Towns and Nature: Washington, DC: Towers K & A and Union Station

Tower A: (Satellite, as expected, things have changed a lot. I think it was close to this location.)

HAER DC,WASH,559--5
5. 'A' INTERLOCKING TOWER AND TURNTABLE BEHIND UNION STATION. WASHINGTON, D. C. Sec. 1201, MP 137.50. - Northeast Railroad Corridor, Amtrak Route between Union Station & DC/MD State Line, Washington, District of Columbia, DC
[A comment by Jesse Smith on a post confirms this is K Tower.]
Pete Darmody: Metro’s Red Line tracks in foreground and this was used mostly to turn passenger cars right? And I believe it existed until the ‘80s but it’s now been removed and filled in

If you search HAER for just Washington Union Station, you get a lot of photos concerning the restoration in the 1980s. I added the keyword "tracks" to find these three photos.

LC-DIG-highsm-15609
Aerial view looking down the tracks leading into Union Station, Washington, D.C.

LC-HS503- 4324
Aerial view of Washington, D.C., with Union Station and tracks leading into it from the north

The reason you don't see any tracks on the south side of the station is because they are in a tunnel.

LC-HS503- 6459
Aerial view with a focus on Union Station terminal and its tracks, and the city's main post office building next door. The U.S. Capitol is in the distance. Washington, D.C.

One of seven photos posted by Julie Chilton

John Beall posted, cropped
Union Station in Washington, DC

I saw two different postings about Washington Union Station within an hour or so of each other so I took that as an omen that I should write about the topic and went back and found Marty's posting.
Marty Bernard shared two photos:

1
Tower K at Washington Union Station in August 1964
Roger Puta photos

2
Looking north from Tower K at Washington Union Station in August 1964
Roger Puta photos

Mike Tisdale added two comments to the above posting with the overview comment of "Here are a couple of shots of Tower K from the platforms in 2015."

1 Washington Union Station MARC

2 618 arriving at Washington at the low level platforms. Probably a through train to somewhere in Virginia...
[I had to look a while before I noticed K Tower on the left.]

And Mike Tisdale posted as a comment on the above posting a photo from 1977:

Washington DC, RS1
[That looks like K Tower in the background.]

Carl Venzke posted
Amtrak northbound train seen on the right is departing Washington Union Station and a GG-1 electric locomotive # 903, is seen heading to the Ivey City Railroad Yard in Washington, D.C., June 1976

Update:

Francis Otterbein posted
Amtrak's K Tower Threatened
No, the tower isn't closing, but if a developer gets his way Washington DC's iconic K Tower and the entire terminal throat might be covered over and replaced by office towers. The CPLs, pneumatic point machines, green overhead wire and 5 track signal bridges forever hidden and bathed in pale LED light.

Ron Tutt posted
K Tower Amtrak, Union Station, Washington, DC, May 10, 2008. This tower played a monumental role in saving lives when the 1953 Pennsylvania Railroad train wreck occurred: "In the train yard at Union Station, towerman John Feeney in K Tower set the switches to shunt the Federal Express onto Track 16. But when the train raced past him at high speed, he telephoned the stationmaster's office. Clerk Ray Klopp picked up the phone. Feeney shouted, "Runaway on Track 16!" Klopp looked up to see the train racing directly toward his office. He shouted, "Run for your lives!" Then he and the other clerks ran out of the office as fast as they could. (They had just 20 seconds to get out of harm's way.) Aboard the train, conductor Thomas J. Murphy ran through the train from end to end, shouting at the passengers to get down as low as they could on the floor or on their seats."

Kenny Stone added three photos and a link about the wreck.

Marty Bernard posted
From Tower K at the ends of the platforms in Washington Union Station in August 1964. Roger Puta photo.

Carl Venzke posted
“K” Tower Washington DC - Date and photographer unknown
Paul Maurone I don't see any catenary, so this photo pre-dates electrification.

This is looking towards, rather than away from the station.

Marty Bernard posted
B&O Train #8 backing into Washington Union Station, Car 92 on rear, July 26, 1966. Bill Howes photo
You can see the top of the Capitol Dome above the Station.

Curtis Brown commented on Marty's post
Taken on the back of bills private car “Blackhawk” that he purchased from the cb&q. An all wood car originally that got a steel under frame later. The car recently showed up on pawnstars. Lots of stories with that car.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1244690

Darren Reynold posted five photos with the comment: "Amtraks K tower Washington DC With train director Rich Hafer.. (old& new photos)"

5
Robert Boguski: Top left screen is a replication of the CETC-1 and 2 dispatchers’ screens.

Charles Crawford posted three photos with the comment: "Washington DC 1943."

Jim Minor Now that's a Model 14! Would love to try that bad boy, except during switch inspection!!
Railfan Guide to Washing DC - Union Station

Steven J. Brown posted
Amtrak F40PH 297 at K Tower, Washington, DC - April 27, 1989.

Steven J. Brown posted
MARC RDC2 9822 (built 1953 as B&O 9551) at Union Station in Washington, DC - April 27, 1989.
Joe Hurdman: Are these RDCs still going? They must be 70 years old...
Ryan Riddell: Joe Hurdman Marc retired them in the early 90’s.

Carl Venzke posted
Something I have not seen before - Twin turntables at Ivy City engine terminal for Washington D.C. Union Station about 1940
James McDonald The date is 1943. It's an Alfred Eisenstaedt photo for Life Magazine. He's also the photographer that took the famous "kiss" photo on V-J Day in Times Square. That's an RF&P 300 series pacific on the near turntable.Dennis DeBruler One did not feed the other. It was basically two 180-degree roundhouses with their turntables setting next to each other. So it doesn't give you more roundhouse, but it does double the traffic capacity in and out of the stalls. Look about here on the 1951 Historical Aerials map: https://www.google.com/.../@38.9166559,-76.../data=!3m1!1e3

Digitized by Google

William Novak posted
William Novak

Author

Here’s what it looks like today. https://images.app.goo.gl/wzbi5mGXDdnUBent9

William Novak

Author

I should clarify. The raised structure in the middle of this photo is now also gone.

Hugh Fraser Clayton

https://ggwash.org/.../picture-this-youre-nibbling...

That electric locomotive is at the B&O Railroad Museum but on a siding towards the end of the "Mile Track". When I saw it, during a Civil War living history program, It's just sitting there with no interpretative displays around it telling the Union Station story, it's just rusting away.

http://www.borail.org/PRR-No-4876-GG-1.aspx

Jun 2020: safe_image for Washington Union Station Redevelopment Progressing

Krishan Mago commented on a post
All big city train stations of that era are grand in scale and design .This is an interior view of beautiful Union Station ,Washington ,D.C., shot during 2015 visit.

Jerry Litynski posted
Tracks just to the north of Union Station in Washington D.C. Anyone want to be a Yard Master on a busy Friday afternoon?

Tower A

Peter James Paras posted four photos with the comment:

Not my photos. Tower A. Location Washington, DC Union Station.
It controlled a few platform tracks that went through the station into the tunnel to Virginia. At some point it was remote controlled to Tower K, which was remote controlled to a new dispatching center there. Built by the Pennsylvania RR. now operated by Amtrak.
A note here: The catenary actually went through the tunnel to Virginia where the locomotives would lay over. You can see some catenary posts on the CSX main line there.