The train control tower at Union Station will become a signal and
communications center for MAX light rail downtown.
TriMet is renovating the historic Union Station train control tower (known as the "VC Tower") at the corner of NW 4th & Hoyt.
The two-story red-brick building, used for decades to direct train traffic in and out of Portland, will be re-used as a signal and communications center for MAX light rail downtown when the new Green Line to Clackamas opens for service in September 2009.
The VC Tower was in operation until 1997, when a centralized system took over switching duties.
Each control tower was given a one- or two-letter telegraph code. Portland's code was “VC." From the building's second floor, operators would relay orders to engineers and switch tracks by pulling levers on a large console. The first floor housed the machinery that moved the switches.
The console and other items recovered from the tower will be donated to a local museum.
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