Interlocking Walkthrough: BAY

This week's interlocking walkthrough takes us to BAY interlocking, about halfway down the Jamaica-less Port Washington Branch.  This interlocking is located just east of Bayside station and roughly 11 miles from Long Island City.  (Here's a bird's eye view of the location)

Switches
Two crossovers make up the entirety of BAY interlocking, one from Port Washington 1 (the westbound track) to Port Washington 2 (the eastbound track), then back from Port Washington 2 to Port Washington 2 before the interlocking ends.

In between the two crossovers the North Side Yard splits off from Port Washington 1.  That track then splits into two before ending in bumber blocks.  This yard doesn't have any third rail so it's rarely used by LIRR passenger equipment (and Port Washington Branch diesel sightings are few and far between) so this yard sits there largely unused.  The very first switch into the yard (the one from Port Washington 1 to the yard) is interlocked, while the second switch within the yard is hand-thrown.


Signals
BAY interlocking is home to 4 yellow position light signals, one for each track on each side of the interlocking, mounted on overhead gantries on either side of the interlocking.


Towers
There is currently no tower at BAY interlocking, and I don't believe there ever was (though that I'm not sure of).  Currently all of the switches at BAY interlocking are controlled by this person called the "Section A dispatcher" who controls everything from the Jamaica Control Center in the AirTrain building near Jamaica station.  This interlocking used to be controlled from HAROLD tower near HAROLD interlocking to the west (right before the East River Tunnels) but that control has since been transferred to JCC.


Neighbors
BAY interlocking is bordered to the west by SHEA interlocking near the Mets-Willets Point station (formerly named Shea Stadium) and NECK to the east near Great Neck.


The speed limit through, and on either side of this interlocking, is 60 m.p.h.   This interlocking isn't used all that much in day-to-day train running, though it might be used occasionally during rush hours when a train is sent express down the other track.

That just about wraps up BAY interlocking.  Next week we'll take a look at BETH interlocking on the Mainline near Bethpage.  (PS: I haven't really made this clear, but we're going in alphabetical order for these walkthroughs, starting with AMITYVILLE then going all the way down to Y!)