Garrett, PA: B&O Coaling, Water Towers and Interlocking Tower (GA)

Tim Shanahan shared Jackson-Township historical preservation's photo.

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Coal Station in Garrett, Somerset County around the 1960's.
(Photo from Esther Mostoller Weigle via https://www.facebook.com/groups/253780567972963/)

Edward Bluebaugh shared

I looked at a 1966 Historic Aerial and a 1939 Penn Pilot, but I could not find the location of these towers in Garrett, PA. That was really frustrating because the coaling tower should have had a significant shadow. I assumed that B&O is the route that is still in use today and the Great Allegheny Passage Trail was the Western Maryland.

American-Rails.com posted
Baltimore & Ohio 4-6-2 #112 (P-7e) is seen here in Garrett, Indiana, circa 1957. This locomotive was formerly #5312, named the "President Pierce," part of the B&O's "President" class of Pacifics. By this date the engine had been renumbered for newly arriving diesels and would be off the roster within the year. Fred Byerly photo.
American-Rails.com collection.  
Bob Leverknight: Does the outline of the locomotive look familiar? It should to H0 modelers, as the P-7s were the prototype for the Mantua/Tyco Pacific.

I also don't know the location of this tower.

Darren Reynolds posted
B&Os "GA" tower 
Garrett,Pa.
Darren Reynolds posted
B&Os "GA" tower.. Garrett, Pennsylvania
David Andrew Wieting: Town and tower named for the father and son duo whom, better or worse, left a major impact on the course of the B&O's history. Although they built the Met Sub and the 'airline' arrow straight mainline from Akron to Chicago, they left a debt legacy that successors Loree and Willard had to struggle mightily to correct, and is one reason why we call it CSX today and not BX or BSX, although that might have been grist for comedians, I'll admit. But they do have towns and counties named for them. "Sand Patch: Clash of Titans" didn't go easy on them. It also implicated the murky influence of Johns Hopkins on some of their decisions. In any event GA was a once important crossover point and connector to a third mainline track from the other side of the Casselman River. The Berlin branch also once junctured there, only a stub remains, if that.

Bruce Elliott Railroad Slides Inc/Pocahontas Co. Society of Model Engineers posted two photos with the comment: "A question !    Attached is a photo of a line side structure at Garrett, Pa. I'm trying to find out what it was used for. In the first photo (track side), I suspect that the door at the left was to load coal from a "service" train for use in GA tower. A vertical board can be seen at about a half way point and I perceive that this might be where an interior wall was located. The second photo shows the back side which has four doors and two windows. Two doors and a window for one half and two doors and a window for the other half. With windows and doors on the half that is adjacent to the tower, I'm wondering what was in or what it was used for. I'm scratchbuilding this structure for the layout, but I'm curious as to what its purpose was. The photos are by Julian Barnhard."

Kyle McGrogan: Probably the compressor shed and coal house, if the tower had an electropneumatic plant.

Bruce Elliott Railroad Slides Inc/Pocahontas Co. Society of Model Engineers: Your thought has serious merit. Even before the tower was rebuilt to this configuration, it was an electropneumatic plant. The tower was upgraded at some point, removing the outside steps from the west end and putting in a spiral staircase. An area for the compressor to be covered would make sense and it wouldn't necessarily need a stove for heat to operate, so vents would be adequate.

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