Nostalgia & History > question about stations and junction towers

I am designing a multilevel station for my HO gauge layout. I was thinking about combining the station and a control tower into one building, with the tower portion coming up above the rest in order to see a full 360 degrees. Then, it dawned on me, that may not be very prototypical. Was that ever done?

What you're describing sounds kind of like the SP/UP depot in Sparks, NV, although the tower portion is/was for the yardmaster & not controlling movement through any interlocking. I'm not good at providing any links to a specific photo, however a search on Google images for "Sparks Nevada train station" will provide some images of what you may be after. Good luck!

Desmond Praetzel, "4451 Puff"

Check this out:

http://www.towers.txrrhistory.com/056/056.htm

There appear to be a few in this Google Image Search if you look closely:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Santa+Fe%27s+W.+B.+Interlocking+Tower&client=firefox-a&hs=LFu&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=fflb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=lnrPU4uyB87aoAT13YCIAw&ved=0CDsQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=890#channel=fflb&q=interlocking+towers+inside+train+depots&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=isch&imgdii=_

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/14 02:28 by ATSF100WEST.

You might want to look for pictures of the junction tower/depot at Ohio City, Ohio. It was set right in the junction of the Erie and NKP. There may have been a Big Four line there as well, though I'm not sure. By the time I saw the depot in the early 90s, the tower was removed and replaced with a big tar paper patch in the roof. It's all gone now.

Look up the "KawJct" HO kit by Alpine. The prototype was once at Ottawa, Kansas on the AT&SF main line; the name was Ottawa Jct.. The downtown depot is still at the right spot, but the track is pretty well gone on the Tulsa line. There are drawings done by MR many years ago. wag216

They were rare but did exist. I seem to think the C&O did a few too but they were wood depots with seemingly a tower grafted on. Some stations had what looked like an interlocking tower but it was just part of the architecture. The most common examples of what you are referring to would be at a junction or yard.

steam290 Wrote:

> I am designing a multilevel station for my HO
> gauge layout. I was thinking about combining the
> station and a control tower into one building,
> with the tower portion coming up above the rest in
> order to see a full 360 degrees. Then, it dawned
> on me, that may not be very prototypical. Was
> that ever done?

There are several examples of two-story interlocking towers integrated with single story station buildings. Besides McGregor, TX and Ottawa, KS, Santa Fe examples include Sibley and Hardin, MO and Mazon, IL:

Sibley: http://missouridepots.com/sibleyatsf60.htm
Hardin: http://www.richmond-dailynews.com/2011/12/colorful-railroad-lore-wrote-a-chapter-in-hardin/
Mazon: http://books.google.com/books?id=bhnVTdSD9HMC&lpg=PA103&ots=Q2Kc3RkjGd&dq=mazon%20depot%20tower&pg=PA103#v=onepage&q=mazon%20depot%20tower&f=false


B&O also liked them, see Newton Falls and Dundas, OH:

Newton Falls: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2270521,2270521#2270521
Dundas: http://www.american-rails.com/images/BO_JK_DundasOH.jpg

Multi-level stations (i.e. at least two stories) with an interlocking tower rising even higher is a taller order (so to speak). I can think of examples of yard towers added on to existing structures like the previously mentioned Sparks, NV or Green River, WY:

Sparks: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,1384101,1384101#1384101
Green River: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2861257,2861262#2861262

Sacramento Northern had a structure in Oakland, CA shoehorned into a street corner cut by an interchange track that consisted of a depot on the first floor and an interlocking tower on the second at 40th and Shafter - but that's an electric interurban situation:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,957947,957947#957947

The union station in Canaan, CT was a two story building with a three story tower at the corner, but from the description it was just a perch for the telegraphers rather than home to an interlocking machine:

http://canaanunionstation.com/history/

Of course, there were lots of multi-story depots with ornamental towers (often clock towers) that rose higher - Cheyenne, WY, Pueblo, CO, Denver, CO, Portland, OR, San Angelo, TX, Missoula, MT, most of the Chicago terminals, etc.