(rshsdepot) Hohman Avenue Tower (EL), Hammond, Indiana

[Jim Dent <jdent_@_erols.com>]

-From the Hammond Times Online...

                Group wants to save old rail tower

                Building in use for 100 years closed, replaced
                by computer technology.

                BY SHARON PORTA Times Correspondent 

                HAMMOND -- A group of
                railroad enthusiasts are
                fighting to save the
                Hohman Avenue Tower
                before its scheduled
                demolition on May 10. 

                For more than 100 years,
                railroad personnel have
                manned the tower 24
                hours a day. But
                recently, a computer has taken over and the tower
                is scheduled to come down. 

                However, a group calling themselves the Hohman
                Tower Alliance are doing what they can to
                preserve the last interlocking railroad tower in
                Hammond, located on Willow Court near Hohman
                Avenue. 

                At one time, more than 5,000 towers stood guard
                at railroad crossings throughout the country,
                housing personnel who flipped the switches for
                north-south and east-west trains. However, with
                the computer, that function is now done miles
                away. Today, fewer than 175 towers are still
                operating. The alliance believes the tower can
                serve as an important focal point and information
                center for education on railroad history and its
                connection with Hammond. 

                "That tower is a very valuable piece of railroad
                story,'' said Suzanne Long, the Calumet Room
                librarian at the Hammond Public Library. "It's a
                dying piece of technology. People won't know
                things used to be done manually without these
                towers around.'' 

                Last month, the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad
                completed a signal installation process that is the
                last in a series of projects designed to speed the
                flow of rail traffic through the Gary-Hammond-East
                Chicago rail corridor. 

                As part of the project, the railroad's signal
                department began the process of retiring the
                Hohman Avenue Tower. Built by the
                Erie-Lackawanna Railroad around 1900, the tower
                had been in continuous operation until Friday,
                when it was closed. When the computerized
                changeover is completed, the tower, which is
                operated by CSX Transportation and maintained by
                IHB, will be replaced by a state-of-the-art
                micro-processor based control system linked by
                data radio to the railroad's dispatcher in Calumet
                City. The total project cost is about $750,000. 

                The Griffith Historical Society recently saved that
                town's tower, and now Hammond historians are
                trying to do the same. Estimates show that it will
                cost about $60,000 to move the tower and a site
                has to be found, both by the May 10. 

                "We've been talking to the railroad since last
                summer,'' said Brian Poland, city planner who also
                served on the Hammond Historic Preservation
                Commission and the Hammond Historical Society.
                "Two weeks ago they said we could have it, but it
                had to be moved by May 10. That is not sufficient
                time, since we are unsure where we will get the
                money and where we will put it.'' 

                But according to railroad personnel, demolition of
                the two and a half story tower can't happen soon
                enough. 

                "If it were up to me, I'd get it down tomorrow,''
                said Vic Barks, the railroad's chief of police. "At
                State Line, someone had moved into the tower
                within two days of vacating it. Kids turn those
                towers into a clubhouse right away. It is our belief
                that abandoned buildings invite curiosity and
                vandals. 

                We just don't want something to happen to
                someone.'' 

The Hohman Tower Alliance -  Anyone interested in assisting their effort 
call (219) 852-2255 or e-mail hohmantower_@_yahoo.com

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