Farewell to JD Tower

It's Been Fun!

Yes, it has been fun. I doubt that anyone who served here wouldn't agree that duty at this place was a genuine pleasure. Sure, it had its share of hectic moments - all towers do - but in the final analysis, the sense of achievement made everything worthwhile.

The final couple of weeks at JD were marked with a pair of contrasts... Beginning with the elimination of the tower's control functions on February 21, the office gave witness to a flurry of activity as trains moved through direct traffic control blocks and hand-operated switches. It was a real nerve center. Then, on February 28, the cutover was completed, and with dispatcher control of switches and signals attained, the tower settled into a calm and peaceful serenity. Indeed, operators did little more than watch the trains pass by.  Finally, on March 5, the tower closed.

The Last Logbook Entry

The following is the actual text used for the last log book entry:

"March 5, 1992... Alexandria Junction Tower opened with an 8-lever Union Mechanical machine installed March 1894... Second installation 16-lever Union Mechanical machine 1906... Tower location changed, moved from sta. 94+25 to sta. 93+63 on Oct. 23, 1912... Tower and machinery destroyed by wreck Aug. 11, 1917; rebuilt and restored to service Oct. 3, 1917... Operator control switches and signals ended Febr. 21, 1992... Timetable reference to station JD Tower deleted Febr. 28, 1992... Tower closed     March 5, 1992... This, then, is my last entry to the JD logbook, and all operators who have heretofore served this station and are here with us in spirit, will be invited to depart with us now as I prepare to lock the door. I value the honor of being the station's last operator. JD Tower Alexandria Junction, Maryland, rest in peace.

Allen R. Brougham, Jr.

The Locking of the Tower

The honor of closing JD Tower had been bestowed to me. At 2300 hours on March 5, 1992, my tour of duty ended, and all positions at the tower were therewith abolished.

A brief ceremony was arranged, and about 20 people assembled to witness the event.

Participants included:

1) Donald Breakiron, who retired as an operator at JD in 1983

2) Bob Uhland, who was an operator at JD in the mid-1980s

3) Mark Nieting, a Lutheran clergyman from Hyattsville, who accepted an invitation to offer a prayer

4) Mario Hendricks, who rendered drum-roll honors

The ceremony was delayed several minutes to avoid a conflict with passing trains. Then, after a call to the train dispatcher in Jacksonville, the ceremony began.

It opened with a 10-second drum-roll.

I then greeted the guests, who were assembled on the ground below, from the top landing.

Mark Nieting then offered a prayer.

I then read a portion from my last entry in the tower's logbook.

This was followed by a four-minute interlude with the door open to allow the untold number of past operators who were there in spirit to leave. (This was accompanied by a musical recording of the Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticanna by Pietro Mascagni.)

This was followed by a sounding of the tower horn, a short and two longs.

There was then another 10-second drum-roll.

Then, Mark Nieting, Bob Uhland and Donald Breakiron left the tower.

Finally, alone in the tower, I adjusted the lights and curtain, walked out onto the landing, closed and locked the door, and descended the steps. It was all over.

The ceremony lasted about 10 minutes.

Photo above - The locking of the door. [Photo by Vince Cipriani)

Epilogue 

It was my requested honor to be the operator to close JD Tower. I cherish that honor. But I know I wasn't truly worthy of it. Surely one of the many earlier operators would have been much more worthy of the honor than was I. The late Mr. Sigafoose comes most immediately to mind.

The life and times at the tower were not always so easy as they were in more recent years. The glory days extending back to before the 1950s found the place: (1) without air-conditioning; (2) with coal in the basement to be shoveled each shift; (3) with no indoor toilet; (4) with Armstrong levers to throw; (5) with the messy aftermath of soot and smoke from passing trains; and (6) with a longer work week. Add to all of this the legacy of oil lamps, Morse communication between offices, written orders and messages instead of radios, and a sundry of other glory-day railroading features, one can understand what I mean by implying that any honors that are due are really to those of an era long before my own.

My sincerest regret is in knowing so little about the members of the JD family from the tower's earliest days. Much appreciation, however, does to to those who did attempt to learn something about them. Source material included company employee magazines from 1913, and publications by the operators' union from 1908. To Mario Hendricks who spent a number of hours researching the former, and to Robert Williams who spent a day in Washington researching the latter, I offer special thanks. While their efforts to at least produce a list of names were not successful, their research will prove helpful to future projects.

Once again, the legacy of JD Tower belongs to all of its family. So it was with this in mind that the focus of the tower's closing ceremony was to allow all who had so nobly served the office in the past, and who were still there in spirit, to symbolically depart in a musical procession just before the door was locked.

To them we bid farewell. Thank you for your share in the legacy of Alexandria Junction Tower.

Now may it rest in peace.

Allen Brougham