Harris Tower once controlled the approaches to Harrisburg’s passenger station. Built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1929 and opened the following spring, the tower stood above a particularly complicated stretch of railway. Its operators set switches and signals across 3,250 feet of track between Herr Street and the middle of the station platforms. A single arriving train might need several switches aligned and several competing routes held clear before it could reach the correct platform.
The 113-lever interlocking machine remains the center of the museum. The controls were linked so that certain combinations could be set only in a safe sequence. Moving a lever was part of a decision about the whole arrangement of routes, rather than an isolated instruction for one signal. The tower’s preservation group describes the machine as a mechanical counterpart to a modern computer. Look at the operating floor and imagine an employee using the controls while keeping track of departures, arrivals and other workers’ instructions.
The tower remained in use as the Pennsylvania Railroad gave way to Penn Central and Amtrak took over passenger operations in the early 1970s. Those changes altered the name on the payroll, but the route into the station still required control. The Harrisburg chapter of the National Railway Historical Society purchased the tower in 1992 and turned it into a museum, preserving the room in which the operating decisions had been made.
An interlocking tower is a different kind of railway exhibit from a large locomotive. Much of what it preserves is a way of organizing movement, and its controls are easier to understand when you can see the lines they once served. Before a visit, check the chapter’s public opening calendar or inquire about an arranged visit. Give yourself time to look at the lever machine, the tower’s position beside the line and the physical relationship between the operating floor and the station approaches.
Visitor information
Researched November 2026.
Sources
More railroad museums in Pennsylvania
- Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site — Gallitzin: Railroad engineering and transport historic site
- Horseshoe Curve National Historic Landmark — Altoona: Railroad engineering landmark and visitor site
- Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania — Strasburg: Major railroad museum
- Steamtown National Historic Site — Scranton: Major railroad museum and national historic site
- Colebrookdale Railroad — Preservation Collection — Boyertown: Operating railroad preservation collection
- East Broad Top Railroad & Friends’ Robertsdale Museum — Rockhill Furnace / Robertsdale: Narrow-gauge railroad museum and preservation collection
- Gallitzin Tunnels Park & Museum — Gallitzin: Railroad engineering site, caboose and community museum
- Lake Shore Railway Museum — North East: Railroad museum and equipment collection
- All 12 railroad museums and sites in Pennsylvania
Keep exploring
- All heritage sites — museums, stations and landmarks
- Northeast — the trains you can ride in the region