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<P>I grew up near Hopkins, MN and spent a lot of time during the 1960s visiting Milwaukee Road Tower E-14 where the Milwaukee crossed the M&StL just west of Hopkins.  At that time, the tower had 24 armstrong levers that controlled electric signals and semephores.  The levers were color coded for their function, plus they had cast iron number plates on them.  On the wall, there were glass jars that looked like the glass on electric meters.  Inside the jars, were metal models of semephore blades that changed position, matching the indication of the actual signals outside.  One of the levers still manually controlled a mainline switch.  Many were painted gray and were out of service, having been left over from earlier days when the trackage was more complicated.  </P> <P>That lever bank had a lot of mechanism besides the just the levers.  It was called an interlocking plant.  With all those big, shiny levers and other moving parts, it was about as impressive as a steam locomotive.  I have always felt that those big, straight mechanical, armstrong interlockings of the earlier 1900s, with hundreds of feet of control rods, bell cranks, roller footings, and mechanical semephores were some of the most audacious examples of railroad engineering; ranking right up there with track pans.    </P>
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