Texas Railroad History - Towers 8, 21 and 144 - East Waco

Crossings of the Houston & Texas Central, the Missouri - Kansas - Texas, the St. Louis Southwestern, and the International & Great Northern railroads

 

Left: John W. Barriger III took this photo facing southwest from the rear platform of his private railcar as his Missouri - Kansas - Texas  ("Katy") train proceeded north in the 1930's. Barriger's camera was prompted by the sudden appearance of the building at left, Tower 21, as he was crossing into East Waco over the Katy Railroad's Brazos River bridge (note truss visible over the tracks in the distance.)

To Barriger's right, tracks belonging to the St. Louis Southwestern ("Cotton Belt") Railroad continue southwest toward that company's Brazos River bridge into downtown. Both bridges are more than 500 ft. long, yet the river's presence is otherwise undetectable from this view. At lower right, tracks come in and connect to both the Katy and Cotton Belt lines. These tracks probably merge into a single industry spur off the image to the right.

Southern Pacific (SP) tracks can be seen crossing adjacent to the tower on both sides. The near side is the SP line from Bremond arriving into Waco where it terminates; its original extension to Ross was abandoned in 1929. The far side tracks lead to the Cotton Belt bridge, a connection in place at least since 1915. SP acquired the Cotton Belt in 1932.
Right: This photo of Tower 21 was taken by Barriger on a different trip in the 1930s. Here, his view from the rear platform is northeast as his southbound train moves onto the Katy's bridge over the Brazos. SP tracks leading to the Cotton Belt's Brazos River bridge are visible crossing in front of Tower 21. Like most of the interlocking towers in Texas, Tower 21 displays its number on a small white rectangular placard, barely visible beneath the upper windows.  

After a pause between Navasota and Bryan during the Civil War, the Houston & Texas Central (H&TC) Railway eventually resumed its northward construction toward the Red River, passing through Hearne and reaching Groesbeck by the end of 1870. Upon completing its main line between Houston and Denison in early 1873, the H&TC began exchanging freight and passengers with the Missouri, Kansas & Texas (MK&T, "Katy") Railroad, which had bridged the Red River into Denison in late 1872. The Katy's track network extended north and east through Indian Territory (Oklahoma) to Kansas and Missouri, making Denison an important junction for exporting Midwest grain through Houston and Galveston. To incentivize the Katy to build into Texas, a law passed in 1870 by the State of Texas had authorized the Katy, under its Kansas charter, to build to the Rio Grande via Waco and Austin. The Katy would accrue additional tax benefits if it built fifty miles in Texas within three years followed by a line to Austin within another six years, provisions the railroad ultimately failed to meet. Cooperation between the Katy and H&TC at Denison took a few years to develop, but the interchange ultimately worked well. Texas railroad historian S. G. Reed described it as "practically a through line". By 1876, the Katy and the H&TC were jointly operating Pullman cars between Houston, Dallas and St. Louis.

During construction, the H&TC founded the town of Bremond 22 miles north of Hearne; the first train pulled into Bremond on June 15, 1870. The town was soon chosen to be the target endpoint for the Waco Tap Railroad which had been chartered in 1866 to "tap" the H&TC main line to bring rail service to Waco, the seat of McLennan County with 3,000 inhabitants. The Tap's construction had been dormant due to financing issues while it waited for the H&TC to resume building and lay tracks far enough north to provide the Tap with target connecting points. Bremond, forty miles from Waco, was selected, and conveniently, H&TC's investors were already looking at the prospect of building a lengthy branch line into the Texas Panhandle. Waco was in that direction, so negotiations ensued between the two railroads to see what might be done under the Tap's existing charter. To convey the investors' long term intent, the Texas Legislature approved (on August 6, 1870) a modification to the Tap's charter establishing its new name, the Waco & Northwestern (W&NW) Railway. The branch line from Bremond to Waco was completed for the W&NW by H&TC's construction forces in September, 1872. The W&NW was purchased by the H&TC in 1873 and operated as a subsidiary.

The Brazos River crosses diagonally through Waco on a southeast heading toward the Gulf of Mexico. Its proclivity for flooding raised the cost of bridges and impacted right-of-way (ROW) selection. The H&TC main line out of Houston had remained east of the Brazos, hence the W&NW's connection at Bremond was also east of the river. Downtown Waco is southwest of the river, across from an unincorporated community of neighborhoods on the northeast side that became known as East Waco. Since the H&TC's goal for the W&NW was to build to the Texas Panhandle, the Brazos would need to be crossed eventually. Rather than do so at Waco to serve downtown directly, the W&NW remained east of the river, passing through East Waco near the riverbank.



 Left Top: In late 1876, the H&TC began building an eleven-mile northward extension of the W&NW to the community of Ross. On March 23, 1877, the Galveston Daily News quoted a Waco Examiner report that the depot at Ross was under construction. The article also carried a prediction by the Cleburne Tribune that the W&NW extension would reach Cleburne within four months.

 Ross was named in honor of Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross, a former well-known Texas Ranger. Ross settled in McLennan County during the post-war Reconstruction period, but whether he lived in the vicinity of his namesake community is undetermined. Ross was elected Governor of Texas in 1887 and was named President of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now Texas A&M University) in 1891.

The H&TC had attracted the attention of Charles Morgan, owner of a major Gulf of Mexico steamship line. Morgan had begun acquiring railroads to move goods through the ports servicing his steamships. To this end, he organized Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad and Steamship Company and then proceeded to buy the H&TC in early 1877, naming his son-in-law, Charles Whitney, as President. Morgan's death in 1878 disrupted planning for the northwest extension and precipitated a time-consuming settlement of his massive estate. The dissolution and restructuring of Morgan's business empire eventually led to the H&TC being acquired by Southern Pacific (SP) in 1883.

