I saw this Atlas Elevated Gate/switch tower kit. What was the purpose of a tower like this? Where would it be placed with respect to the tracks. Was it used for a crossover situation or something else? How could I use this realistically on a model raiload (i.e. track configuration near it)
https://www.y2playstores.com/atlas-ho-scale-model-railroad-building-kit-elevated-gate-switch-tower/
This looks different from the interlocking tower kits I see. While I'm asking this question, I also have a basic question regarding interlocking towers. Were they placed where there was a 2 switch crossover in the track? Were they used to house the linkage/levers to pull the switches in synchronized manner?
Any details on how to model either of these types of towers in a prototypical fasion appreaciated!
I don't have any answers to your question (and I am interested to find out the same thing) but this kit looks like a good starting point for the tower which used to be where the Monon and Nickel Plate Road crossed in Frankfort, Indiana. I will be ordering one for my layout soon!
Good Luck, Morpar
Based on the actual design of the kit, I believe it would be used for monitoring railway crossings across major roads, they'd set the railway crossing signals etc. before automatic train detection.
Not sure why it is being called a switch tower though.
Here's an O. Winston Link photo of one
A railroad employee would sit in the tower, which was placed next to a major road crossing and would operate the crossing gates at the road crossing. It was tall so they could see over the adjacent tracks to spot approaching trains on other tracks. At one time a lot of these toweres were manned by train service employees who had been injured where they couldn't be in train service, but could be a crossing watchman.
The differe from interlocking towers in that the interlocking tower tends to be larger and operates a railroad crossing at grade, this tower operates a highway crossing at grade.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
An interlocking tower would have a solid ground floor with about the same footprint as the tower level. In the tower operators top level, there would be levers for the various switch turnouts and signals. In a mechanical plant the levers would be connected to rods that went down thru the ground floor and thru pivots, to connecting rods that come out of the bottom of the tower, then snake around the tracks to their connected switches and signals. The interlocking plant had mechanical logic that prevented setting switch paths that would cause collisions. A signal maintainer would generally be based on the ground floor.
The Atlas gate tower, as mentioned, was to control road traffic when a train was approaching.
I recall similar ones in my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, but opted for a couple of scratchbuilt ones, in two of my larger towns, with a few more embellishments. This one is in Mount Forest...
...and this one in Dunnville...
For the smaller towns on my layout, most got small ground-level buildings, often manned by former railroaders, who had been injured on their original assignments.
Here's some of those crossing shanties...this one is in Elfrida...
...while this one is in South Cayuga...
and this one is in Lowbanks...
The crossing tenders generally flag only the mainline tracks, while crossings servicing industries are flagged by one of the train's switchmen.
There are still two more towns to be built, and they will also have crossing tender structures, too.
Wayne
Note that towers or shanties like these pre-dated electric / automatic crossing gates. At a busy road crossing, the railroad employee would manually lower the gates to stop road traffic, and raise them after the train was gone. Once electronics were advanced enough to do automatic crossing gates / flashers etc., having an employee in a tower or shanty generally were removed.
Fun fact (as my grandson would say), the earliest road 'stop and go' signals were manual blades mounted on a post, much like railroad semaphore signals. A traffic cop in the middle of a busy intersection used a lever to manually chang the semaphore from the STOP to GO, changing the signals in the other direction from GO to STOP.