Yale Depot photo
Posted by Chessie Dispatcher
on 1/21/2020, 7:16 pm
Here's the Yale depot before its demise in the 1981 derailment. This photo had to have been taken prior to 1977 because it's still an open office as evidenced by the train order signal still in service. (That's the first thing they used to "torch" when an office was shuttered). In early January, 1977, Yale as well as Marlette, Vassar and Gera were all closed. I've mentioned before that we had an "announceator" outside of the depot so we got an audible when a train passed. This, of course, could NOT be used as an official "OS" -- it was information only. In other words, a dispatcher could not issue any kind of authority to another train or MofW employee based simply on hearing a train pass. It was mostly helpful in the middle of the night to notify PH Yard that their train was getting close. Yale was one of the view agencies I was never called to work off the extra board, although it did become part of the territory for the mobile agent out of Croswell, which I worked a few times. (PHOTO CREDIT: MARK HINSDALE)
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