Uploads from jeffs4653, tagged urbanexploration, with geodata

Campbell's Pond Pumphouse

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Mon, 06 May 2013 05:30:32 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

A couple of last looks at my revisit to the abandoned pump station.

Campbell's Pond Pumphouse

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Mon, 06 May 2013 05:29:31 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

A couple of last looks at my revisit to the abandoned pump station.

Campbells Pond Pumphouse

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Fri, 03 May 2013 04:15:40 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

If the vandals keep bashing away at the floor, there isn't going to be any way to walk in here in the future.

Campbells Pond Pumphouse

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Fri, 03 May 2013 04:15:10 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

Talk to the hand

Campbell's Pond Pumphouse

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Thu, 02 May 2013 04:17:22 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

Colorful graffiti still abounds inside the building. Unfortunately I could not get to a side room where the more graffiti was. The wooden plank crossing a large gap [lower right corner] was missing and I didn't want to risk it with the camera, tripod, etc.

Campbell's Pond Pumphouse

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Thu, 02 May 2013 04:18:30 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

Last year when I shot these old pumps the pit was dry. This year it was flooded by water. The wooden floor in this place is in terrible shape, and in many places you can't walk. It was worse this year. I couldn't get to spots I was at last year. The additional floor damage looked to be the work of vandals.

Campbell's Pond Pumphouse

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:17:56 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

The lower areas were dry last year when I was here. This year the water was several feet deep.

Campbell's Pond Pumphouse, Revisited

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:19:42 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

This old pump station was built somewhere around 1900 and supplied drinking water to the city of Orange. Long abandoned, and in varying states of disrepair, the building once contained a boiler and steam pumps.

I shot here last year, and wanted to take some more shots with my 8-16mm lens, which I didn't have last year. This is a view through an opening in the back wall. An aspect I did not shoot from last year.

Campbell's Pond Pumphouse

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:18:35 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

When I here a year ago, there was no visible water in the channels. This time, water was several feet deep.

GR Tower

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:25:52 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

The towerman had a commanding view over the tracks.

NYS&W

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:23:19 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

The view north of GR Tower. Today several switches for customers along the line. In the past, the junction with the Erie Northern Branch was right about where the curve is. Around the curve would have been the station building for Babbit.

Strongarm

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:26:31 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

Too bad there was no [easy] way to get onto the second level of GR tower. I would have really like to take a closer look at all of this, but thanks to long lenses, you can get second best.

Artifacts

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:24:43 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

Rusted artifacts of GR tower's infrastructure litter the floor.

Interlocking Machine

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 05:10:10 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

The back side of the lever deck is where the interlocking bed was. In the photo it's directly above the ends of the levers, where all the light is shining through. If viewed full size you will see a number of square beams, some of which still have linkages attached to them. These beams rocked back and forth when their corresponding lever was worked and moved another flat beam (the locking rod) longitudinally. However the locking rod could only move if it was unlocked, or, that it wasn't being locked by the action of another lever. A mechanically programmed system of inter-dependance was built into the machine. Think of it as an early computer with a fixed program.

This interlocking machine was of the Saxby and Farmer type, developed in England in the late 19th Century. This machine was built by The Federal Railway Signal Company of Troy NY.

Federal Railway Signal

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 05:09:02 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

The end plate of this 100 year old machine still bears it's maker's name: The Federal Railway Signal Company of Troy NY,

Empty Remains

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 05:07:10 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

Not much left in the lower level of GR Tower, but at one time this area was filled with linkages, cranks, pipes, and other mechanical wonders. There probably wasn't much room to walk down here, and lots to keep greased!

Long Unused

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 05:08:06 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

Installed approximately 100 years ago and unused for nearly 55 years. The solid cast iron of this old mechanical interlocking machine slowly yield to the elements.

GR Tower

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 04:20:52 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

On the right side of the lever assembly was the "interlocking bed", a mechanical system of bars that moved back and forth when levers were moved and were set up in a complex pattern to cause other levers to to be locked at certain times and free to move at others. This is where the term "interlocking" comes from when referring to a railroad switching station. The complex and custom interlocking pattern prevented tower operators from making a fatal mistake of mis-aligning train routes or wrongly setting signals that could send a train down the wrong track or into a head on collision with another train.

The design of this tower is from the early 1900s, when mechanical interlocking was all there was. After mechanical interlocking came electrical interlocking, done with complex hard wired logic through relays. Today interlocking is all done by computer.

GR Tower

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 04:22:04 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

Inside the remains of GR tower. This is the ground level, where all the mechanics would have been. If you can picture it, there would have been linkages coming down from the lever mechanism mounted to the upper floor. On the ground there would have been an assortment of cranks to transfer the direction of the "up/down" motion to a rocking motion (rocking bars) or a "push/pull" motion going out the opening in the front wall along the floor. There might have also been some electrical gear down here in the form of relays and switches.

Still surviving are planks on an inspection/maintenance deck just below the lever assembly. The fire must have been confined to the upper floor.

GR Tower

nobody@flickr.com (jeffs4653) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 04:19:44 -0700

jeffs4653 posted a photo:

A closer look at the remains of GR Tower's lever mechanism. This is the front side of the rack, where the operator stood. The locking mechanism was behind the levers, and is blocked in this view. That will be seen in upcoming photos.

This assembly is 100 years old!