--(Tribune-Star/Jim
Avelis)
| --(Tribune-Star/Jim
Avelis) |
| Moving: The Spring Hill Tower south of Terre Haute will be moved to the Wabash Valley Railroaders Museum at 1316 Plum Ave. |
by Howard Greninger
Ernest A. Wilkinson vividly remembers visiting the Spring Hill Tower, the last lever switch rail tower on the Canadian Pacific Railroad.
Just 14, he lived on his grandparent's farm, a mile south of the tower.
"I used to peddle my bike there and visit the guys in the tower. The telegrapher in the tower could sit there and carry on a conversation in Morse code with someone on the other end, write the message down and still talk to me at the same time," said Wilkinson who is now 75 and lives in Lafayette.
The tower, which for 89 years guarded the crossings of three railroad lines on Terre Haute's south side, was shut down last year when the manual switches were converted to automated switches.
In late 1998, the society approached the Canadian Pacific Railroad in hopes of preserving the two-story, 15-foot by 25-foot white building now tarnished with graffiti.
On Thursday, Bill Foster, president of the group, will hand over a $10 check to CPR road manager Anthony Fletcher to purchase the tower and turn it into a museum.
"The Chicago, Terre Haute & Southeastern Railroad first erected a tower there in 1899," along the towpath of the former Wabash & Erie Canal, Foster said.
"That tower burned and the current Spring Hill Tower was built in 1910, yet it kept the same mechanical technology used in the original tower, so it has a lot of history," he said.
The next move is to begin a fund-raising campaign to move the tower five miles north to the Wabash Valley Railroaders Museum at 1316 Plum Ave. The estimated cost for moving, engineering and building a new foundation is $40,000, Foster said.
The tower would be cut in half and moved by truck in two parts. The foundation will not be moved, Foster said.
"When they threw a switch to direct a train onto a different track, they had to physically pull these levers on the floor in the tower connected to pipe that may go 500 feet down the track," Foster said
"You have to use two hands and all your body weight. Some had straps where you strap yourself to the lever and pull with all your might," he said. A pulled switch could send a train onto a siding to allow another train to pass or give a train a clear signal to pass through.
Tower operators used a telegraph to communicate with each other and provide the location of an incoming train, Foster said.
"There are still some of these lever towers in the United States, but they are getting pretty scarce. There are a few in West Virginia and Virginia and southern Pennsylvania -- also some outside of Chicago," Foster said. "There are a lot of towers that are being preserved, but we don't know if they have the levers or not. A lot of times the railroads took out the levers."
Last year, Foster's group moved Haley Tower off of CSX Transportation's property, about 50 feet away from its location at 13th Street and 8th Avenue, to the museum site.
Haley Tower will be open on weekends starting at the end of June, Foster said. There will be no charge but the group will ask for donations.
The railroaders loosely formed in 1990 with an annual picnic each fall at Haley Tower. The group incorporated in 1998 to save Haley and Spring Hill Towers.
"The Haley Tower had electronic switches and a brick and concrete exterior, while the Spring Hill Tower had mechanical equipment and a wood exterior. It was just the differences in the two different railroads, with Haley Tower built by the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad."
The Spring Hill Tower, by the 1940s, was the property of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad and was later owed by the Soo Line, now a part of Canadian Pacific Railway.
Ernest Wilkinson's grandfather, James Wilkinson, worked as a yard conductor for the Milwaukee Railroad, as did his father, Murrel.
Four of his relatives who worked on the railroad are now buried at Grandview Cemetery in Vigo County, he said. "My grandfather chose that cemetery because you could see the graves from the switch on the tracks just at the west edge of Grandview Cemetery," he said.
Wilkinson's brother, George G. Wilkinson of Terre Haute, also worked for a short time on the Milwaukee.
"I was in the Spring Hill Tower once or twice. They would also hand messages to the trains as they came through," he said. "They had a forked stick with a string between the two sides with a telegraph message attached and [engineers] would grab that message when the train came through."
Railroads have long been a part of the Wilkinson family.
Ernest Wilkinson's daughter, Laura Baenen, now works as a spokeswoman for the Canadian Pacific Railroad.
Baenen said the tower must be moved by June 1, 2001. If the group cannot move it within a year, the future of the tower will be Canadian Pacific Railway's responsibility. "We certainly have not finalized such plans, and we have not thought that far ahead," Baenen said.
Foster said he is confident his group will raise the money needed for the Spring Hill Tower project. It will seek corporate and individual contributions, as well as grants from foundations and government agencies.
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