Will soon become The Iron Bottleneck/Gridlock. 

http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2015/02/02/Era-may-end-as-CSX-considers-closing-Fostoria-switching-tower.html

Era may end as CSX considers closing Fostoria switching tower

image: http://www.toledoblade.com/image/2015/02/01/300x_b1_cCM_z/n4tracks-3.jpg

The five employees who run the F tower will be offered other positions in the area, a CSX spokesman said.
THE BLADE/KATIE RAUSCHEnlarge | Buy This Photo

FOSTORIA - A vestige of railroading history at this hub of railroad activity may soon come to an end.

CSX Transportation, which operates what once were the Baltimore & Ohio and Chesapeake & Ohio rail lines through town, is studying the closing of  F tower, whose workers control the track switches and signals at three railroad intersections used by well over 100 trains per day.

The feasibility study will "determine the impacts of streamlining operations, which includes the potential for dispatching trains directly from our central location in Indianapolis," Kristin Seay, a railroad spokesman, said in an email interview.

"The study assesses impacts to train movements through the local community and broader CSX rail system."

The study should be completed, and any operational changes made, by year's end, Ms. Seay said.

In bygone days, men in towers like "F" directed train traffic at railroad junctions in Ohio and across North America. Toledo alone had well over a dozen of them, eight of which remained in operation as recently as the mid 1990s.

But advances in telecommunications and computer technology have automated many of the tasks once assigned to tower operators, and over the years CSX and other railroads have transferred the remaining functions to regional - and in some cases systemwide - dispatching centers.

"F" tower is one of just a few local towers still in service on CSX; its only other in the lower Great Lakes region is at a junction in Detroit, and Ms. Seay was not sure if any others still exist in other places on its network.

A tower belonging to the Ann Arbor Railroad is now the last of its kind operating in Toledo. Its future is relatively safe because its operators already work as dispatchers for the rest of the Ann Arbor line along with controlling the North Toledo junction at their tower.

image: http://www.toledoblade.com/image/2015/02/01/300x_b1_cCM_z/n4shorttower-2.jpg

CSXs F tower in Fostoria is the companys last in northwest Ohio and one of only a handful remaining in the region. The company is considering plans to close the tower and use dispatchers at larger regional rail centers to replace it.
THE BLADE/KATIE RAUSCHEnlarge | Buy This Photo

Dispatchers in Indianapolis, Chicago, and Huntington, W.Va., already direct CSX's traffic on its tracks that lead into Fostoria. Ms. Seay said "F" tower has outlasted similar facilities elsewhere "because it supports train operations for three of CSX's operating divisions that converge in the region."

But closing it would save the railroad the cost of five full-time workers, who "will have opportunities to take other operational positions in the area," Ms. Seay said.

"In many cases, remote dispatching improves efficiency and fluidity by allowing train crews to communicate directly with the dispatch center," she said.

Dispatchers, however, also cover much larger working territories than tower operators do. The Indianapolis dispatcher who would be given control of  F  tower whose work if CSX closes it also directs train traffic on about 75 miles of busy main line - from Greenwich, in southern Huron County, to Deshler, Ohio in southeastern Henry County. That territory includes a major freight-car sorting yard in Willard and CSX's booming intermodal terminal in North Baltimore.

When dispatchers are preoccupied with managing one part of their jurisdiction, train crews and maintenance workers in other areas often have to wait their turn.

Intersecting railroad lines belonging to competing companies are typically lowest on dispatchers' priority lists. In Fostoria, Norfolk Southern operates the third leg of the triangle of railroad mainlines through town.

Its trains typically have to wait if there are CSX trains ready - or close to ready - to pass because, like at most railroad junctions, the company that controls the track normally gives preference to its own trains.

David Pidgeon, a Norfolk Southern spokesman, declined to speculate on whether eliminating the local tower operators would result in longer waits for Norfolk Southern trains.

"We don't typically comment about measures taken by other railroads," Mr. Pidgeon said.

Fostoria city officials did not return calls seeking comment about how closing  "F" tower might affect train operations and congestion in Fostoria, nor did the Transportation Communications Union, which represents tower operators and train dispatchers, respond to an inquiry.

Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.

Read more at http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2015/02/02/Era-may-end-as-CSX-considers-closing-Fostoria-switching-tower.html#PdRTpQ4e8RyPDiC0.99