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Railroad History Story: Notes about Oxford Interlocking |
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Michigan's Internet Railroad History Museum |
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by Charlie Whipp In addition to handling the interlocking machine, the operator at Oxford interlocking tower would have handled all train orders for both the Michigan Central and the Grand Trunk Western. There were two yards at Oxford and both railroads had "jobs" that worked the various gravel pits around town. The operator would also open the depot for the night passenger trains on the New York Central (former Michigan Central), which were enroute from Detroit to Saginaw, Bay City and Mackinaw City. The tower operator would handle any telegraph work for the aent (i.e. consist reports, reporting loads and empties on hand, number of cars needed to be picked up (and their contents) for through freights, and any reservations for Pullman space that may be required on the NYC's Northerner. When the interlocking machine and tower was installed around 1900, there were eight passenger trains daily on the Michigan Central, and four on the Pontiac, Oxford & Northern (later GTW). All of these trains plus the many freight movements and gravel pit extras on both the MC and the PO&N made Oxford Tower a pretty busy place. I like to think of a place like Oxford as probably never being totally quiet in its heyday. It had two steam railroads and the Flint Division of the Detroit United Railway, which ran a few hundred feet from the junction between the PO&N and the MC Bay City Branch. The DUR actually tunneled under the PO&N. The DUR Flint Division alone had 36 scheduled cars per day plus freight trains that operated during the night when passenger service was slow. I would guess that there was a lot to do there at one time. In 1941, the operator day operator-leverman at Oxford was paid $ 0.765 per hour. The afternoon and night operator-levermen were paid $ 0.745 per hour. |
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