Counties

Below is a complete listing of all Ohio Historical Markers. To find a detailed marker listing including text, photographs, and locations, click on a county below. Our listing is updated by the markers program as new markers are installed and older markers are reported damaged or missing.

21-55 Pennsylvania Railroad “BF” Tower

Side A: The Bradford or “BF” Tower was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad circa 1929, at the important site of Bradford Junction. It replaced an earlier wooden tower that stood to its west. From this building, operators controlled the movement of every train, aligned track switches, set the track side signals, and relayed messages to the crews in the locomotive and caboose of passing trains. The tower originally housed a desk, telegraph equipment, and the all-important railroad clock. Its core housed many steel throw-arms, known as Armstrong levers. These were hand thrown, connecting track switches and signals via pipes throughout the junction area. The operator telegraphed other outlying towers and dispatching centers in Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis and Logansport, Indiana. Railroad telephones appeared during the late 1920s and radios just after World War II. The tower was closed January 3, 1984. This is an example of the once common railroad interlocking tower that dotted railroads throughout Ohio and the United States.
Side B: Same
Sponsors: Bradford Ohio Railroad Museum and The Ohio Historical Society
Address: Behind 441 E Main Street, 
Bradford, 
OH, 
45308
Location: Access road is immediately E of 443 E Main Street, going S, then W to tower area
Latitude: 40.1308440
Longitude: -84.4257840