During some of my other northeastern RR research I have been pulled into videos on youtube of CSX switch towers in use along the old B&O. Just wondering why the Southern RR like Seaboard and Southern had fewer switch towers than the Northern lines?
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I'll start by taking a stab at it. My impression is that switch towers were used primarily in 2 situations:
1. When the railroad used block control to move high density traffic, ala PRR
2. When two railroads crossed, away from a station, each with several trains per day
Looking at maps, the south had fewer lines with high density traffic and fewer crossings.
OK, everyone is now invited to pile on and correct me.
ChipR
I'll start by taking a stab at it. My impression is that switch towers were used primarily in 2 situations:
1. When the railroad used block control to move high density traffic, ala PRR
2. When two railroads crossed, away from a station, each with several trains per day
Looking at maps, the south had fewer lines with high density traffic and fewer crossings.
OK, everyone is now invited to pile on and correct me.
ChipR
Works for me. But of course now days there are some Southern lines jammed with traffic...but computers made switch towers obsolete.
CSX A&W out of Atlanta and CSX through Folkston is super busy to name two.
So during the heyday if switch towers..say on the B&O or PENNSY Pittsburgh line...they didn't have the tech to remotely control switches from one remote location?
I think you are discussing interlocking towers. Another location that would have likely had an interlocker in the days before CTC became so widespread would be a major junction where one main line diverged from another. Sometimes they were located where a branch line left the main line. In most - but not all - cases they were also train order offices.
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