Hello,

I'm looking for updates on the preservation of B&O towers. I know Miller Tower is lying in pieces waiting to be reassembled at Martinsburg or some such location; I understand the tower in Keyser, W. Va. and HO across the river from Hancock, Md. are supposedly the last two "armstrong"/rod-controlling towers about, and I recall reading that the B&O Museum had put in a formal request to CSX for HO/Hancock for preservation at the B&O Museum (or at least preventing its immediate demolition) when it was finally decommissioned. Can anyone confirm or refute these reports? In the trivia department, ARE there any other rod-operated towers left in the nation besides Keyser and Hancock? I know the semaphored Brighton Park junction in Chicago was cut over a few weeks ago.........

While not in service,but still standing and recently 'restored', the former Atlantic City Railroad (Reading Co.) PRSL now CMSL in Tuckahoe,NJ was an armstrong interlocking Tower. I worked this tower in the early 70's and while the signals had been changed to searchlights, the levers still controlled them. The turnouts were still manually thrown from the levers.

I really hope that somebody steps up to preserve HO Hancock. That's such a remarkable structure. Unlike some of the others, it looks and acts like a true classic tower. I feel privilidged to have seen it as many times as I have, when it was still doing what it was intended to do, where it was supposed to do it.

In college I'd skip out to spend time at Erie-Lackawanna's DV tower in Falconer, NY (Jamestown). The operators were very friendly, and it turned into my twice-weekly railroad class. They let me line signals and routes on the tower - which had the manual levers connected to electrical power in the first floor. My first tries were met with howls of laughter because nobody told me about the foot pedal locks on the interlocking levers. They about let me try to pull my arms out of my sockets before they told me that part!

I'd really like to see any of the preserved manual towers 'used' in some manner like Lemoyne tower on the Strasburg. It at least serves some minimal purpose, rather than just being a display. The feel of those heavy steel levers, and the sound of the plant, is something that can't be communicated in pictures or a static display.

B&O "UN" Tower that once stood at the throat of the West Pittsburg, Pa. yards still exists. It was moved in the late 1990's when CSX no longer needed it. It is now owned by the Beaver Valley Junction Chapter of the NRHS. It can be found somewhere on their website at
http://www.beavervalleyjunction.org
It may or may not stay in Mahoningtown, Pa. where it is standing now as the chapter now owns the P&LE West Pittsburg passenger station and it is now their main headquarters. The "UN" tower may end up some day closer to where it actually stood in West Pittsburg for nearly 100 years. All the levers and most everything else needed to operate is in storage. Someday a few levers may operate something again....Gary

I've got to second this recommendation. Everyone focuses on the architectural relic of these towers, without necessarily explaining what they were for or how they worked.

When we were at Michigan State University, we'd be given admission to MC Tower at "Trowbridge" where the C&O crossed the GTW. This was a manual interlocking with 6 or 8 levers, and we got to line the signals many times for the operator. The feel of getting the line of rod linkage to move would be a nice thing to replicate. And this was a plant with short runs of rods; I can't imagine what it was like with a really widespread plant. I can't think of many places in museums of technology where mechanical logic engines are on display, but this would be a good thing to show to people, as a precursor to analog and digital computers.

All this seems enormously remote now, including the Form 19 pads and stylus, the extension telephone microphone, and being admitted to a working railroad office.

"Trowbridge OS. No. 394 by at 4:19."

Whitewater Valley RR in Connersville IN has the Dearborn tower from Lawrenceburg IN. IIRC it still has the rods.

Let's try this one more time.

I recall seeing HO Tower on the supposed "master list" of CSX assets (locomotives, cars, etc.) targeted for preservation by the B&O Museum--as in, it was to be stenciled "DO NOT DISMANTLE" just like all the rolling stock that showed up on the B&O Museum's back lots. (This list came about after the near-total dismemberment of the last WM GP35, 3798, after it had been promised for preservation but died in "far-off" Cincinnati, where they were unaware of the promises.)

As I recall, being on said list does not guarantee its preservation, or even that the B&O Museum will get it. Rather, it simply means that the B&O Museum will be contacted and attempts made to assure the artifact's preservation.

Though there have long been railfan rumors to the effect that "the Museum will get Hancock Tower", does anybody know if such a plan is in place? They've sure had long enough to plan for this contingency--the rumored "final closure" of HO Tower later this week is only several YEARS behind schedule!

Sadly, I have received reports from a retired CSX tower operator that suggest that the B&O Museum is rejecting the possible preservation of HO Tower under its auspices, apparently preferring instead to target Z Tower at Keyser--I'm guessing either because by then it will truly be "the last," or because it gives an extra year or so for fundraising or whatnot, or because Z's "footprint" is slightly smaller and therefore more conducive to relocation and/or reconstruction.

With Miller Tower "preserved" in nearby Martinsburg, assume until someone says otherwise that HO Tower is "not long for this world". Sadly, I went to visit the tower at Hyndman, Pa. several years ago, and I couldn't even find where it had been--and I had been there before!