"Towers" without Interlockings on the N&W

[NW Mailing List]

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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