File:Eastbound Tower, Photo courtesy Brunswick Railroad Museum and Smoketown History..jpg

Eastbound Tower

This early 20th Century photo shows a crossing tower on the eastbound side of the tracks near the old mill. Towers like his were for crossing watchmen, who would control or display warning signals for vehicular traffic at a grade crossing. An ice house is visible on the other side.

The approaching train appears to be either The Capitol Limited or The National Limited.

From Facebook: Shirley Reinersman My dad told me that his dad my grandfather count the train has they when by. His name is Howard D. Rice live on Maple St.,. He had 7 boys and 1 girl,. His wife name is Ida V. Rice. She was the president of the Moore club, also my grandfather and 1 Uncle Gene Rice

Tom Greco As shown in the BO's plan book for 1908, towers like this were for crossing watchmen, who would control or display warning signals for vehicular traffic at a grade crossing. So they weren't exactly "signal towers" like WB Tower. ..........................................................................I'd like to see a closeup of the approaching train, but it looks like The Capitol Limited or The National Limited. Those two carried small "drumhead" signs on the engines. ..........................................................................The Capitol Limited's sign depicted the US Capitol's dome encircled by the train's name, while The National Limited's drumhead was the Washington Monument encircled by the train's name. If I had to guess, the sign looks more like the Washington Monument, so this would be The National Limited, Train 2, from St. Louis and Cincinnati.

Reuben Moss Definately a crossing tower as Tom said. Photo is likely post-1907 as that was the year most construction on the yard west of Maple Avenue took place. If you look just under the locomotive you can see where Maryland Avenue (a light colored line) used to cross the tracks here, with a gate on either side of the tracks. There would be a guard here and one over on the other side for Westbound in between Maryland and Maple Avenues who would manually lower those gates across the street when a train was approaching.

The tall building in the background on the right appears to be an ice house. I knew there was an icing platform there but most photos the storage building is gone. It was used to put blocks of ice in the ends of refrigerator cars. I want to say the shorter building with the boxcar beside it is the cattle pens.

Doris Kelley Barker Know you are right, Reuben. I started to Strayer College Sept. 9, 1946, so was on the 6:34 am train to DC. I never remember any tower on that side but I remember the ice building. I did not stop the commuter ride until Aug. 1968. I did move to Jacksonville Fl when my husband was at the Naval Air Station 1951-55 but then returned to Brunswick and rode the train to my job with a corporate lawyer in the nearest commercial building to the Exec. Offices and White House, 17th Penn. I loved the beauty of the Capitol Limited and the National Limited and both of them stopped at Harpers Ferry on the way to Chicago and from to DC. They really flew through Brunswick (60 mph, I think). It saddens me when I think about our wonderful largest single railroad center in the US in Brunswick. We got our bread and butter from the Baltimore Ohio Railroad and it, too, has been gone for a long time