(These are the same links posted in the Model Railroader Forum!)
Here are some interesting old shots to share - the photographer is unknown (these are not my shots or my dad’s but were purchased some time ago). They show only some of the many watchtowers from Hackensack that lasted at least until 1977. These pictures were all taken in August of 1964.
The first two are what I recall to be the tower at Passaic. (If my memory is wrong on any of these, please don’t hesitate to call me out on it. I’m happy to fix the captions.)
Now, this next tower is on Railroad Avenue… I’m pretty sure at James Street, looking North (so the Susquehanna is behind the photographer here… would this tower then also have had some responsbility for the connection between the Susquehanna and the NJNY, rather than being a crossing watchtower? It wouldn’t have had anything to do with the Hudson River Line of the Public Service Trolley, would it?).
When you say manual, do you mean the towerman moved a lever that was mechanically connected to drop and raise the gates? Or did he have to walk outside and do it by hand?
Looking outside at the ice covering everything in sight, I can see where either prospect is unpleasant.
Love these historic photos. You can’t appreciate where you are if you don’t know where you’ve been.
I can’t say for sure about these towers but I suspect they are similar to those I was familiar with in and around Chicago. The crossing gates were operated by compressed air. The towerman would raise them by means of a hand operated piston air pump located in the tower. When a train approached the crosssing he bled off the air and as the pressure was reduced the gates would drop by gravity. I remember seeing kerosene lanterns with red lenses hanging from some of these gates. Before dusk one of the towermans duties was to fill the lanterns, trim their wicks and light them.
Definitely the gateman stayed inside the towers to operate the gates; the high enclosure virtually guarentees that. Looking closely at the picture I do not see the pneumatic pipes but rather electric wires from the towers. And note, too, that these were grade crossing, gateman’s towers and not interlocking towers…they are just so frail looking while still in the style of Erie wooden interlocking towers.