By Allen Brougham (reprinted by permission from "The Bullsheet")

FIRST TOWER.. Alexandria Junction Tower was opened in March of 1894. This was some 59 years after the B&O had completed its then-Washington Branch to this location from Baltimore, and nearly 21 years after it had built its junction with the newer Alexandria Branch. Its first installation was an eight-lever machine. In 1906 a second 16-lever machine was installed. A photo of the first tower appears below:

Photo of the first tower, in service beginning March of 1894. Photo taken c-1910, from Smithsonian Institution collection

SECOND TOWER.. In August of 1912 a new plan was developed incorporating the rearrangement of tracks and signals to be operated by a 40-lever machine. With the need of a larger facility, a new tower was opened 62 feet east of the earlier location. This structure followed a standard plan for towers being built for that period which were variously sized depending upon the amount of workspace that was needed. A number of these towers survive today. A noticeable architectural feature of this plan is the shingled extension beneath the top floor windows of the building, although a number of the surviving towers from this plan have had this extension removed in favor of later siding modifications.

Tragedy struck the tower on August 11, 1917, when an engine which was switching outside in the fog ran into a standing cut of cars derailing four of the cars into the building. A conductor, Frank Willie of Laurel, Maryland, was killed. The operator, P. H. Lynn, who was in the tower, was injured. He was saved from more extensive injury, or perhaps death, by a locker which fell in such a way as to shield him from falling debris. By all accounts, the tower was demolished.

Plan for the second tower built 1912, and the third tower built to replace the second one in 1917. Drawing from Mike Welsh collection

THIRD TOWER.. In just over seven weeks, on October 3, 1917, Alexandria Junction Tower was rebuilt and restored to service. By then the B&O did have a new standard design for towers which comprehended brick construction. However, with time being of the essence, the expediency of frame construction using its previous design was employed in the rebuilding of the tower in order to restore the office to service as quickly as possible.

On September 19, 1918, the railroad's valuation department took inventory of the furniture and fixtures in place at the tower, and determined a value of such items at $72.36. Included in this inventory were, among other things, three tin basins, two corn brooms, one coal bucket, one Bentwood chair, two pokers, one scoop bucket, and 19 window shades.

On June 19, 1919, an Interstate Commerce Commission valuation was conducted at the tower. In its report, the tower's outhouse was said to be 15 years old. But the report also said that the tower itself was 10 years old. This would be at odds with the age of the structure based upon its 1917 rebuilding. Perhaps the 10-year figure was a rough estimate based upon the age of the tower from 1912, if any of the then-current structure had been rebuilt from its original material, but it is more likely that the listing was merely an arbitrary guess by the investigator who did not bother to inquire.

In 1943 there were a number of switch and signal additions to the interlocking, and the tower's most recent hanging model board and table interlocker both date from then.

In 1949 the modern convenience of an inside john was added to the building's second floor, and the tower's entry door was moved from the west side of the building to its east side, and new steps were constructed at that location because the new lavatory and partitions were situated where the west-side door had been.

Then, in 1978, the tower's armstrong levers and pipeline were retired, and along with some interlocking changes electric operation of all switches was implemented. The tower's most recent desk model board, showing the switches and signals within the most immediate interlocking, dates from then.

This, therefore, traces some of the tower's history up to its final days.

Much appreciation goes to railroad historian Mike Welsh who has been conducting ongoing research about B&O interlocking towers over the past several months using records available to him from the National Archives Record Center, the B&O Railroad Museum, various libraries and other sources. Without Mike's diligent work, much of this history would have been unavailable for this report.

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Table Interlocker: The 14-lever table machine at JD was put into service on January 5, 1943, as additions to the interlocking plant covering signaling of the Alexandria Branch from the west leg of the wye at Hyattsville to Chesapeake Junction. It was configured with two switch levers, one crossover lever, three direction-of-traffic levers, six signal levers and two spares. Direction-of-traffic would first have to be established before signals could be engaged. Some of the levers had buttons to be pushed as an added safeguard to effect certain out-of-the-ordinary routings. The levers were color-coded black for the switches and crossover, gray for direction-of-traffic, red for signals, and white for spares. Route locks were automatic within this assembly, but if separate locking levers had been needed, they would have been color-coded blue. The spare levers served no immediate purpose, but they were in place if needed for additions to the interlocking and/or to replace other levers becoming defective.

