At Hancock (HO) tower, the time honored tradition of controlling rail movements through mechanical interlocking, has been a practice largely unchanged over the last century. When originally constructed, the tower, pipelines, cranks, turnouts, locks and Armstrong levers represented modern technology.
The U.S. Silica complex at Berkeley Springs is located on the Berkeley Branch which joins the main line and small yard at Hancock (milepost BA123.1).
Originally in the 1800’s the branch provided for Passenger traffic in and out of Berkeley Springs, WV., just a few miles down the Road where the Original B&O Train Station is owned and operated by the Town of Bath.
I am not sure when HO tower was built but it was probably on or before the 1920's probably when the line was triple tracked. It was built at the same time as its sister, R tower, just a few miles down the line in Cherry Run, WV.
HO was of all wood construction with a band of fish scale siding.
The two story building provided the Operators work area in the upper floor and the switch lever control area below maintained by the Signalmaintainer.
HO survived longer than its sister towers East of Hancock. The segment between R Tower and Cumberland, MD had been equipped with CTC sometime back in the 50's or 60's when the 3-track route had been condensed to 2. Hancock also looked over a small yard with a weigh scale for sand trains coming out of a nearby quarry.
HO Towers time ran out on the17th of September 2007 as this was the date set for its closing.
Over the summer of 2007 the B&O Signal Construction crews installed the new equipment needed to make the control of the switches remotely.
Now for the CACHE SEARCH
The Small cache you seek has been hidden close to where the Original “HO Tower” stood but due to the towers proximity to the RR Tracks, The cache has been placed in a more cache friendly place.
No need to Venture anywhere near the tracks, the cache is placed safely away from them. If caching with Children, Please be aware of their whereabouts at ALL TIMES !!
Stealth will depend on time and day of your hunt. Please hide the cache as good or better than found to prevent it from being Muggled.
Cache contains Log Sheets only.
Room for TB’s w small travelers and Geocoins as well.
Congratulations to WvTim for the FTF !!
A member of the
