Tappan interlocking tower was a very busy crossing and junction of five railroad lines radiating out in eight directions.
Image Info: Top, an image to of Tappan taken in 1893 with Amtrak proceeding west towards Flint. [Charlie Whipp]. 2nd photo, a winter scene with the C&O crossing the Mt. Clemens main line. 1985. [Charlie Whipp]. 3rd image, A Chessie train powered by B&O 4337 and 4195 heads eastbound across the GTW at Tappan in the 1980's. [Charlie Whipp collection]; 4th image, a westbound GTW freight leaves tunnel yard past Tappan. 5th image, DT&I 6415 leads a GTW train on the Flint sub in 1984. [Charlie Whipp]. 6th image, a DTSL (Detroit & Toledo Shore Line) locomotive powers a freight westbound on the GTW Flint sub, crossing the C&O Port Huron subdivision (which heads off towards Saginaw) at Tappan. 1970's. [Charlie Whipp]. 7th image, the inside of Tappan interlocking about 1985. 8th image, a view of the interlocking bed and levers at Tappan in 1894. [Charlie Whipp]
Westbound C&O trains received their running orders at the C&O yard office along the riverfront in Port Huron. There was no C&O train order board at Tappan.
All westbound GTW trains received clearance and orders at Tappan so they also had no order board for the opposite reason. Tappan was one of the few train order stations that had no order boards. Both comments on [FB] by historian Charlie Whipp. [CW]
1914. The GTW installed a new 44-lever interlocking plant (41 working levers) at Tappan which included power operated distant signals. [TSE-1/1915][RR-1915-0102-15]
The following sources are utilized in this website. [SOURCE-YEAR-MMDD-PG]:
