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HOBART BART TOWER Interlocking Diagram BART was my favorite tower of them all because it was the closest to my home and therefore the one in which I spent many hours in the 50s and early 60s. I got to know all the operators. They all let me throw lineups. I sometimes made on the ground PRR train inspections and remember once handing up PRR train orders (a rare event at BART). On my Interlocking web page just below the BART interlocking diagram I have two photos of BART tower, one inside and one outside. BART was a small tower with just 15 "armstrong" levers and 8 pistol grip levers, all of which were used. The pistol grip levers followed the usual PRR convention of odd numbers for switches and even numbers for signals. Main line derails had been removed but the levers still had to be pulled. BART tower had a mechanism for manually raising and lowering the crossing gates at Illinois Street (and I think Linda Street too). If a train was switching, the operator could operate the gates manually on a per track basis. Once one did that, he had to remember to restore the gates to automatic operation. My recollection is that very few operators raised the gates as they didn't want the liability risk should they forget to lower them or place them back on automatic operation. The tower underwent two changes in the late 1950's. On 6/24/1958 the J's HO tower, located about 1/4 mile railroad west of BART, was closed and control was transferred to BART. In the interior photo of BART you can see the control box sitting on the edge of the desk in the bottom center of the picture. In the center of the box was a master control lever which was kept normally in the reverse position, indicating the Nickel Plate dispatcher in Fort Wayne had control of his railroad through the interlocking. The Nickel Plate ran a lot more trains than did the EJ&E. To run a J train the BART operator, after checking that nothing was close on the Nickel Plate, would move the master control lever to normal, giving him control of the J's switch and signals through the interlocking. I was visting BART tower at midnight on the day they cut in the new panel. The third trick operator insisted the maintainer be present because he couldn't figure out how to operate this new thing (actually it was quite simple, in my opinion) and besides they weren't paying him enough for this new responsibility! I never did find out what additional pay the operators received. On 4/22/1959 PRR's Liverpool tower, located 3.1 miles west of BART, was closed. The interlocking was made automatic, meaning first come, first served. The PRR crossovers at Liverpool were removed. To accomodate this change a new facing point crossover was added to the BART interlocking and was controlled by pistol grip lever 07. Another change at Bart was the removal of the PRR eastward siding. Lifetime Hobart resident Ken Durkel, based on photographic evidence and maps, believes the eastward siding was removed by Penn Central circa 1972, not in the 1950's as I erroneously stated in an earlier version of this page. During a visit in the summer of 1963 with first trick operator Bill Planeta, I commented that it would seem strange if I were unable to work BART during the summer. Apparently Bill put in a request with his boss which resulted in my getting three days of break in at BART. I knew well how to operate the interlocking so during break in I concentrated on working the phones, copying some train orders, and doing other "desk" duties I was never allowed to do as a visitor. Break in went well. I actually got a few hours of alone time one day as the operator chose to run a few errands. I regret I never did get called to work BART during the summer. But, on the other hand, that gave me the opportunity to work other towers. By the time BART tower was closed and torn down I was living far away in upstate New York. I would love to have had a lever or two, the track diagram board, or some other momento. The Porter line was abandoned in the mid-80s. Next:   Go to Home and select another tower.

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