Left Bottom: While the estate was being settled, H&TC President Charles Whitney elected to build the northwest extension under a new charter, the Texas Central (TC) Railroad, filed on May 30, 1879 and reported a few days later by the Fort Worth Daily Democrat of June 6. The TC was backed by new investors including Hetty Green, the notorious "Witch of Wall Street." Soon, TC construction trains were using the W&NW through Ross to move rails and other materials north.

In the fall of 1879, the TC reached a site near the Brazos River where Charles Whitney decided to found the eponymous town of Whitney. Newspapers reported a sale of town lots at Whitney on November 25, 1879, yet somehow, the Handbook of Texas asserts that Whitney "...was established in 1876 when the Houston and Texas Central Railroad built a line through Hill County to Cleburne." This is simply untrue; there was never a rail line between Whitney and Cleburne (the Cleburne Tribune's prediction was completely wrong) and the town wasn't founded until the TC tracks reached the area in the fall of 1879. By this time, the TC had also began planning a northeast extension to Paris off the H&TC main line near Ennis. The assumption behind both branches was that upon completion, they would be acquired and merged by the H&TC which was becoming a major force in Texas railroading.

Years earlier, east coast rail magnate Jay Gould had begun to shift his attention to the Midwest and Texas. The Gulf ports at Houston and Galveston combined with a future gateway to Mexico at Laredo would be ideal for Midwest grain exports. In 1872 as the Katy and H&TC were nearing completion of their connection at Denison, Gould became greatly disturbed by the announcement of a merger of the International Railroad and the Houston & Great Northern Railway to form the International & Great Northern (I&GN) Railroad. Through a connection to the Texas & Pacific (T&P) Railway at Longview, the I&GN would soon be operating from Texarkana to Houston and Galveston, with planned construction to the Mexico border at Laredo via Austin and San Antonio. Rail lines between St. Louis and Texarkana were already in work, making the I&GN a formidable future competitor for Midwest export traffic. Much of the I&GN already existed whereas Gould had no rails in Texas at all. Gould plotted a lengthy effort to gain control of the I&GN beginning with a takeover of the Katy as his initial rail presence in Texas. Gould wanted to control the Katy's Red River bridge as he also sought control of key rail lines at Texarkana. These were Texas' only two gateways to the Midwest, and Gould intended to control both of them.

The Katy's stock was so diluted that it was virtually impossible for Gould to buy a controlling interest, and there were no large blocks of Katy stock available for private sale. Undeterred, Gould found another way. Author Wayne Cline in his 2015 book about the I&GN, The Texas Railroad, explains that Gould's subtle (and long term) plan to take over the Katy began on October 22, 1873 when...

"...he stage-managed the election of a loyal ally, William Bond, as the road's second vice president. Bond proceeded to fire key Katy managers and replace them with Gould's henchmen. On December 21, 1874 Bond was appointed receiver of the Katy, and on March 1, 1876 he became the Katy's general manager. By December, 1879, Bond had brought so many Gould supporters aboard the Katy that Jay was elected president."

Though it took six years, Gould gained control of the Katy and began using the H&TC connection at Denison to send commodities sourced by his Midwest railroads to Houston and Galveston. With little stock ownership, Gould could best reap the benefits of the Katy's profitability by leasing it to a St. Louis-based railroad he controlled, the Missouri Pacific (MP) Railroad, in which he had procured a significant ownership position in 1879. The Katy's lease to MP was executed in December, 1880 and Gould proceeded with a track expansion deep into Texas, focusing on Fort Worth as the first stop south of Denison. As a result of lease accounting and operating policies tilted heavily toward MP, its stockholders (particularly Gould) would enjoy the profits of the combined enterprise while Katy stockholders would see their company simply remain afloat -- not losing money but not profitable.

MP's headquarters was not in Texas, thus it could not comply with state law requiring railroads owning lines in Texas to be headquartered in state. Gould finessed this problem by giving the Katy the title to new tracks built by MP. Even though the Katy lacked a Texas headquarters, it at least had authorization under the 1870 state law to back its construction. Publicly and in the press, the work was promoted as an MP activity; MP depots were being built in towns along the route. To establish rights-of-way and begin building the Brazos River bridge, MP deployed construction forces at East Waco in 1881, and limited grading was done northward toward Fort Worth. MP trains began operating from Fort Worth to Hillsboro in October, 1881. The rails reached East Waco, 32 miles farther south, in mid December.

Right: To serve downtown Waco and continue building south, MP had to bridge the Brazos. The first construction train to cross the river was reported by the Waco Daily Examiner of December 23, 1881.

Even before MP had bridged the Brazos to continue its southward march through Temple toward Taylor and beyond, Gould had begun negotiations to buy the I&GN. He had successfully limited its viability by acquiring control of the two railroads that combined to provide the I&GN's only direct connection to St. Louis from Longview: the T&P and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern (SLIM&S) Railway, which connected to the T&P at Texarkana. On June 1, 1881, it was announced that Gould had acquired all of the I&GN common stock in a two-for-one swap for Katy stock. Gould became President of the I&GN and leased it to the Katy for 99 years while allowing the I&GN to continue using its own name (a recognized brand, the largest railroad in Texas at the time.)

Simultaneous with MP's 1881 construction at East Waco, the Texas & St. Louis (T&SL) Railway had begun building a narrow gauge rail line toward Waco from Tyler via Corsicana. The company was originally the Tyler Tap Railroad chartered in 1871 to bring rail service to Tyler by "tapping" the T&P at Big Sandy in 1877. Two years later, the name was changed to T&SL as a 107-mile segment was built from Big Sandy to Texarkana, with additional tracks into Arkansas. The T&SL claimed the moniker Cotton Belt Route and the public embraced it; Cotton Belt would be the nickname of an operational railroad for the next 110 years. In addition to Cotton Belt, the T&SL was sometimes called the Narrow Gauge by various newspapers even though there were other narrow gauge railroads in Texas.

