Free Santa Fe Interlocking Control Tower Plans

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Interlocking Control Tower 19, Dallas, Texas.

Ubiquitous during the steam era and into the modern diesel railroad era, Control towers were placed wherever railroads needed to control a number of switches, such as the entrance to a yard, or a junction. A Control tower is a great structure for your model railroad that will give lend authenticity without taking up too much real estate.

Site Plan, Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe
Railroad Interlocking Control Tower 19, Dallas, Texas

There are many kits available, but with these free building plans, the average model railroader can make a scratch-built structure that will far surpass the results of all but the most expensive craftsman kits.

These free plans are of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Control Tower 19, Santa Fe Railway Milepost 51, Dallas, TX.


This tower is the best preserved example of three early 20th century interlocking plants remaining in Dallas and Tarrant Counties. Built in the Craftsman style, the tower and two sheds and are representative of standardized service buildings built by the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad (AT&AF) as well as other railroads west of the Mississippi. Constructed by company crews from typical plans generated by company engineers these buidings created a common "look" for a particular railroad, and saved the expense of redesigning each structure.

Building Control Tower 19 in 1924 was part of a major reconstruction program AT&SF undertook in the 1920s throughout its service area. Constructed initially with a manual interlocking system to work in tandem with a second plant (Control Tower 10), Control Tower 19 was retrofitted in 1932 with the more reliable electric interlocking system, supplied by the General Railway Signal Company of Rochester, New York. This consolidated the switching functions of both towers into one, and allowed AT&SF to raze Control Tower 10, thereby reducing its labor and maintenance costs. Control Tower 19 remained in service until 1922, after Santa Fe Railway sold this section of its Dallas subdivision to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit System (DART) in 1991.

Elevation Plan, Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Interlocking Control Tower 19, Dallas, Texas

Section Plan, Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Interlocking Control Tower 19, Dallas, Texas

These plans are part of the Historic American Engineering Record, a project of the National Park Service, and are stored in the Library of Congress. The plans were deliniated in 1992 by Larry Irsik and Craig King.