Union Tower is a closed interlocking tower on the Pennsylvania Railroad's Northeast Corridor in

Rahway, New Jersey Rahway () is a city in southern Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A bedroom community of New York City, it is centrally located in the Rahway Valley region, in the New York metropolitan area. The city is southwest of Manhattan ...

History

Union Tower was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to control the

Perth Amboy and Woodbridge Railroad The Perth Amboy and Woodbridge Railroad was a railroad company in the state of New Jersey. It was incorporated in 1855, and completed its line between Rahway and Perth Amboy, New Jersey, in 1864. The company became part of the Pennsylvania Railro ...

. Incidentally the PA&W was electrified by the PRR in 1935. For years this interlocking tower on the PRR had controlled trains on the NEC and the PA&W heading either to or from the

New York and Long Branch Railroad The New York and Long Branch Railroad was a railroad in central New Jersey, running from Bay Head Junction in Bay Head to Perth Amboy, where it connected to the Central Railroad of New Jersey's Perth Amboy and Elizabethport Railroad. The rail ...

South Amboy, New Jersey South Amboy is a suburban city in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located on Raritan Bay. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 9,411.New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

to form

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

, Union continued to control trains from the PA&W and NEC. In 1976 the government created railroad Conrail assumed operations from Penn Central. While Amtrak handled passenger trains on the NEC. Conrail did commuter and freight operations. Freight however did not get sent onto the North Jersey Coast Line, it stayed on the NEC.

Today

Today, Amtrak Union Tower formerly controlled the NEC and the approaches from the

branch (

North Jersey Coast Line The North Jersey Coast Line is a commuter rail line running from Rahway to Bay Head, New Jersey, traversing through the Jersey Shore region. Operated by New Jersey Transit, the line is electrified as far south as Long Branch. On rail system m ...

). It closed in 2011. The traffic it still sees are

New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

trains to and from Long Branch, and

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

and NJ Transit trains to and from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Trenton and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. Amtrak CETC-9 now dispatches the territory formerly controlled by the operator at Union. Three interlockings replaced Union Tower; Roads, Union, and Merck.

External links

Union Tower (Pennsylvania Railroad) by Mike Brotzman (Signalbox.org)Flickr Photo by P3SUBHUNTERUnion Interlocking Tower (Wikimapia)
Pennsylvania Railroad Rahway, New Jersey Railway signaling in the United States {{US-rail-transport-stub