The T&SL's westward expansion toward Waco occurred in 1880-81, but like MP, the T&SL also elected to begin work at East Waco before its construction from Tyler reached town. This led to a violent conflict with MP regarding rights-of-way and crossings. The clash was so intense that a lengthy article in the Galveston Daily News described it with phrases such as "withdrawal of both forces to their camps", "expecting another attack" and "Missouri-Pacific forces again charged the track". The article also mentions a criminal proceeding on "...charges of destruction of property and inciting a riot..."

Left: The opening paragraph of this article from the Galveston Daily News of April 26, 1881 conveys a bit of the intensity of the brawl between MP and T&SL construction forces in the battle for right-of-way in East Waco.

Right: Elsewhere in the same edition, the Galveston Daily News reported on "The Railroad War" and an injunction issued against the "St. Louis and Texas Road" [sic] by a Federal Judge in Dallas.

Below: The Fort Worth Daily Democrat of April 30, 1881 mentions that the T&SL's chief engineer had come to East Waco, presumably to find an alternate ROW for the T&SL tracks.

               
               

When the conflict was settled, both railroads completed their lines into East Waco from Fort Worth and Tyler, respectively. MP was nearing completion of its Brazos River bridge; it would open in December. The T&SL was planning to build west to Gatesville, so it would also need to bridge the Brazos.

Left: On April 22, 1882, the Cotton Belt bridge over the Brazos opened 100 yards west of MP's bridge. The tracks to Gatesville were completed later that year. (Waco Daily Examiner, April 23, 1882)

In direct competition to MP, the T&SL had expanded rapidly; Gould viewed it as a genuine threat to his business. By 1883, the T&SL was operating from Bird's Point, Missouri on the Mississippi River to Waco and Gatesville. This expansion overextended the T&SL, largely because it lacked the passing sidings and rolling stock necessary to run a lengthy, single-track railroad efficiently. The Depression of 1882-1885 hit railroads particularly hard, causing the T&SL to enter receivership in 1884. Yet, this undoubtedly helped keep the T&SL from falling into Gould's hands. In February, 1886, the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas (SLA&T) Railway was created by the bankruptcy judge to become the new Cotton Belt, going against the advice of T&SL President Sam Fordyce who believed residual operational issues would inhibit profitability.

Despite Fordyce's concerns, the receivership ended and within a year, Fordyce had decided to build new branch lines into north Texas to compete with Gould on traffic from Sherman and Fort Worth. This culminated in a secret agreement between Fordyce and Gould in 1888 for the Cotton Belt and MP to cooperate on traffic through Texarkana. Gould began to gain financial leverage over the SLA&T with loans and stock purchases, positioning him to guide its reorganization when it became insolvent in 1889 (as Fordyce had predicted.) In 1891, the next bankruptcy plan created a new railroad dominated by Gould. It was known as the St. Louis Southwestern Railway (SLSW or SSW, but more commonly just Cotton Belt.) Gould was able to have his younger son Edwin installed as President of the SSW, and Edwin held that title until his retirement in 1925. A series of ownership changes in the late 1920s resulted in the Cotton Belt becoming a subsidiary of SP in 1932.

The success Gould had in taking over the Cotton Belt helped to offset the major problems he was having with the Katy. The Katy's stockholders were angry with the unfavorable terms of the lease to MP. Gould had for several years successfully prevented the stockholders from calling a meeting where they could fire him, but his delaying tactics eventually ran out. In a special meeting held in May, 1888, Gould was terminated by the stockholders for malfeasance associated with the MP lease. The new Katy management immediately sought bankruptcy protection. The State of Texas had sued the Katy a year earlier for non-compliance with various Texas railroad ownership and service laws, and in 1890, the Texas Supreme Court affirmed a lower court's order in which MP's lease of the Katy had been dissolved. The Katy would continue to operate in Texas in receivership until it could be reorganized pursuant to a new Texas charter to be enacted by the Legislature. The Katy didn't have a Texas charter. The Legislature had granted permission in 1870 for the Katy to build into Texas under its Kansas charter, but it wasn't headquartered in Texas as required by an 1876 amendment to the Texas Constitution. Ironically, Gould remained President of the I&GN even though it was owned by the Katy.

Right: Gould's brilliant gambit -- making the I&GN insolvent -- prevented the Katy from firing him from the I&GN. The Fort Worth Daily Gazette of February 21, 1889 printed the petition submitted to the bankruptcy court by Katy management asking to intervene in a lawsuit Jay Gould had filed against the I&GN. Gould was President of the I&GN -- why would he file suit against his own railroad? It was the culmination of his clever ploy to force the I&GN into bankruptcy for non-repayment of a personal loan he had made to the I&GN, a loan that as President of the I&GN he had refused to repay. The money was not needed by the I&GN; the loan was made solely as a means of enabling Gould to force the I&GN into bankruptcy court, thereby preventing Katy management from firing him. Gould was on both sides of the bankruptcy case -- obvious corruption -- so the Katy requested an independent Receiver be appointed by the Court to run the I&GN. This would facilitate the Katy settling with the Receiver by repaying the funds directly to Gould, thereby terminating the I&GN's bankruptcy and enabling Katy management to fire him. Courts work slowly; Gould's ploy was enough to buy time to lobby the Texas Legislature to ensure that the Katy's new charter would not allow it to retain the I&GN.

