While trying to help answer a question about Nolem in another post, I came up with the following two questions ----

(1) In the SAL track profile reprint, there is listed "Monarch" at MP 762.8 (just south of Wildwood). What was this? Was this the south limit of Wildwood Yard? I have not seen it mentioned anywhere else.

(2) In the 4/27/52 ETT, there is reference made to the Wildwood Interlocking at MP 761.5 (just south of the Wye from Orlando). My map of Wildwood from the 50's does not reference an interlocking tower. Does anyoone know if there was a seperate interlocking tower? If so, where was it, what did it look like, etc?

Thank you in advance for any answers.

Bill Parks

-- Bill Parks (bparks_43@yahoo.com), January 05, 2003

Answers

Just for info the area south of wildwood alon the ml was bound on west by the Monarch Ranch, owned by an indiv. from around nj. Mr bill wing was man for yrs. My granddaddy, cm brown was Round house foreman from 1935 till1970

-- greg warnock (gregwarnock@.hotmail.com), January 19, 2005.

Monarch does appear on my SAL Val-Map in bold letters at MP 762.8. There are no sidings or industrial tracks shown at the location.

Does anyone know if there was an interlocking tower at the Coleman split. The Val-Map shows a "signal tower 125'x 16'" just North and East of the switch making the split.

-- Carey Stevens (ca.stevens@att.net), January 07, 2003.

I finally found my Wildwood maps.They are dated 1918,but greatly changed to reflect about 1964.As an example it shows the location of the current station,which is not where the original was.It dosen't shown any steam facilties nor interlocking tower.Very possible there was one,maybe at both ends of the yard.What we need is a 1920-30's map.

-- Joseph Oates (jlosal@mindspring.com), January 06, 2003.

Bill, I can offer some information about your first question regarding the "Monarch" place reference. I checked the Microsoft Map System file for Wildwood, and Monarch is depicted as a geographic place location due west of the Florida Turnpike / U.S. 301 interchange, about half-way between U.S. 301 and the railroad tracks. Of course, this does not mean that the SAL didn't also use the local place name as a name reference for the south yard limit.

As for the second question, I would have guessed that the interlocking would have involved the north leg of the wye, since a crossover track from the wye to the south yard lead did include interlocking. The south leg of the wye only included a switchpoint onto the main line track. Like you, I am very curious to find out all of the details! Best wishes! Aaron Dowling (aarondowling@cfl.rr.com)

-- Aaron Dowling (aarondowling@cfl.rr.com), January 05, 2003.