Home My 1963 Work Schedule My Interlocking Tower Site Van Loon Ivanhoe Griffith

SHIP CANAL TOWER Interlocking Diagram Working the Ship Canal tower, a.k.a. Bridge #631, for three weeks was a most unique and enjoyable experience because it involved both trains and boats and, of course, operating a really neat drawbridge which is not something most tower operators do. Traffic density for both trains and boats was not that great but the combination was certainly interesting. My Ship Canal break in schedule (two days) was set in my initial message for the summer. The interlocking consisted of 11 "armstrong" levers, nine of which were used. The bridge was electrically operated and had an air brake. As with all towers when breaking in I made notes about the job, in this case two pages. Here's some additional comments based on the notes: Turns out the boat whistles were important, in particular the last one "coming around the bend." On this Google map outbound is the upper right towards Lake Michigan. Inbound from Lake Michigan there is a fork (lower left) in the Indiana Harbor Canal. "Coming around the bend" refers to that fork. The problem was all summer long there was a large boat tied up to the left of the bridge which totally blocked the view of the Canal. So the only way one could tell a boat was coming outbound was to listen for the that long "coming around the bend" boat whistle. This was important since, as indicated in the notes, boats had preference. I don't recall ever having a priority problem between boats and trains. The phones notes indicate that I communicated with only one tower (Calumet tower to the south, railroad west) and the Whiting rail yard right across the Canal (railroad east). You will see a reference to IHB trains. The bridge, while owned and operated by the EJ&E, hosted trains of both railroads, and still does today. The pay, at $2.6568/hour, was not large by today's standards but I probably would have worked any railroad tower for free! Well, maybe not, as I did have college bills to pay. The reference to turning on the flood lights at night, in part was because I was told that pedestrians often used the bridge to get to and from the U.S. Gypsum plant right across the Canal. Pedestrian traffic was minimal because it turns out the U.S. Gypsum plant was on strike the summer of '63. The note added later about "shutting off the lights" after raising the bridge came from an operator who relieved me one night when the bridge was up and the lights were on. He commented the lights could possibly blind the captain of a passing boat. Now why didn't I think of that?... Duh. I listed the names of all four regular Ship Canal operators. These guys were the most friendly and helpful of any I worked with all summer. After two days of break in on June 10 and 11, I was called to work the Ship Canal Relief job for three weeks in August. Railroaders and most railfans understand the Relief job, but for those who might not, let me explain. Any tower which operates 24/7 has 21 tricks (7 days x 3 shifts/day) per week. Four employees each work five consecutive days, accounting for 20 of those tricks. A fifth employee works the remaining trick and actually goes to a different tower each day he works. I believe his job is called the Swing job. Here's how it worked at Ship Canal. It may be different at another tower.                                         Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 3rd trick 12 am-8 am 3 3 3 R R 3 3 1st trick 8 am-4 pm 1 1 1 1 1 R R 2nd trick 4 pm-12 am R S 2 2 2 2 2 Notes on the table: The times shown for the three tricks are the defined start and stop times but at Ship Canal we actually relieved 1/2 hour early. For example, the third trick person works from 11:30 pm to 7:30 am. Trick start and stop times can vary by tower but most towers relieved either 1/2 or 1 hour early. The 3rd trick operator (3) works five consecutive days Friday through Tuesday. The 1st trick operator (1) works five consecutive days Sunday through Thursday. The 2nd trick operator (2) works five consecutive days Tuesday through Saturday. The Relief operator (R) works five consecutive days Wednesday through Sunday with two 3rd tricks followed by two 1st tricks followed by one 2nd trick. The swing operator (S) works 2nd trick Monday as part of five consecutive 2nd tricks with each at a different tower. As stated above, I got the Relief job. On the positive side I loved the variety of working all three tricks. On the negative side it was hard for the body to adjust to eating and sleeping at different times. I wonder if Relief operators ever get used to it. I know that operating road train crews have it MUCH harder with regard to odd eating, sleeping, and working hours, so I won't complain. A confession: Of all the days and towers I worked that summer, only once did I doze off for a brief time on the job. That was near the end of a third trick at Ship Canal. There was no train or boat activity at the time. I was awakened by a phone call on the EJ&E message line. A typical trick at Ship Canal in 1963 had slightly more boats than trains, about six trains (EJ&E & IHB) and eight boats. Fortunately this was one of the towers where I kept a log of every movement, in this case both trains and boats. Check out my log of trains and boats. To help you understand the log, here are some notes on the first day entries (August 7, 1963): Trains on top, eastbounds (to Whiting) on left, westbounds (to Calumet) on right. EJ&E engine 925 went to Whiting at 12:17 am and returned 34 minutes later. I never wrote the number of cars. Rats! Wish I had done that. Much of the traffic was tank cars as this is prime Northwest Indiana oil refinery territory. IHB engines 8776 and 8774 made a similar move, taking 31 minutes. Boats on bottom, "In" means coming in from Lake Michigan, and "Out" means going out towards Lake Michigan. Tug Minnesota comes in by itself and returns 1 hour 31 minutes later assisting the S.S. Comet. Tug New Jersey assists S.S. Amoco Indiana in at 3:30 am. M.S. Sinclair Gary goes out at 4:26 am unassisted (no tug). Enjoy going through the daily logs! As stated above all the operators at Ship Canal were friendly and helpful. The 1st trick man, Eddie Wahmhoff, relieved me on Wednesdays and Thursdays and I relieved him on Sundays (see table above). On Sundays I would show up well over an hour early and tell him to go home and enjoy the day with his family. We corresponded a few times after I returned to school. Of particular interest is this December 1964 Note from Eddie telling about some changes at the tower. I have another letter from Eddie dated 12/15/65 which I will not include here, but he appologizes for not sending the photos of the interior and jokes that "since they put in push buttons and got us off these levers, we have been on the fritz. Ha!" referring to some illnesses among the operators. I never did receive the photos. Speaking of photos, I am not including any here as I did not take any. There are, however, many available on the internet. I have not found one showing the "armstrong" levers in place when I worked the tower. Finally, I'm going to attach some paper work about the tower and also some documents from World War II. Bridge Damage Report form - Side 1. Thankfully, I did not have to use it! Bridge Damage Report form - Side 2. The automobile bridge on Canal Street was gone when I worked. Eight 1942 and 1943 World War II EJ&E documents covering wartime security, trespassing, unauthorized personnel, sabotage, handling of incendiary bombs, shortage of towermen, and burning of navigation lights. Some mention Ship Canal, plus other J towers. Very interesting reading! Next:   Go to Home and select another tower.

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