Henderson history: Funneling three railroads over one bridge posed quite a challenge
Like many of you, I welcomed the renovation of the old Union Station railroad depot that began in 2016-17 and am even more glad to hear it will soon be occupied. A crucial part of the intersection of three railroads at that location was coming down in 1947, although saving it would have made an interesting addition to the depot’s revival.
It was called the switch tower and – in conjunction with a similar facility 4.6 miles away in Indiana – it controlled the heavy train traffic across the Ohio River. A two-story tower with windows all the way around the upper floor, it allowed good views up and down the tracks.
It was located across the tracks from the depot’s baggage house. It juggled the traffic created by the junction of the Louisville & Nashville, the Illinois Central, and (before it was folded into the L&N) the Louisville, Henderson & St. Louis, often called the Henderson Route.
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A Gleaner article published June 24, 1947, said the switch tower was in the process of being torn down, which the paper called “the passing of another landmark.”
For decades “when Hendersonians could not get the ticket office (on the telephone) to find out about the arrival or departure of trains, they have called the tower to get their information.
“Passengers who were familiar with the workings around the station would stand on the platform and watch the tower operator. When he would be seen to start manipulating the bank of long wooden levers in the tower, they would know that the tracks were being lined up to let a train through Henderson and would hope it was the one they had been waiting for.”
Those “long wooden levers” were part of an electro-mechanical system that controlled the bridge crossing for about four decades. But let’s start even further back than that.
According to the Virginia Railway Express website, the earliest type of control over rail traffic was a flagpole and a copper ball. The copper ball was raised when a train had a head of steam and all the passengers and freight had been loaded. The train could then proceed. That’s the origin of the phrase a “high-balling freight.”
A better system was required after traffic increased. It was called the “block” system, where a rail line was broken down into segments, each of which was controlled by a signal controlled by an operator.
In busy places like the Henderson intersection some type of system was needed to allow train traffic to proceed onto the bridge without stopping to receive orders. Many times personnel at the Henderson switch tower didn’t know what the Illinois Central and Henderson Route trains were doing until they arrived here, according to a May 1920 article in “Railway Signal Engineer” written by F.H. Bagley, assistant signal engineer for the L&N.
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The L&N was trying to avoid building an expensive new bridge (which didn’t open until 1932) and even when the new bridge was built it continued to hold only a single railroad track. The double track ends in the vicinity of Union Station and picks up again at the “FS Tower” in Indiana. (FS originally was a call sign for the railroad telegraph operators.)
Automatic signals were installed about 1912, Bagley wrote, but they constricted traffic too much. The Henderson dispatcher about that time was required to issue an average of 50 train orders per 24 hours. Freight trains were consistently being thrown off schedule by the automatic signals.
“Some scheme of operation was needed that would decrease the delay at each end,” Bagley wrote, and the solution was an interlocking system that used pipes running between the rails. My best guess is that linkage to the wooden levers ran through the pipes to the rail switches so they could be operated from the towers at both ends of the bridge.
The system allowed Henderson operators to lock out the line when they had a train to send across the bridge, making it physically impossible for the FS Tower operator to open the line to traffic from its end. Further insurance was provided by a dedicated telephone line between the two signal towers.
Another safety feature pertained to the Henderson freight yard and the Rahm siding midway between the FS Tower and the river. They were both equipped with electric switch locks, which prevented trains from crossing the bridge if any of the siding switches were open.
Bagley wrote that those improvements became operational across the Henderson bridge Oct. 21, 1919, “and seems to be meeting every expectation in facilitating the handling of trains and in eliminating delays.”
Those improvements were state of the art in 1920, but by 1947 the L&N was changing over to a new fully electric system called centralized traffic control.
“All of the work that has been done heretofore by hand will now be done electrically from a switchboard in an office that has been walled off from the women’s waiting room,” The Gleaner’s 1947 story said. “The multitude of small pipes that ran between the tracks will be gone.
“This modification of the interlocking plants is part of the railroad’s plan for quicker and better service,” the story said, noting the work to switch to an electrical system would take about six more weeks.
One final tidbit from Bagley’s article: As of 1920 a small locomotive called a “pusher engine” was kept at the siding on the other side of the river. It was “regularly used to help southbound trains over the bridge, there being a steep grade southbound on the trestle approaching the bridge.”
100 YEARS AGO
Dam 48 was dedicated Nov. 15, 1921, but the 10-year project wasn’t actually completed until June 29, 1922, according to The Gleaner of the following day.
“Workmen have been engaged in putting the final touches on the giant structure. Great difficulty was encountered by engineers in charge of the construction, and at one time it looked as if all the previous efforts had been in vain, as a flood threatened to destroy the dam.”
Dam 48, which was 5.8 miles downstream of Henderson, was one of 51 dams built over two decades on the Ohio River to provide a 9-foot-deep navigation channel year-round. A March 7, 1912, Gleaner article, written when work on the dam was getting under way, said that project was “one thing that men who have long been in the cemeteries of various Ohio River cities have toiled and prayed for.”
A community named Damtown sprang up in 1912 when construction began on the dam. It lasted until the end of 1921, according to a Nov. 12, 1921, article in The Gleaner, which noted the town was being dismantled “and there will be nothing left but the four brick houses erected by the government for the men who will operate the dam.
“At one time there was a big playground in Damtown, where there was a fine baseball diamond and a tennis court. These things are still there, but were very little used in the past five years.”
50 YEARS AGO
County extension agent Stuart Brabant was closing out more than 18 years on the job although his career spanned 46 years, according to The Gleaner of May 18, 1972.
He had started work in Mercer County in 1925 and spent two years there before moving on to Logan County for three years and 23 years in Todd County. He came to Henderson County in 1953 and was affectionately known as “Skipper” to the farmers he advised.
The Gleaner of June 27 depicts him and his wife, Martine, receiving the keys to a new car from W.C. Perkins, chairman of the Henderson County Extension Council. His final column in The Gleaner appeared July 1.
The July 8 Gleaner featured Bill Hendrick’s first column as extension agent. He had been in charge of the 4-H program for most of 18 years and stayed as extension agent for another 17 years until he retired in 1989.
In his first column he went out of his way to praise his predecessor. “I am not at all pleased with the loss of Stuart Brabant. You just don’t spend 18 years with a man of his character and ability and not experience a void in your life.”
25 YEARS AGO
A Henderson native who hadn’t lived here for 74 years was donating to the city the large clock that now stands at First and Elm streets, according to The Gleaner of June 26, 1997.
The clock was donated to honor his parents, Mike M. and Hattie B. Levy. His father ran a drug store at the corner of Washington and Holloway streets.
The Gleaner of Sept. 12 noted the clock had been erected and the paper of Sept. 19 reported the city of Henderson had unveiled the 12.5-foot clock. Levy, 95, a retired advertising executive from Cincinnati, was present for the dedication.
Levy wrote copy for Ripley's Believe it or Not when it went on the air in 1928 and also was the person who came up with the name "Purple Flash" for Barret Manual Training High School’s athletic teams.
Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @BoyettFrank.