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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=verdana,geneva>Back in the 1960s, I discovered an interlocking tower out in the pastoral countryside of Eden Prairie, MN.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The operators were friendly, and I spend a lot of time there waiting for trains to ring in and hammer across the frogs.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The first time that I was invited inside, I was struck by the incredible feeling of antiquity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The office and interior just seemed downright ancient.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></P><FONT face=verdana,geneva> <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=verdana,geneva>The first story was brick, and one of the operators once showed me all of the names, dates and messages that were carved into the soft brick.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There were maybe over one hundred of them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>People who had worked there fifty years earlier had left carefully engraved little monograms.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>On one side of the tower, there was somewhat of a small lawn and garden with mowed grass and colorful lilies.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></P><FONT face=verdana,geneva> <o:p></o:p></FONT> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=verdana,geneva>The interlocking plant had 24 levers, but many were taken out of service because some of the trackage had been removed years earlier.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But what was really amazing was to learn that the tower had originally been built in an entirely different location.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It was built in 1880 to protect an M&StL/CM&StP crossing.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In 1913, the roadbed of the CM&StP was improved and relocated, thus changing the crossing location.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So the tower was picked up, skidded down the tracks, and placed on a new foundation at the new location, about a mile away.</FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><FONT face=verdana,geneva size=2></FONT></SPAN> </P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><FONT face=verdana,geneva size=2>After becoming so familiar with that tower in the modern age, I have wondered what it was like in its original incarnation where it served its first 33 years.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What kind of interlocking plant and semaphores were used there?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How were they illuminated in 1880?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Did the operators ride horses to work?</FONT><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN></P>
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