The Legislature passed a new Katy charter law on October 28, 1891 granting rights to a new railroad, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas of Texas, to be headquartered in Denison as a subsidiary of the parent Katy corporation based in Kansas. The subsidiary would own most of the Katy's current Texas rail lines, but not the I&GN (nor the East Line & Red River which ran between Jefferson and McKinney.) Gould's delaying tactics had provided time for the Legislature to sour on the idea of allowing the Katy to own the I&GN. The Katy's only viable option was to sell it back to Gould. He obtained a bargain price because his control of the T&P connection at Longview gave him leverage over the I&GN; no one wanted to risk his wrath by bidding against him. Unfortunately, Gould had little time to focus on the future of the I&GN; he died in late 1892 and his rail empire was taken over by his son George. The Katy became independent and remained so for nearly a hundred years, experiencing financial ups and downs like all railroads. Emerging from another bankruptcy in 1923, its name was changed to the Missouri - Kansas - Texas Railroad, hence the acronym became "M-K-T" (typically reduced to "MKT") instead of "MK&T", but everyone called it the Katy. In 1988, MP acquired the Katy, a hundred years after MP's lease of the Katy had been abrogated by Texas courts.

During the 1880s, the Katy's biggest competitor in Texas -- the H&TC -- had also been its biggest partner due to the freight and passenger trains they interchanged at Denison for traffic between the Midwest and Houston / Galveston. The Depression of 1882 had stressed the H&TC's financials and it fell into receivership in 1885. This not only resulted in SP losing control of the H&TC, but also interfered with the H&TC's plan to acquire the TC upon completion of its Ross - Albany line. As part of the financial reorganization, a new Houston & Texas Central Railroad (not Railway, as originally named) was chartered. The new H&TC purchased the Houston - Denison main line from from the bondholders, and the H&TC was then reacquired by SP. Under SP ownership, the H&TC continued to operate as a subsidiary until it was leased (1927) and then merged (1934) into the Texas & New Orleans (T&NO) Railroad, SP's primary operating company for Texas and Louisiana lines.

During the H&TC's bankruptcy, the judge had spun off the W&NW from the H&TC as an independent railroad, intending for it to be sold at auction on the courthouse steps in Waco. Two of the key players in the auction were C. P. Huntington, SP's chairman, and Col. E. H. R. "Ned" Green, Hetty Green's son. In a 1968 master's thesis (hat tip, Bradley Linda) titled The Waco and Northwestern Railroad – A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Baylor University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Arts, author Judy Jolley Rosenbaum explains what happened next. [The passage includes references to the Rock Island, a major Midwest railroad, the Burlington, another Midwest railroad system, and the San Antonio & Aransas Pass (SA&AP), a south Texas railroad -- secretly and unlawfully owned by SP at the time -- that had completed tracks into downtown Waco from the south in late 1891.]

December 28, 1892, Auction on the steps of the McLennan County courthouse – bidding war between Julius Kruttschnitt - GM Southern Pacific Lines Texas & Louisiana, L. Harrison of the Rock Island, L.P. Gold of a 3rd Party and E.H.R. “Ned” Green, Hetty Green’s son – who won the railroad for $1.365 Million. However, the land notes were subject to a claim by the stockholders and were not included in the sale. Following a lengthy court battle between C.P. Huntington and Ned Green, Green’s bid was set aside and in March 1895, the US District Court at Galveston ordered the railroad again to be sold at auction.

September 3, 1895 – Auction day – speculation had been rampant that the Burlington, MKT, and SA&AP were all interested in buying the W&NW. At the auction, Charles Hamilton, VP & GM of the Texas Central opened bidding at $1 Million. Bidding war ensued between Hamilton, Judge R.S. Lovett of Houston, and when it hit $1.3 million, Judge Wilbur Boyle of St. Louis jumped in, winning the road for $1.505 million. Boyle was an agent of Huntington, and on July 1 1898, Boyle paid the remainder of the price, and conveyed it to the H&TC.

The TC was closely related to the H&TC and it suffered the same bankruptcy fate. Its northwest extension to Albany had been completed in 1881, but construction of the northeastern branch out of Ennis was still in progress between Kaufman and Greenville when the receivership began. The northeastern branch was divested by the TC's bankruptcy court and sold to Hetty Green in 1892 in exchange for her disclaiming any financial interest in the TC bonds she held as one of its founding investors. The branch became the Texas Midland Railroad to be run by her son Ned. Operating the new railroad may have been enough for the Greens; despite winning (and then not winning) the first W&NW auction, they did not participate in the second.

In January, 1893, the TC's reorganization resulted in the remaining line from Ross to Albany being deeded by the TC's bondholders to a new Texas Central Railroad Company, completely independent of the H&TC. The financial restructuring of the TC had caused it to miss the first W&NW auction, but on sound financial footing, the TC opened the bidding at the second auction. It wanted direct access to the other railroads at Waco rather than remaining limited to the W&NW connection at Ross.

         
Above Left: Failing to win the auction, the TC instead built a 1.6 mile spur from Ross to the Katy main line three miles north of Elm Mott, as reported on Sept. 24, 1897 by Railway Age. The H&TC had sued, but was unable to stop it. [This ROW is probably Ross Rd. today.] Above Right: No longer getting much business at Ross, SP leased their Ross - Waco line to the TC, as reported by Railway and Engineering Review, August 5, 1899. The TC built its own line from Ross to Waco in 1903.

The TC added tracks from Albany to Stamford (1900), Stamford to Rotan (1907) and De Leon to Cross Plains (1911.) In 1910, the Katy -- independent for two decades -- acquired 90% of the stock of the TC. It did not, however, take control of the company until May 1, 1914 when the TC was leased to the Katy's Texas-based subsidiary.

