Nostalgia & History > Tower Question

While looking at RDG630 posts in the previous post ,of the Rdg I have a question for those in the know. Was it common for RR's to have more than one Tower with the same name? The RDG which got me to thinking on this, comes to mind first. Allentown Pa had an "R" Tower, but so did Rutherford on the RDG. I beliueve there were 2 "MG's" on the PRR/PC, the more popular one west of Altoona, plus what I think was another one, not sure of it's location tho. (Have some TO's that refer to an MG but in the TO body, other stations mentioned are not anywhere near Horseshoe Curve or Altoona Pa. These are just 2 that I can think of. I know that depending on the locale where it could happen it might not be a problem, but as in the case of "R" Twr on the RDG, they actually weren't that far apart.. Just curious. TIA Ben

R tower in Allentown wasn't a Reading tower. It was CNJ later LV.

Doug Wetherhold
Macungie, PA

I don't think a railroad would ever name two towers with the same names. Even in the days of the telegraph, each tower needed a unique identifier so the operator would know when the orders were for him and not for someone else on the block line.

On railroads that used telegraphic dispatching, tower names were generally single letters or two-letter pairs, to simplify addresses. Once telephones (and later radios) came into use, names were used, but generally only one or two syllables to avoid confusion or the necessity of repitition. For most railroads, this carried on to the designation of control points in CTC territory. Thus, Virginia Avenue tower (Virginia) became CP Virginia. But again, all the names had to be unique. In a network, you can't have two nodes named the same.

In Texas, the Railroad Commission numbered all towers, I think sequentially based on date of construction (corrections welcome). Thus, Tower 55 controlled the crossing of MP and Santa Fe in Ft. Worth. UP has followed in that tradition, using numbers and letters to uniquely identify control points. Pam Am Railways does something similar. I think it's confusing, and that using shortened place names provides a more positive identification (for example, "Gunpow" interlocking at the south end of the Gunpowder River bridge, or "Holly" at Holly Oak, north of Wilmington).

My favorite control points are "Kiss" and "Ride" in Brewster, NY.