Fort Wayne - Mike Interlocking

Overview

Mike is located on the east side of downtown Fort Wayne at the Hanna St. viaduct. It is where the RailAmerica Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern (CFER) briefly joins the NS Huntington District using switches and a crossover. Before NS & Conrail reconstructed it Mike was a large crossing with several diamonds. The CFER line now curves into the NS and then crosses it, using a short crossover, then curves back onto the original right-of-way. Mike is the primary gateway for NS Roadrailer trains to and from the Triple Crown Yard. NS has trackage rights on the CFER line between here and Sand. Just east of Mike is the Piqua Wye which was constructed as an alternate means of egress to and from the Triple Crown Yard and to assist turning around the trains for staging.

Operations

Mike interlocking is one of the biggest tie-ups in the area. With the Roadrailer traffic shuffling in and out of the yard and this being the busiest section of the Huntington District, Mike can be quite a traffic jam. The CFER is used fairly heavily by Roadrailer trains. The Piqua wye just east of Mike provides a way for Roadrailer trains to turn around coming into or going out of the Triple Crown Yard. The wye is also frequently used to turn around long strings of locomotives from East Wayne Yard.

Mike interlocking is private property. If you haven't already, please review the Railfanning Tips page.

Looking west towards downtown on the CFER (ex-PRR) at Mike. The line actually used to go straight across the NS here but was realigned in the early 1990s. The track at the far left is the CFER and the next track to the right is the Triple Crown lead which goes into their yard.

This is looking west down the NS Huntington District. The crossover in the middle of the two NS mains is used in lieu of crossing diamonds. The westward CFER track veers off to the right just past the telephone pole.

Looking east at Mike. The tracks in the foreground are the NS Huntington District and the CFER diverges to the right towards Piqua Yard.

Historical Aspects

This is a picture of Conrail Mike Tower and the crossing diamonds looking west as seen in March 1988. This tower and all of the crossing diamonds are gone today and the area is fairly unrecognizable from this view.

Audio recording of Mike Tower recorded on November 1, 1987. [MP3 format, 120K, 15 sec.]

Track Diagram 1967

This is a track diagram of what Mike interlocking looked like in 1967. As you can see the majority of the tracks are gone today, leaving just a skeleton of the once massive interlocking plant. Thanks to Bob Bunting for supplying this schematic!

Mike Interlocking (Gay St. to Clinton St.) 89 KB

Comparison

A side by side comparison at Mike: 1988 (left) 1999 (right). An NS train is crossing the Pennsy in the left view and the track we are standing on has been removed in the right view. There once was a signal bridge across the NS and you can see part of its leg in the left view on the extreme right side of the picture.

Pictures

An eastbound NS passes the one time mass of diamonds at Mike Tower in March 1988.

NS 8423 pulls NS #257 westbound out of the Triple Crown Yard off the Triple Crown lead and onto the NS Huntington District at Mike interlocking on December 19, 1999. He will soon be passing Hugo.

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