"Towers" without Interlockings on the N&W

[NW Mailing List]

Don't think so, Mike; it was for the guy who operated the State Street 
gates.

EdKing

-----Original Message----- 
From: NW Mailing List
Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2016 6:51 PM
To: NW Mailing List
Subject: Re: "Towers" without Interlockings on the N&W

Does the one on the Tennessee side of State Street in Bristol qualify?

Mike Pierry, Jr.

Sent from my iPad

> On Sep 29, 2016, at 4:56 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> 
> wrote:
>
> Tolday, we almost invariably associate the word "Tower" with the word 
> "interlocking." And this is because (probably) all the towers we saw in 
> our time housed interlocking machines.
>
> But in the earlier days of railroading, some railroads had towers that did 
> not house interlocking machines. They were used as offices for the Manual 
> Blocking of trains in the days before Automatic Block Signaling became 
> popular. Their purpose was to get the operator up high for the sake of 
> visibility, where he could better observe approaching trains. Towers used 
> in this sense made their big advent in late 1875 and in 1876, but the big 
> period of installation of interlockings came a decade (or more) later. I 
> can give examples, but they are probably not germane here.
>
> So I pose this question: Did the N&W ever construct towers which were not 
> intended to house interlocking machines?
>
> Glenvar comes to mind. Remember those old photos of the beautiful 
> octagonal, shingle-sided, two-story tower at Glenvar ? It housed a 
> Telegraph Office which served as a Manual Block Station and a Train Order 
> Office, but I don't think there was ever an interlocking at Glenvar.
>
> In February 2013, I sent to the N&W Archives a 20 page, 7.8 meg PDF file 
> summarizing a document titled, Statement of Block Signals in Use on the 
> Road, dated September 1896. That documents shows 36 Block Stations between 
> Norfolk and Roanokee (inclusive); 24 between Roanoke and Bluefield; 36 on 
> the Pocahontas Division; 20 on the Scioto Valley Division; 41 on the 
> Shenandoah Division; 14 on the Pulaski Divisiion; 9 on the North Carolina 
> Division; 15 on the Clinch Valley Division; and 15 on the Winston-Salem 
> Division. Without doubt, most of these Block Stations were housed in 
> depots or small cabin-type structures, but the possibility exists that 
> some of them may have been "towers without interlockings." Again, Glenvar 
> is my example.
>
> Were there others...?
>
> -- abram burnett
>
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