. The tower was manned by Wabash employees, later N&W. Interlocking rules were in effect between the home signals. On the C&O side, CTC was in effect on the single track north of the tower and D-251 (current of track with block signals) was in effect on the double track south of the tower. When northbound trains would "hit the bell", the operator would notify the C&O dispatcher in saginaw and we would give instructions to hold (for southbounds) or "let 'em go". Trains moving against the current of traffic south would receive orders at Romulus. Romulus would also block south for the Kelsay-Hayes local to come north on No. 2 trck from the KH spur to the tower. I'm not real familiar with the N&W operations, but I know it was double track (Rule 251, current of traffic with block signals). The C&O had a block line phone at Carleton and the operators, besides "OS'ing" to the dispatcher would notify each other of trains in the block. When I worked at Carleton, the operator at Romulus used to play his trumpet sometimes on the block line! The tower sat there for some time after it closed. Around 1978, I was working the Assistant Chief Dispatcher's job in Saginaw on the 3rd (midnight) shift when it went up in flames. The fire burned through all of the communications wires, including theCTC code line, which passed right over the tower. Of course, we lost control of the switch and signals at Romulus, as well as at Erie because of the break in the code line. I remember the regular lineman was on vacation and I had to call the Port Huron subdivision lineman out of Yale to go down to Romulus and fix it up. It was not a good night!