Wow. Tower 17 was in two of the last three Trains Magazines. On page 38 of November 2004 it is show still in service and on page 74 of January 2005 shows it a few days before we moved it.
I will have to take some. We had a slight setback. The lower walls as rebuilt by the moving company were starting to move. The upper floor was rotating out of square with the foundation. The moving company came back out and jacked it up again and added some diagonal reinforcing in the walls and put the siding back on. The beams and blocks were supposed to come out again this week.
Sounds like you could have easily had a disaster on your hands. Glad somebody spotted this before it shifted too far! Boxcab E50
Also, on the inside we have been tearing out the simulated wood grain paneling that was covering the original beadboard wall covering and upper window sashes. We found all kinds of cool graffiti under the paneling. Things like old phone numbers, updates to timetables, lever positions for trainorder boards and other stuff. We would like to put a fresh coat of paint on the walls but are in a quandary about how to preserve some of this. We will probably photo document it and then paint.
Here is a photo from a few days ago. The restored windows and doors have been installed in the ground floor, the new stairway has been built and we are in the process of applying a coat of Sunset Gold paint.
Yup. That is what it was painted most of its life. We are going to hook up some of the levers inside to some semiphors and lights outside as an interactive display. The switching plant on this tower was not an "Armstrong" system but all electro-mechanical when built back in 1903. They used DC power provided by wet cell batteries because reliable AC power was not available. The origional glass jar and electrode batteries were relplaced with DC from transformers and lead acid batteries for backup but the switches and levers were still the same when the plant was retired. There was more modern equipment like relays, signalling and switch motors to throw the trunouts added over the years but the 100 year old cabinet with the pull levers and switch contacts inside was nursed along till UP retiered the tower.
Do you have any pictures of the actual mechanisms inside the tower? I have never seen exactly how these are comprised. I have viewed the rods coming out of a tower. And several types up the levers upstairs. But never what's hidden downstairs. I loved the sounds made by an electro-mechanical system! Boxcab E50
This is the only photo I have uploaded so far. It just shows the front side of the cabinet where the pistol grip handles for lining the tracks and setting the signals stick out.
i used to work for sperry rail service and tested the bnsf leg of the diamond and saw tower 17 up close and personal. friscobob i remember tower 16 here in sherman. i hope somebodyposted pics of it online. too bad the museums here and in denison didnt want it. im kickin myself for not takin pics of it when it was still in sherman.. tom btw tower 17 used to be bnsf before they gave it over to up
No, the way it works is that BNSF owns and is responsible for the track at the diamond. UP owns and is responsible for the interlocker plant which included Tower 17. Always been that way since the Gulf Colorado & Santa Fe laid their tracks across the GH & SA back in the 1800s. That is why Sperry was working for BNSF when they inspected the diamond.
