Pennsylvania Railroad Interlocking Towers - Past & Present
The Pennsylvania Railroad like many other railroads had built interlocking towers all along their mainlines. The purpose of these towers were to control train movements through blocks. They were manned 24/7/365 a year to ensure the safest operations. As time went on and technology improved, these towers were slowly closed with ALTO Tower being the final tower to close. Only a handful remain today: ZOO, HUNT, J, ALTO, MG, & AR. There might be others but those are a few that are still standing that we know of. If you would like to contribute any photo's of the towers that are still standing that were once PRR, please get in contact with us on our facebook page. The webmaster will then upload the photo's to his flickr account because as of right now, that is the only way we are able to add photo's. Proper credit will be given to the photographer.
J TowerJ Tower is now located at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
Matthew Miller Photo
AR TowerAR Tower is located at the top of the grade right before the New Portage Tunnel. This tower is at the end of the return loop used for turning PRR Steam & Diesel locomotives. It has been OOS for a number of years.
Matthew Miller Photo
NY TowerNY Tower was located in Portage, Pennsylvania. This tower controlled much of Portage and down to Wilmore, Pennsylvania. All that remains to this day is the foundation. No history or photo's can be found of this tower. This tower was moved a couple of times before finally being placed at Milepost 258.9. There are early photo's of the first NY Tower but none of the one that sat here.
Matthew Miller Photo
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Alto TowerAlto Tower is located in Altoona, Pennsylvania. This tower was closed in 2012 and all operations were handed over to Pittsburgh Dispatcher.
Matthew Miller Photo
MO TowerMO Tower was located in Cresson, Pennsylvania. The tower which controlled much of cresson was torn down sometime after this 1998 picture was taken.
Late Jack W. Miller Jr Photo
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