In 1895, the Katy finally completed the line from Fort Worth to Houston through Waco that Jay Gould had begun building south from Denison in 1881. This provided yet another competitor in the valuable Fort Worth - Houston market besides SP and Santa Fe. George Gould was President of both the I&GN and the T&P, and his T&P was a major force in Fort Worth railroading. Unfortunately, the T&P and I&GN could only offer a lengthy, circuitous route between Fort Worth and Houston via Mineola, Troup and Palestine, service much too slow to capture a legitimate market share. Gould began to contemplate a faster, more direct route between Fort Worth and Houston that could create a competitive advantage. He would do this under the auspices of the I&GN, with the southern endpoint at Spring, about 25 miles north of Houston on the main line to Palestine. To isolate construction finances, Gould chartered a separate railroad, the Calvert, Waco and Brazos Valley (CW&BV), but it existed only on paper and only briefly. The entire line was built in disjointed sections by multiple I&GN crews as reflected in the construction reports submitted annually to the Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT):

1900: Calvert to Valley Junction, 14.3 miles (CW&BV)
1901: Valley Junction to Bryan, 22.75 miles (CW&BV)
1901: Calvert Junction to Marlin, 28.65 miles (CW&BV)
1902: Bryan to Spring, 78.22 miles (I&GN)
1902: Marlin to Waco, 41 miles (I&GN)
1903: Waco to Fort Worth, 94.55 miles (I&GN)

In February, 1901, an act of the Texas Legislature gave formal permission for the I&GN to acquire and merge the CW&BV. The line had been built on the east / north side of the Brazos River, paralleling the H&TC (former W&NW) much of the way and crossing it at Marlin. Because the original W&NW survey had located the best route between Marlin and Waco, the I&GN instead turned north at Marlin and went to the town of Mart before turning west to reach Waco. At Waco, the I&GN built a spur into East Waco for passenger service while the main line went north along the eastern outskirts of town, connecting with the Katy and Cotton Belt. The I&GN also crossed the Cotton Belt about two and a half miles northeast of the Brazos River. The I&GN completed the line into Fort Worth in 1903, but unfortunately, the tracks soon became notorious for accidents attributed to a poorly constructed roadbed with poor signaling.

In 1902, RCT authorized construction of Tower 8 to control the I&GN's crossing of the Cotton Belt east of Waco. RCT had gained this authority under a 1901 state law directing it to manage the deployment of interlocker technology to improve crossing safety. This also improved operational efficiencies by limiting unnecessary stops at grade crossings of two railroads. RCT commissioned Tower 8 for operation on June 12, 1903 with a 20-function mechanical interlocking plant. Tower 8's function count was larger than would be required for a simple interlocked crossing (typically a dozen functions) indicating that there were connecting tracks at the junction from the outset. At the end of 1904, RCT's annual report reduced the Tower 8 function count to 16. It remained at this value until it rose to 34 in the report issued at the end of 1928. The interlocker report issued at the end of 1930 (the last such report ever issued by RCT) lowered the count back to 16, suggesting that the increase to 34 was simply a reporting error or perhaps a typesetting mistake.

The I&GN was under constant orders from RCT to correct issues and improve service on the Fort Worth line and elsewhere. When the U.S. went into a depression caused by the Panic of 1907, the I&GN was unable to make bond payments and it went into receivership in February, 1908. The receivership lasted three years under the appointed Receiver, Judge Thomas Freeman, a former T&P attorney. Freeman rehabilitated much of the I&GN's roadbed and signaling systems using $11 million in short term Receiver Certificates authorized for sale by the Court. In June, 1911, the Gould family bought the I&GN out of bankruptcy and named Judge Freeman to be the new President. Yet, revenues were insufficient to retire the short term notes issued during the receivership, hence the I&GN went back into bankruptcy in 1914. At that point, the Gould family connection to the I&GN ended forever. It was not until July 28, 1922 that the I&GN emerged from bankruptcy as a newly reorganized and independent company under the name International - Great Northern Railroad (hence both I&GN and I-GN are used as abbreviations.)

Left: area overview; Towers 59, 144 and 191 were installed after 1903

Though MP had lost its Texas presence when the Katy lease was cancelled, the Gould family remained in control of it until a financial reorganization in 1917 after which MP's Gould era ended completely. In 1924, MP tried to buy the newly independent I-GN as a means of reentering the Texas market but the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) refused to approve the sale. To keep the I-GN away from other competitors, MP helped the New Orleans, Texas & Mexico (NOT&M) Railway buy the I-GN. That sale was approved by the ICC in June, 1924 and six months later, MP was allowed to buy the entire NOT&M on January 1, 1925. This gave MP the target I-GN plus the other assets of the NOT&M, which had been spun off from the St. Louis & San Francisco ("Frisco") Railway during the Frisco's bankruptcy c.1914. The NOT&M was the parent company of several railroads along the Gulf coast of Texas and Louisiana operating under the marketing name Gulf Coast Lines. The I-GN continued to operate under its own name until 1956 when a lengthy MP / I-GN receivership ended and the I-GN became fully integrated into MP.

The major junction of all of the railroads near the riverbank in East Waco became the location of Tower 21, authorized by RCT to commence operation on August 8, 1903. This was where the H&TC (W&NW) line along the east bank of the Brazos crossed the Katy and Cotton Belt lines. The junction's complexity explains Tower 21's opening as a 49-function / 44-lever electric interlocker built by the Taylor Signal Co., the most complex interlocking in Texas at the time (eclipsed by the 59 functions of Tower 26 several weeks later.) In its annual report, RCT listed the Katy, the Cotton Belt and the H&TC as the expense-sharing participants at Tower 21. The tower was built and operated by SP.

