Bradford Ohio Railroad Museum

Bradford Ohio Railroad Museum. What was B.F. Tower?. BF Tower was under the supervision of the Pennsylvania Railroad dispatcher in Columbus, OH. When a train left its terminal, the crew received written orders from the dispatcher. The orders might include such things as stopping to pick up of drop off cars, waiting on a siding for another train to pass, or switching from one line to another., The tower operator working from the second floor of the tower, were skilled in railroad Morse code to relay messages between towers, dispatchers, trains and stations. The two-letter telegraphic code “BF” (Bradford) served to identify the tower. From trackside the operator would hand up train orders using an order hoop to the engineer and conductor on approaching trains indicating problems ahead, such as weather conditions, opposing trains and track gangs. The operator was the eyes and ears for the dispatcher and was responsible for the movement of the trains through his territory. He was the source of information of what was happening at the moment. Replaced by centralized traffic control, the tower is a monument to the early days of low tech railroading., The interlocking tower had the special job of controlling the switches and signals that directed the trains on their proper route. The tower controlled the junction traffic between Columbus, Chicago and Indianapolis and tracks leading to the classification yards. The main line split at Bradford going south to Indianapolis via Greenville and north to Logansport via Union City. The switches were controlled mechanically by rods running along the track, some of them hundreds of feet long, which were moved by large hand-thrown levers in the tower. Other signals and switches, some of them miles away, were controlled electrically., “Interlocking” was derived from the safety feature of the equipment. The interlocking mechanism runs from the second to the first floor connecting the levers to the rods that leave the building to connect to the track switches and signals. Switches governed the position of rails thus controlling the direction of the train. Position light signals containing three amber lights indicating how the train was to proceed. When placed in the vertical position it meant “proceed”, diagonal “caution” and horizontal “stop.”, The Position light system replaced the mechanical blade semaphore signal that stands next to the tower. The signal maintainer tested the signals and switches under his control using the relays and batteries located on the first floor.