In the early part of the 20th century, the area around Grafton, West Virginia, was becoming a troublesome bottleneck for east / west traffic on the B&O Railroad. An important junction existed in the middle of the small town where the original mainline from Baltimore split in two: one line continued northwest to Wheeling, while the former Northwestern Virginia Railroad crossed the Tygart River and headed west to Parkersburg. The old Grafton and Belington route also connected with the mainline at this point and was beginning to see increased traffic, adding a further headache to Grafton operations. To help ease this bottleneck and provide an easier way to control the many main track switches and crossovers in Grafton, the B&O ordered the construction of a new interlocking system controlled by a signal tower. This new brick tower and its electro-pneumatic interlocking plant was completed by 1910, when it was given the telegraph call sign of "D". Two World Wars and a Great Depression later, the railroad decided to replace the nearly worn out Union Switch and Signal system with a more modern all relay electric air system designed by the General Railway Signal Company (GRS).
Photo by Terry Arbogast. For almost 90 years D Tower was manned around the clock, its lights and signals beckoning trains through the darkness of night around Grafton. This night would be no different, except it would be one of the tower's last ones.
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By 1951 the seventy one hand thrown levers in the tower were taken out of service and replaced by GRS' model control board. The NX board greatly eased the demands on the tower operator by automatically aligning the switches and signals along a train's indicated route between the tower and Berkeley Run Junction where the Cowen Subdivision split from the Parkersburg Branch. This system worked well at "D" and was installed at "GN" Tower which controlled the interlocking at the east end of Grafton Yard. Over the next few decades the amount of traffic moving through Grafton began to decline, allowing the railroad to evetually close the tower at "GN" in 1970 and moving the control of its signals and switches to "D". This arrangment would remain relatively unchanged until the final years of the tower, although in 1990 a board remotely controlling the "WD" Tower interlocking in Fairmont, WV, was installed after the closing of the yard office at Fairmont. Then in the winter of 1997 word began circulating that the interlocking controlled by D Tower was on CSX's list for modernization in the coming year. By late July of 1998 it was apparent the tower's days were numbered when CSX signal crews began erecting new Seaboard style traffic lights around Grafton to replace the B&O Color Position Light signals. In the fall of 1998 the Maintenance of Way crews turned their attention to the switches in front of the tower. To simplify the interlocking for better control, the set of double crossovers were replaced with one long and one short crossover while the double track Fairmont Subdivision was reduced to a single track at the switch - see the diagram for a graphic portrayle. The interlockings at "GN" and Berekely Run Junction were also to be transferred to the control of the "CI" Dispatcher in Jackonsville, Florida, along with the signals and siding between Beech and Liberty Streets. The few signals on the Fairmont Subdivision near Grafton were also effected, but instead of replacing the CPLs with SBD signals, the entire system was removed and turned into DTC block controlled dark territory. By March of 1999 these projects were completed and on the 15th of the same month, D Tower finally surrendered control of its plant after nearly 90 years. The tower remained in limited operation for several weeks however, as operators recorded the passage of trains and provided a intermediary for communications between the crews and the CI Dispatcher. By the last week in March, Jacksonville finally held firm control of the interlockings surrounding Grafton and ordered D Tower to be closed on April 2, 1999 - the end of an era.
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By mid October of 1998, the interlocking in front of D Tower has been mostly rebuilt and simplified by reducing the double set of crossovers to just one long crossover. The switching lead has yet to be installed in this view, while track workers and signal maintainers in orange hardhats examine the new interlocking.
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It's been more than a year since an operator in D Tower was last heard from, although the structure still remains standing across from the new yard office in this photo, taken during the summer of 2000.
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Photo by Terry Arbogast. In this wide angle view of the inside of the tower, operator Joe Layman is working the first trick, 7am to 3pm, on this day. Behind Joe is the General Railway Signal board which controlled not only the D Tower switches and signals, but also the interlockings at GN Tower, Berkeley Run Junction and the controlled siding at Beech Street.
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Photo by Terry Arbogast. On a dreary March day near the end, Joe is at his post inside D Tower checking the day's train sheet as an eastbound Cowen Turn led by an SD70MAC can be seen arriving through the window.
Photo by Terry Arbogast. At 7:10AM, April the 2nd, 1999, Joe locks the door to "D" for the final time, bringing to close more than a century of tower operations not only around Grafton, but also on the former lines of the Monongah Division.
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