Right:  Austin Statesman, April 18, 1903

Left: This index for the 1926 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Waco has been annotated to highlight rail lines, interlocking towers and the Brazos River. Besides the railroads discussed above, there are two additions that appear on the map. The SA&AP line into downtown near the river had been completed in late 1891. Tower 59 was established in November, 1904 where the SA&AP crossed the Katy, about 700 ft. south of the Katy's Brazos River bridge. The Texas Electric (TE) was an electric interurban line from Dallas to Waco via Hillsboro. It had an interchange track with the Cotton Belt on Price St. and it crossed the Brazos on its own bridge. The map also shows the H&TC (W&NW) tracks still intact to Ross. Three years after the map was drawn, SP abandoned the line to Ross. It had been of limited utility since 1903 when the TC built its own Ross - Waco line.

Above: A Katy Employee Timetable (ETT) dated May 1, 1950 lists the locomotive whistle codes for movements at Tower 21. The ETT identifies the tower as a "T&NO Interlocking."

In 1916, RCT's annual report began listing the railroad that operated each tower. Tower 21 had the same architecture as many other Texas towers built by SP (e.g. 16, 17, 81 and many others), so it was no surprise that SP subsidiary H&TC had the responsibility for staffing Tower 21. In most cases, the railroad that designed and built a tower would also take the lead for staffing it. The recurring operation and maintenance (O&M) expenses for labor, utilities and materials would be shared by the railroads that used the interlocker, typically on a "weighted function count" basis (the percentage of an interlocker's total function count applicable to each railroad.) RCT's interlocker list dated October 31, 1916 showed an increase in Tower 21's functions to a total of 59. By the end of 1930, Tower 21's function count had reached 67; it was a busy place.

Tower 8's listing in the 1916 interlocker table showed the Cotton Belt with responsibility for operations. This is surprising; the crossing did not exist until 1902 or 1903, placing it after the enactment of the 1901 state law granting powers to RCT to authorize and approve interlockers. By rule for post-1901 crossings, the second railroad to arrive (here, the I&GN) was obligated to pay the entire capital cost of the tower, and in most such cases, that railroad would lead the design and construction effort. As noted above, leading the construction effort usually resulted in taking the responsibility for O&M staffing. The railroad that led Tower 8's design and construction is not confirmed, but an El Paso Daily Times news item published February 24, 1903 mentions installation of the Cotton Belt / I&GN interlocker at East Waco and asserts that the I&GN's "...Superintendent of Buildings and Bridges is in charge of this work at the junction..." The railroad in charge of the design can usually be determined from architectural commonality with other towers, but unfortunately, no photo of Tower 8 has been found. Most likely, the I&GN had the original O&M responsibility, but its receivership in 1908 and its return to receivership in 1914 had motivated the Cotton Belt to take over operations. There would have been legitimate concerns about the I&GN's ability to pay its tower staff and cover the cash flow for O&M expenses.

On May 29, 1928, RCT commissioned an interlocker, Tower 144, to control the crossing of the Katy and the Cotton Belt about a mile northeast of Tower 21. The Katy referred to this location as Bellmead, an unincorporated community (at the time) where the Katy had opened shops in the mid 1920s near a long-standing Cotton Belt yard. The crossing was just south of the south end of the Cotton Belt yard, and this proximity meant that Cotton Belt trains were always traveling at low speed as they approached Tower 144 from either direction. In contrast, the Katy had a main track that bypassed its yard, thus avoiding delays through the yard for passenger trains. RCT's list of active interlockers published at the end of 1928 shows the Tower 144 interlocker having only two functions, the smallest number of functions ever commissioned by RCT for a numbered interlocker. RCT described the interlocking plant as "Mechanical" instead of "M.-Cabin", which is how most of the others in that timeframe were listed, e.g. Tower 143 at Devers, Towers 145 and 149 at Edinburg, and several others. Cabin interlockers had become common in the late 1920s as RCT required the railroads to begin installing interlockers at the remaining uncontrolled crossings that could not otherwise justify the expense of a manned tower. Automatic interlocker technology had not yet been approved by RCT (see Towers 141 and 142) so cabin interlockers (operated by train crews) were the best option.

Tower 144's listing as "Mechanical" with only two functions suggests that it was probably the first Ground Lever interlocker approved by RCT (another was Tower 168 at West Livingston.) Tower 144 wasn't really an interlocker at all. It was simply a two-position lever mounted on a trackside stand that controlled two functions: signals and derails. The signals were for the Katy tracks; signals weren't needed on the Cotton Belt because its trains always stopped at the crossing so fixed signs were adequate. There were derails on the Katy tracks. Derails were eventually incorporated on the Cotton Belt, but whether they existed at the time Tower 144 was commissioned is undetermined. The lever was normally positioned to permit unrestricted movements on the Katy tracks which were busier than the Cotton Belt. When a Cotton Belt train arrived at the crossing, it would stop and a crewmember would exit the train and verify visually that no Katy trains were approaching (or wait until the Katy tracks were clear.) The crewmember would then throw the lever to the opposite position to set derails and issue a STOP warning to any Katy trains that approached while the Cotton Belt train was using the diamond. After the Cotton Belt train had completed its crossing, a crewmember would return the lever to the normal position granting unrestricted movements on the Katy tracks. The Cotton Belt yard was a short distance north of Tower 144 and its trains were moving at low speed anyway, hence this procedure contributed negligible delays to Cotton Belt operations.

