This is the timeline for the structure you see in these pictures:
Aug 14, 1928- The Flatland East Tower was open to service the Flatland Switching Yard.
Jan 31, 1950-The building boom of the era resulted in residents of a nearby sub-division to complain about the noise, forcing the switchyard to relocate, leaving just a single siding behind. The tower was closed.
June, 1952- The railroad was in need of a machine shop so they added a large structure to the back of the tower, using the upper floor of the tower as an office.
April, 1960-The machine shop added a blast furnace and chimney to allow them to pour castings in the shop. A caboose was parked on the siding to be used for additional storage.
May 14, 1982, a group of protesters from a nearby coffee shop decided to picket the railroad and forced them to abandon the machine shop, claiming the furnace was causing bad vibes and was interfering with their communications with aliens from other planets.
Sometime in 1986, the Acme machine Tool Co. bought the property and began making custom parts to restore old steam engines. The furnace met all current pollution standards, and was allowed to operate after an extensive government study determined that the site was no longer used by alien spaceships.
Four years later, the site was visited by the EPA, OSHA, the IRS, FBI as well as contingents from the CIA, NASA and the SPCA. There was no doubt that the Acme Machine Tool Co. was in deep do-do since the government had changed pollution standards but didn’t tell the company and now they were no longer compliant. The site was shut down and the building boarded up.
In 2003, a group of railroad buffs got the government to protect the old Flatland East Tower and nearby caboose national treasures by placing them on the Historic Registry of Important Structures.
Currently- The site has been vacant for fifteen years. The caboose wheels are rusted to the rails and the building is in disrepair. The government is considering buying the property and spending $50 million dollars to restore the tower and caboose and to add a switching yard on the adjacent property to make it look authentic once again. But, a consortium wants to turn it into a theme park if the government gives them $100 million in subsidies and tax breaks. Until they can resolve this, the property remains as you see it here.