Towers

[Expresslane]

  This might be a no brainer for some but why did the railroads built towers as let's say a one story building? Could the operator do his job in a small statio like building just as well?

[CShaveRR]

For an operator who regularly had to hand orders to passing trains, the flight(s) of stairs would be an added inconvenience, from standpoints of both time and safety.

[locoi1sa]

   I believe towers were put up for distant visibility. Especialy yard and interlocking towers. Most were built when there was no radio comunication between train and watchmen/dispachers. I have even seen pictures of grade crossing towers up to three stories high for the gateman. He would look as far down the line in both directions and climb down the stairs to lower the gates. My great uncle was a gateman in clevelands east side in the forties and at one location there was a tower instead of a shack. I cant remember where though. He was a disabled brakeman that finished out his years as a gateman.

[MP173]

Also, some were designed to be 2nd story buildings due to the mechanical requirements of the Armstrong levers.

Check out those towers which are still left, there wont be many in 10 years.  Grassilli in East Chicago was shut down in November.  It sure looks cold and dark these days. 

ed

[jeffhergert]

I would say part of the reason would be better visibility of the interlocking plant and oncoming trains.

There were interlockings that had one story or story and a half buildings for the operator. 

With the advent of CTC, some local installations were placed in existing depots.  West Liberty, IA and Bureau, IL on the RI come to mind.

Jeff

[Railway Man]

I would say part of the reason would be better visibility of the interlocking plant and oncoming trains.

There were interlockings that had one story or story and a half buildings for the operator. 

With the advent of CTC, some local installations were placed in existing depots.  West Liberty, IA and Bureau, IL on the RI come to mind.

Jeff

All of the above reasons.  The mechanical Saxby & Farmer type interlocking used in North America until the development of electropnuematic or all-electric plants in the 1920s were vertical machines that needed two stories.  There were horizontal Saxby & Farmer machines but they were not popular except in some union-station type interlocking plants.

The additional height enabled the operator to see where trains were and also the position of switches and signals.

RWM 

[robscaboose]

From someone who spends alot of time at Haley Tower (museum) in Terre Haute IN, being on the second floor allows the operator to:

See the train & signals better from a distance

While you don't have as good of view of the wheels as from the ground, you do get a pretty good look at the train during a run by.

But I think the most important reason is efficency of the machine

While Haley is a pistol grip tower & does not use levers, it does have an incredable amount of wires & relays running out of the bottom of the machine.  So do you build a tall building with a small footprint & roof or one longer building, that partially obstructs the operators view.

We also have Spring Hill Tower which is an "Armstrong Type Lever Tower & the mechanism requires height to work efficently. (Some of the switches that the levers moved were several hundred yards from the tower) 

While height was good for seeing the approaching train, Haley had a system to alert the operator of an approaching train before it could be seen (aside from being telegraphed by the next tower).  When an East/West bound train on the NYC's "Big Four Line" approached a buzzer would go off.  When a North/South train approached a bell would ring.

Come visit us this summer & see what it is like to be in a tower just off the mainline 

Rob

Haley Tower

[Expresslane]

  I knew someone would know why they where built tall.

   Rob where is your tower? I know in Terra Haute but on the north or south side? When is it open as I would love to stop in some time. Are you open only in the summer or year round?

     Thanks

[robscaboose]

Haley Tower is located just North of 13th & 8th Ave on Plum Street (North side of town).  Union Hospital is also located on 8th Ave.

We are open Sat/Sundays May - October 11AM - 4PM.  Several of us are retired & we just hang out in the tower to watch trains.  Sometimes when we've been getting on our wives nerves sitting around the house, we are forced to bundle up, grab some coffee & head to the tower & watch trains against our wills just to keep the peace on the domestic front. 

If were in the tower & we see a railfan looking over the fence, we'll open the gate up & invite them in. 

Other times if were working  or fixing something (presently were returning Spring Hill Tower to the way it looked in the 1950's - we removed the 1970's wall paneling & replacing it with T&G & were repainting it back to the orginal RR green on green) then we generally do not stop & invite people in.  As we tend to do alot of talking & no work gets done.  We want Spring Hill to be open to visitors this summer, so were not being rude, there's just alot of work to be done.

But if you like watching trains, Haley is a great place to watch them from,  beside the towers we have a nice viewing platform with electrical power & scanner.  Except for the INRD trains all the E/W & N/S trains in Terre Haute cross right in front of our windows.  It is double tracked & sometimes if everything is just right, trains are lined up in all four directions to come into town & it is just one train after another.  We have a parking lot that can hold about 20 cars.

Haley is also a favorite place for crew changes

Even if were closed it is still a great place to watch trains

Check out our Web page...just type in Haley Tower 

Rob

PS Expresslane wher are you from???

[MP173]

Haley Tower is truly a great place to watch trains.  My son and I stopped in last year at the end of spring break for an hour (March) and watched a couple trains pass.  That is quite a collection you folks are accumulating.  What a great clubhouse for the boys.  I hope to stop by sometime when you are open.

ed

[Expresslane]

 

    Thanks for the info Rob. We are from Woodstock,IL when we are home. We are truckers and tend to come through your area from time to time. Will stop in if we can.

[robscaboose]

If your comming by & were not in season give me a heads up & we can arrange to be open.  We got lots of room for your truck.

Exit I-70 & go North on 41 for several miles.....past the courthouse & over the viaduct that crosses the old Big Four Tracks.  Make a right when you reach 8th Ave & go East to 13th street.  At the light make a left & go 1/2 block & turn right onto Plum St.  Can't miss the towers.  If your pulling your trailer you'll never make the turn at 8th, so continue North to Maple Ave (where 41 & 63 split).  Turn right at the light & go East to 13th (CVS Pharmacy)Turn right & go South to Plum.

I spent about an hr there today & was going to measure the huge beams that support the mechanism to help give one an understanding of why the towers were tall.  But I forgot.  We'll put it this way......The machine I believe, had 40 levers, is about 20 feet long & 5 feet wide.  It is made of cast iron  You can see pics of it on our website.  The beams that support the weight are solid pieces of wood.  Stuff that just doesn't grow anymore.

Rob

[Expresslane]

 

  Thanks for the directions. I did see the site for the towers and looked at the map on how to get in there. Many years ago I was in the tower at St Francis near Milwaukee on the CNW. If I remember right it had pistol grips. Never thought about what was under the floor up there. At on time this was a large interlocking.  I have not been there in a long time and would bet all that is long gone. Glad to know there are people like you that work to save some of our railroad history. Thanks again.

[Gluefinger]

Yessir, unfortunately St. Francis tower is gone, but the junction still exists. Was this once a three-line junction? At present, the Kenosha Sub joins the Milwaukee Sub here, and trains to Jones Island must go south through the interlocking, then back up north down the (if I recall the name correctly) National Avenue spur. I seem to recall that there used to be yet another line here.

[inch53]

Haley tower is a good place to rail fan; I've been over by there a couple times.

I use this web site to find out where old stations and towers are when we travel. It's pretty good other than addresses are a little vague on some buildings

 http://www.rrshs.org/Struct.index/strucindex.htm

inch

[Expresslane]

 

    Chris    At St Francis the New Line and the Kenosha Line joined up. I think the Kenosha Line went on to downtown Milwaukee and Jones Island. The New Line went around Milwaukee to Butler. Both lines were double track and four tracks to downtown.