Right: This track chart (courtesy of Ed Chambers) drawn by the Katy Railroad Chief Engineer's Office in 1915 illustrates why Tower 21 was commissioned with 44 active levers. The Katy, Cotton Belt, TC, I&GN (passenger lead) and H&TC all converged in East Waco just north of the river. Note that in addition to connecting to the Cotton Belt bridge, the H&TC also connects to the Katy bridge at Tower 21. This map dates to seventeen years prior to SP's acquisition of the Cotton Belt.


The H&TC depot is shown on the line to Ross near Tower 21 while the Cotton Belt's "Union Station" and the Katy depot were both in downtown Waco west of the river. Since the I&GN used Union Station, its passenger lead merges onto the Cotton Belt tracks near Tower 21.


Tower 144 was commissioned thirteen years after this chart was drawn, but the crossing it controlled had existed since the early 1880s. Five years after the map was drawn, the Katy built a major yard and shops at Bellmead. The "Cut-Off To T.C. M.L." at the top of the image is not the TC spur between Ross and Elm Mott. It was a shortcut between the TC main line ("M.L.") and the Bellmead yard built after the Katy had acquired the TC. It remains intact to serve an industry adjacent to the former TC main line.

                
Above: This note in the July 30, 1944 Cotton Belt Employee Timetable (ETT) confirms that a "one lever interlocking device" was used to control the Tower 144 crossing. By this date, the Cotton Belt had three tracks crossing the Katy.

Right: This excerpt from a September, 1956 Katy employee timetable (ETT) instructs train crews facing a STOP signal at Tower 144 with no apparent Cotton Belt train approaching the crossing to "...line lever on StLSW to set derails against StLSW, which will clear signal on M-K-T."

In 1965, SP abandoned the former W&NW tracks between Marlin and Bremond, and sold the remaining Marlin - Waco track segment to MP. Both railroads had tracks from Marlin to Waco but SP's route was shorter with fewer curves and lower grades. MP laid new tracks at Marlin to merge its line from Valley Junction into the SP tracks that it now owned. At East Waco, MP rerouted the SP tracks onto the former I-GN line from Mart that led into MP's yard and continued north to Fort Worth. From the reroute point, SP's tracks to Tower 21 were abandoned. A short segment of the I-GN line east toward Mart was retained as a business spur, but the rest of the line was abandoned through Mart all the way to Marlin.

As MP and SP were negotiating the sale of SP's Marlin - Waco tracks, they were also looking at sharing SP's tracks between Bryan and Navasota. SP's route between the towns was part of the original H&TC line dating to the 1860s whereas the corresponding I-GN route was longer and dated to 1902. MP was able to negotiate rights on SP's line and proceeded to abandon 27 miles of I-GN tracks between Bryan and Navasota in 1965. In addition to affecting the interlockings at those two towns, the Tower 7 interlocking at College Station was no longer needed.

The following year, MP began preparing to abandon its former I-GN route between Waco and Fort Worth. To replace it, MP built a short connecting track to the Katy at Bellmead to access trackage rights it had negotiated on Katy's line to Fort Worth. The former I-GN route from Waco to the outskirts of Fort Worth was abandoned in 1967-68. The end result of all of these transactions was that MP's route southward from Fort Worth to Spring used Katy trackage rights to Waco, former SP tracks to Marlin, I-GN tracks to Bryan, SP trackage rights to Navasota, and the original I-GN route from there to Spring. This route remains in use by Union Pacific (UP), successor to MP.


Above Left: Over the years, Tower 8 became known as "Eastco Tower". The use of that nomenclature with the rectangle icon on the above "Exhibit A" suggests that it remained a manned tower as of 1957. It was converted to an automatic interlocker at least by September, 1961 when it is listed as such in a MP ETT. The fate of the tower structure is undetermined. (Tom Kline collection)

Above Right: On November 30, 1966, SSW issued this bulletin announcing that the automatic interlocking at Tower 8 was being taken out of service. The new Katy / MP (I-GN) connection had become operational allowing MP to exercise Katy trackage rights between Fort Worth and Waco. Since the tracks remained intact, the Tower 8 crossing was changed to a Stop sign, but notably, it was "NON-GATED". Presumably, the lack of a gate reflected MP's intent to stop using the tracks, but whether it had already obtained ICC permission to terminate service to the stations on the route to Fort Worth is undetermined. ICC approval was apparently forthcoming; the former I-GN was abandoned in 1967 (to Maypearl) and 1968 (to Everman, a suburb of Fort Worth.) The Cotton Belt lasted another twenty years, abandoned between Corsicana and Waco (53 miles) in 1988. (Tom Kline collection)

Below Left: This 1970 image ((c) historicaerials.com) illustrates how MP was able to abandon the I-GN tracks (yellow arrows) north of Waco by building a connection (orange arrows) to merge onto the Katy's line to Fort Worth (blue arrows); the switch is off the top of the image at a location known as MP JCT. The Cotton Belt tracks (pink arrows) cross the MP at two places: at Tower 8 (green circle) and at the new MP / Katy connector (blue circle.) As expected, magnification shows that the I-GN tracks through Tower 8 had been removed by the time this image was captured. The MP (I-GN) / Cotton Belt connector (red arrow) remained intact.

Below Right: This ETT issued by MP in June, 1971 locates the revised Cotton Belt crossing (blue circle) at MP's milepost 165.4 with symbols indicating that it was at grade '(X)' and controlled by an Automatic Interlocker '(A)'. "Via MKT" indicates MP's use of 85 miles of Katy trackage rights between MP JCT and FW TOWER (Tower 53.) Further below, the Cotton Belt ETT from 1985 shows "MP Crossing" (blue circle) at the Cotton Belt's milepost 674.1 with letters 'AY' signifying an Automatic interlocking within Yard limits. The Cotton Belt general order above lists Eastco (green circle) at milepost 673.75. The difference of 0.35 miles is the Cotton Belt timetable distance between the two crossings (the actual distance is shorter, about 0.22 miles.) This proximity, however, is irrelevant; they were never operational simultaneously.
      

