1940,Fire at St.Louis,MO Union Station

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

[
black][/black] I was working with the PRR Philadelphia Terminal Division, Telegraph and Signal Dept. as an apprentice Electrical Engineer under the direct supervision of the T&S Dept. head.

I don`t remember the exact date that I reported for work and was told that the tower at Union Terminal, St.Louis had just burned to the ground and we were to dismantle about 10 sections of a Union Switch and Signal Co. Electro Mechanical interlocking machine located in the new 30th St. Station building called Penn tower. Only two sections of the machine were in use.

I was told that a baggage car would be spotted next to the elevator on the lowerlevel station platform (four track main NYC-Wash. DC) into which the Locking bars of the 10 sections along with the frames were to be loaded as soon as possible and to keep the office informed of progress. The car was to be dispatched upon completion of loading by special extra to the U S S Co. plant inPittsburgh to replace the machine destroyed in the fire.

The entire T&S gang pluss several off duty maintainers were already at work.
We had to be carefull not to overload the elevator as the locking bars were heavy. When the car was almost completely loaded the boss told several of the Sr. maintainers to go home and pack for a trip to St. Louis to reassemble the modified machine. I tried, unsuccessfuly ,to go too.

Was TRAINS Mag published then ? The fire was surely reported if it was. I waas told that The Unioin station was operating the terminal switching by the use of hand signals and knife switches to activated the electro pneumatic switch movements.

Can anyone remember any details of this emergency operation ?

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The Great Fire: July 22, 1940
Until 4:55 p.m., July 22, 1940 had been a routine hot summer day in the life of St. Louis Union Station. All of the supper trains had been “set” on the terminal’s 42 tracks, with the Texas runs parked on the west side so they could depart with a minimum of crossing over. The eight operators in the signal tower under the direction of William Parker were normally processing the 107 inbound and 106 outbound trains which the station handled each 24 hours through its 315 signals and 315 switches, all remotely controlled. At 4:55 routine quickly dissolved into pandemonium. An operator noticed smoke coming from a conduit which carried wires into the two story brick and frame interlocking tower. Fourteen engine companies and four hook-and-ladder companies responded to the resulting three-alarm blaze, which razed the tower. TRRA quickly instituted hand-switching and signaling, adding as many as 100 extra switchmen at a cost of $200,000. A readymade interlocking machine was purchased from the Pennsylvania Railroad and put into operation in the new tower on October 6, 1940. New York Herald-Tribune society columnist and railfan extroardinaire Lucius Beebe donned a white engineer’s outfitto offially dedicate the new plant on November 30 in the company of another guest, St. Louis patrolman and rail photographer William Barham.
The above is from a 10 page article on the station in the March 1978 Trains magazine.