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Chronology of Events - JD Tower (1894-1992)

• 3-1894... First installation, 8-lever Union mechanical machine.
• 1905... Second installation, 15-lever Union mechanical machine.
• 8-13-1912... New plan made showing rearrangement of tracks and signals to be operated by a 40-lever Std 'A' machine, third installation.
• 10-23-1912... Tower relocation from sta. 94+25 to sta. 93+63 (62 ft.) with 2-story 15' x 24' frame tower.
• 11-16-1912... Medium-speed arm #39 changed from mechanical to power operated.
• 8-11-1917... Tower and machine destroyed by wreck.
• 10-3-1917... Tower rebuilt and restored to service.
• 6-7-1924... Installation of two low-level switch machines.
• 9-30-1926... Installation of electric locking circuits replacing seven detector bars.
• 7-10-1928... Installation of electric lights in place of oil lamps on semaphore signals.
• 4-1-1942... Installation of two CPL high signals replacing semaphore home signals.
• 1-5-1943... Construction of connection to west wye track at Melrose, extension of passing siding, new signals, relocation of wye track & pole lines, and raising grade of main track; additions to interlocking plant covering signaling of Alexandria Branch from west wye to Chesapeake Junction with CPL signals and electric switch machines, all operated from a 14-lever table machine in tower.
• 3-31-1944... Construction of 596' of track including four #16 turnouts; retirement of 953' of track including five #10 and two #16 turnouts; alterations to surfacing in south approach due to relocation of west wye in Maryland Avenue; deletion of one semaphore home signal and two semaphore dwarf signals.
• 2-8-1946... Installation of new water and steam heating system, and retirement of coal furnace.
• 12-16-1947... Construction of 146' of track including one #10 turnout for Edmonds Art Stone Co.; installation of trailing-point turnout together with electric switch and derail locks; CPL dwarf signals and controlling instruments.
• 11-1948... Ernest Maier siding in service (retired 1973).
• 2-16-1949... Installation of sanitary toilet facilities and retirement of frame outhouse; construction of oil storage house and retirement of coal box; installation of new wiring and electrical outlets.
• 8-29-1952... Installation of standard train-order board equipped with four CPL dwarf signal markers.
• 5-27-1955... Installation of three CPL dwarf signals and retirement of five mechanical semaphore-type signals.
• 8-1-1955... Retirement of crossover.
• 4-14-1977... Installation of signal facilities for holding signal #307 at stop and time-out circuits to prevent blocking Washington Avenue.
• 1978... Mechanical levers and pipeline retired, replaced by electric operation of all switches.
• 10-3-1983... Installation of flashing red light on eastbound approach signal.
• 10-12-1984... Installation of radio voice annunciator detector MP 33.7.
• 2-21-1992... Retirement of all signal control from tower.
• 2-28-1992... Tower deleted as timetable station.
• 3-5-1992... Tower closed.

Photo, c-1947, with an eastbound passenger train passing JD Tower, shows the tower as it looked before the entry door was moved to the building's east side. Entry at the time of the photo was through a door near the corner of the west side. The assembly extending from the front of the tower parallel to the ballast was the pipeline by which the operator moved switches and crossovers manually using mechanical levers in the tower. The levers and pipeline were retired in 1978. Until 1949 JD Tower was heated by coal. It was delivered by train, and the coal chute was trackside near the northwest corner of the building. It was each operator's duty in cold weather to properly tend the furnace for the next shift before going home. [Photo by E.L. Thompson]

 This mile marker dates from the 1800's and is located a few hundred yards north (railroad East) of the tower location. It sits approx 5 feet below grade on the east side of the main line. It is amazing to think that the original right of way was approx 5 feel lower than the current grade! It is believed that the marker sits near the location of the first tower built in 1894.