--(Tribune-Star/Bob Poynter)
| --(Tribune-Star/Bob Poynter) |
| Making way for progress: CSX track operator Steve Shaw works Monday on a stretch of track near Haley Tower. The tower will be moved about 50 feet Friday by the Haley Tower Historical Society to make room for additional train tracks. |
by Marilyn Salesman
Preparations got under way Monday for moving the 75-year-old Haley Tower near 13th Street and Eighth Avenue. The aging railroad tower won't move very far -- about 50 feet away to the planned Wabash Valley Railroaders Museum at 1316 Plum St. It will be the cornerstone for the museum, said Scott Withrow, secretary-treasurer of the Haley Tower Historical & Technical Society.
The preservationists began talking to CSX Transportation Inc. about a year ago after word got out that CSX and Norfolk Southern Corp. would buy what once was the government-owned Conrail. "We always knew that eventually it would have to be moved or knocked down," Withrow said of Haley Tower. "Interlocking towers are pretty much a thing of the past. We always had our ear to the ground to learn when they might be closing it." When CSX took over that part of Conrail's operation, Withrow and Historical & Technical Society President Bill Foster realized there wouldn't be a need for the interlocking tower to control the track of one railroad. After months of negotiations, CSX sold the tower to the group for $1.
The Historical & Technical Society estimates it will cost about $35,000 to move and restore the structure. That will be funded through a $50,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment, Withrow said. A professional firm from the Evansville area will be moving the two-story, brown brick tower, he said. "It will all move in one piece," he said. "All they do is go around the perimeter of the building and cut holes for a crosswork of steel beams that [protrude from the building.] They lift the beams from the outside on rails and pull it off the railroad property in one piece."
Tower operator Bob Ohning said he'll miss the old building. "I've only been here six years, but it's been a part of the community for a long time," he said. Ohning, a CSX employee, has another job with the railroad company awaiting him in Evansville. The job done by a manned interlocking railroad tower will then be performed by switches operated by a dispatcher in corporate headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla., Ohning said.
Interest has always been high in Haley Tower, one of the last operating towers in the state. But Ohning said the tower had more visitors than usual Monday as people came to see the old lever-operated machine that moves the tracks. The machine has operated since 1926, Ohning said. Operations in the tower are scheduled to cease at 6 a.m. Friday. Preservationists have until Sunday morning to move the structure off the railroad property so the railroad can proceed with installation of new track, Ohning said. "I hope they get it moved," he said. "I wish them luck. You never know -- it's old. When you try to move something that's been around this long, you never know. It's just an old brick building with a concrete slab in the middle and one in the bottom."
Future museum plans call for moving Canadian Pacific Railway's Springhill Tower to the museum from southern Vigo County, construction of a train-viewing area with platform, railroad-equipment displays and construction of a depot replica/museum building.