 
Above Left: In 1983, Lewis Raby took this photo of northbound MP locomotive #3065 crossing the Cotton Belt on the the MP / Katy connector. The view is northeast along the Cotton Belt tracks in the direction of the dormant Tower 8 crossing about a quarter mile from the camera. The white cabin housed the automatic interlocker, and to its left, a white post is barely visible where a lock box is mounted to house the manual override controls for the interlocker. (Tom Kline collection) Above Right: This 1958 aerial image ((c) historicaerials.com) shows the Tower 8 crossing. The Cotton Belt tracks run diagonally across the image from corner to corner with the I-GN tracks crossing in the middle on a slightly more north / south heading. The tower is in the southwest acute angle of the crossing casting a shadow to the northeast. The source of the shadow east of the I-GN tracks is undetermined. Traces of the connecting track illustrated on the "Exhibit A" track chart above are visible on the northwest side of the diamond.

UP acquired MP in 1982, several years before it purchased the Katy and merged it into MP's operations in 1989. The former Katy main line through Waco between Fort Worth and Smithville remains an active route for UP. The fate of Tower 21 has not been determined, but it was likely removed from service c.1965 when the SP tracks to the tower were abandoned. A Katy employee timetable from September, 1965 shows an automatic interlocker controlling the crossings managed by Tower 21, and the tower building does not appear on 1970 aerial imagery.

Below: In 1988, the Cotton Belt tracks were abandoned between Corsicana and East Waco. West of the Brazos, the Cotton Belt to Gatesville had gradually been cut back to the vicinity of McGregor, and in 1989, the tracks to McGregor were abandoned from the west outskirts of Waco. SP continued to serve existing customers located on its remaining trackage in Waco by sharing MP's Brazos River bridge and the MP line from East Waco through Valley Junction to Hearne, where SP had a yard. In 1996, UP acquired SP and fully merged it (along with MP) in 1997. The Cotton Belt bridge over the Brazos remains intact but was no longer used after the 1988-89 abandonments. It was donated to City Center Waco for evaluation as a pedestrian walkway that would contribute to a park connecting downtown and East Waco. As of the summer of 2026, it remains closed and unused. (Waco Tribune-Herald photos)
                 

  These photos of Tower 21 (by Harry C. Blaize Jr., from the collection of John Linda) were taken from a train carrying model railroaders from the Katy's Waco depot to the Bellmead Shops in 1954. Far Left: the south side of Tower 21; Near Left: the north side of Tower 21

  
Above Left: This 1980 Lewis Raby photo shows a northbound Katy train coming off the Brazos River bridge near the former site of Tower 21. Note the truss of the Cotton Belt bridge visible beyond the trees at right. (Tom Kline collection) Above Right: This Google Street View image from December, 2007 facing east on Mann St. shows that parallel tracks of the W&NW (SP, left) and TC (Katy, right) to Ross still had rails buried in the pavement despite abandonment by their owners in 1929 and 1967, respectively. In both cases, rails had remained in place in Waco to support local businesses. Both sets of tracks appear to be out of service as of 2007, and the rails were all removed by the date of the next Google Street View in December, 2012.

 
Above Left: Tom Kline captured this image of the Tower 144 crossing site in 2007. Facing north along the Katy, the Cotton Belt tracks still came in from the northeast but are out of service and no longer cross. Tom has documentation showing that at least by 1957, Cotton Belt trains were merging here onto the Katy main line and then rejoining the Cotton Belt tracks to the bridge at Tower 21. The rails west of Tower 144 became industry tracks. Above Right: In this view to the south, concrete pads remained intact from the removal of earlier signal posts. The Cotton Belt ROW went through the tree line to the right of the Katy tracks. Below Left: By March 2013, Google Street View shows that the Cotton Belt tracks had been scrapped. An undetermined electronics box remained intact on a post, and it is visible in Tom's photo above right. Below Right: There's not much evidence of the former Tower 144 crossing, which now sits beneath a US 77 Bus. overpass. Both Cottonbelt St. and Katy Lane are nearby. (Google Earth)


As annotated onto the Sanborn Map further above, there was one other railroad through East Waco, an electric interurban line built originally by the Southern Traction Co. that was completed into Waco in 1913. The Texas Electric (TE) Railway was then chartered in 1916 to merge the Southern Traction Co. and the Texas Traction Co., creating a network of three interurban routes out of Dallas that ran to Waco, Corsicana and Sherman, respectively. The TE line from Dallas to Waco went by way of Italy and Hillsboro. At Waco, the interurban had an interchange track with the Cotton Belt railroad on Price St. and then continued south to cross the Brazos River into downtown on a 3-pier rail bridge (above left, looking north, date unknown, courtesy Baylor University Library.) The bridge was located about 350 yards upstream of the Cotton Belt bridge. The TE terminated its operations at the end of 1948 and the interurban bridge was re-decked to carry automobiles. The opening of the Franklin Ave. bridge in 1973 motivated the decision to dismantle the interurban bridge. This began in the summer of 1974 and was completed in September, 1975, but the bridge's three piers were left undisturbed in the river. The northernmost pier has been painted and repurposed (above right) to hold a circular observation deck. (Google Street View, November, 2021.)

Below: The two piers that remain in the river along with the circular observation deck built atop the northernmost pier sit adjacent to the Waco Suspension Bridge. (Google Earth, October 30, 2019)

Thanks to Andy Nold, John Linda and Johnny Myers for information about the interurban line into Waco.

 
Last Revised: 7/9/2026 JGK - Contact the Texas Interlocking Towers Page.