Welcome back to the Interlocking Walkthrough show! Today's interlocking is NECK interlocking, which is located just east of Great Neck, which is roughly 14 miles east of Long Island City. The interlocking, which marks the end of double-track territory on the Port Washington Branch, sees quite a bit of use on a good day. This interlocking, like many on the branch, was put into service in the 80s.
Switches
This interlocking is quite simple in design, as all there is at the end of the two track line, there's a crossover that sends track 2 to track 1, which it goes on the ten-minute section to Port Washington.
However, NECK interlocking has an added twist: an added pocket track. The pocket track, imperative in an upcoming project, makes the busy rush hour service on this line possible, allowing turns to end early along the line (mainly Bayside, Little Neck, or Great Neck), and like Massapequa, turn on it and head back into the city. Eastbound thru-trains to Port Washington would merge onto track 1 using the crossover just east of the station, while terminating trains to Great Neck pull east and go straight onto the pocket track, where they can turn around. And, once the train has turned around, depending on the length of the train, there's multiple places where trains can exit the pocket track as you get closer to Great Neck.
Signals
Now let's return to NECK interlocking. NECK interlocking is home to "old style" position light signals that are located on gantries at the westernmost point of the interlocking. There are also signals on pedestals at the easternmost point of the interlocking for trains coming off the Manhasset viaduct.
Towers
There is no control tower at NECK, From it's inception, like the other Port Washington Branch interlockings, it was controlled by the busy HAROLD tower, near the HAROLD interlocking in Queens. But, when HAROLD Tower was closed in 1999, control of the Port Washington Branch interlockings was interestingly handed over to Jamaica Control Center (JCC) despite these trains not even stopping at Jamaica!
For the first portion of the interlocking, service is topped out at 60 mph (which is the general Port Washington Branch speed limit), but, about halfway through the interlocking, the service speed drops to 50mph for the remaining run to Port Washington.
Neighbors:
To the west, there's BAY interlocking, and, as a matter of fact, NECK interlocking is the easternmost interlocking on the Port Washington Branch as the Port Washington yard switches aren't part of any interlocking.
That should do it for NECK interlocking. I'll be releasing a post soon that will detail the Great Neck Pocket Track, and the next installment of Interlocking Walkthroughs will appear next Wednesday on STONY interlocking.