A Crossing of the Texas & Pacific Railway and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway
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Left: In 1970, Earl
Aldridge painted Tower 62 from a photo, but years later, the photo's whereabouts
were
unknown.
After a town-wide search conducted by Mineola citizens, the photo was located in the archives of the Mineola Area Chamber of Commerce
in 2015.
The painting now resides in the Mineola Public Library. Right: This is the photo of the tower which the painting attempted to duplicate. The date on the painting, December 9, 1887, is too early to have been the date of the photograph because the tower didn't exist before 1905. (photo courtesy of Jeanne Johnson May) |
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The impetus for the first railroad at Mineola began
with the idea of building a railroad across Texas to be part of a projected
southern transcontinental line. This was prior to the Civil War, a period when the Legislature
somewhat freely granted state charters to railroads promising to build across
Texas. There were two competing concepts, but the most promising one envisioned rails
connecting Atlanta, Vicksburg and Shreveport -- more or less a straight line -- with
Marshall, Texas, a town near the Louisiana border. From Marshall, the rails
would continue
across the state to El Paso. A Texas railroad charter was granted to the
Vicksburg & El Paso Railroad Co. which the charter law also called the
Texas Western Railroad. This charter changed hands but was eventually
reacquired by the original promoters who then asked the Legislature to change
its name to Southern Pacific Railroad, unrelated to the famous
Southern Pacific that evolved in California in a similar timeframe. The
name change was granted in 1856 by the Legislature, overriding a veto by Texas
Governor Elisha Pease. Work began at Swanson's Landing, a riverport at the south
end of Caddo Lake (near the present day town of Karnak) connected by waterways
to New Orleans. This enabled rails, locomotives and other materials to be
shipped to Texas by barge. A track was completed southwest to the town of
Marshall by the end of 1859, and also to Jonesville in the direction of
Shreveport, intending to connect with a Louisiana railroad at the state line.
During the Civil War, the rails between Swanson's Landing and Jonesville were
taken up to be used to advance a direct rail line between Marshall and
Shreveport.
In July, 1870, the Legislature granted a
charter for a new company, the Southern Transcontinental
Railroad Co., that would be allowed to acquire the assets of the
Southern Pacific. On March 3, 1871, Congress granted a Federal railroad
charter to the Texas Pacific Railroad (renamed Texas & Pacific
Railway -- "T&P" -- a year later) for the purpose of building a
transcontinental rail line from Marshall to San Diego, California. The Texas
Legislature authorized the T&P to acquire the Southern Pacific and the
Southern Transcontinental Railroad Co., and this happened in 1872 on
March 21 and March 30, respectively. By the end of 1873, new construction plus
the acquired assets resulted in the T&P having three track segments, the most
significant being from the Louisiana border through Marshall and Longview to
Dallas. Additional
construction moved the endpoint west to
Fort Worth in 1876.
| The T&P route to Dallas passed through
the small settlement of Sodom, but no railroad wanted a town by
that name in its timetable. A new
name, Mineola, was chosen by an official of the Houston
& Great Northern (H&GN) Railroad, a combination of two girls'
names, Minnie and Ola (was
Olaminie an option?) All agree that Minnie Patten was one of the girls, but
two H&GN officials had daughters named Ola, so the ultimate
credit is disputed. It was the H&GN's privilege to rename the town because its tracks
got there ahead of those of the
T&P -- supposedly by fifteen minutes -- in the summer of 1873. The
H&GN was building northwest from Tyler, and
it interchanged with the T&P at Mineola, but did not cross it. During construction of the H&GN main line from Houston to Palestine in 1872, the International Railroad had passed through Palestine as it built between Longview and Hearne. The railroads agreed to merge, creating the International & Great Northern (I&GN) Railroad, which would need a railroad charter from the Legislature. Waiting for the bill to pass, the two companies adopted a combined management team in December, 1872 at a headquarters in Houston, operating the railroads as a single enterprise, effectively if not legally, the I&GN. The delay in approving the I&GN charter was due to a major issue over the International's claim for construction subsidy bonds to be issued by the State. Claiming corruption, the Texas Comptroller had refused to countersign and register the bonds despite the State engineer's report that the work covered by the bonds was of high quality and met the requirements of the International's charter. As legal proceedings moved slowly, a lengthy debate raged statewide. Much ink was spilled as to whether the bond issuance was in accordance with state law, or instead constituted a demand by the International for an unconstitutional subsidy. A compromise was eventually found, and the charter bill passed in 1875. Between Longview and Palestine, the branch to Mineola departed from the town of Zavala, 36 miles southwest of Longview (the Post Office changed Zavala to Troup in 1877.) The town was chosen as the branch point because it offered the shortest distance from the International's main line to Tyler, a major east Texas town. Sodom became the branch's projected crossing point of the T&P because it happened to be on a straight line from Tyler to Denison, the I&GN's ultimate goal. The Missouri, Kansas & Texas (MK&T, "Katy") Railway had opened a new rail bridge over the Red River which enabled export commodities from the Plains and Midwest states to move south to Houston through an interchange with the Houston & Texas Central (H&TC) Railway at Denison. The I&GN wanted to gain a share of this traffic by offering an alternate route from Denison to Houston via Troup and Palestine. Right: As soon as the line to Mineola was completed, Tyler and Mineola were incorporated into a regular advertisement by the I&GN; it was not yet a chartered railroad! (Houston Daily Mercury, July 12, 1873) |
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The I&GN was on its way to becoming the largest
railroad in Texas, serving Texarkana,
Austin and Houston, with plans to continue south to
San Antonio and Laredo. This attracted the
attention of rail baron Jay Gould who was looking to expand his empire into
Texas. He developed a plan to capture the I&GN, but it first required him
to take over the Katy railroad to gain a foothold in Texas and to control the
Red River bridge. The Katy's stock was so diluted that acquiring a controlling
interest was considered impossible. But in late 1879, Gould was named President of the Katy, the culmination of
a multi-year plan to infiltrate
Katy executive management with his loyalists to facilitate being appointed President.
Gould
was aware that the Katy did not have a Texas
railroad charter -- a State law passed in 1870 had allowed the Katy to build
from the river into Denison under its Kansas charter as part of its Red River
bridge construction. Gould avoided publicizing this deficiency, but in his view, the Katy had a Texas presence and every
resident wanted more railroads! No one was likely to challenge the Katy's
construction activities. If the Katy was challenged, Gould's recourse was to claim he was
building to the Rio Grande River in accordance with a requirement of the Kansas charter
(which, after all...the Legislature had accepted,
at least to some
extent.)
To benefit from the Katy's
profitability, Gould leased it to the Missouri Pacific (MP) Railroad, a
company based in St. Louis that he controlled with a major ownership stake. The
lease terms were highly detrimental to Katy stockholders. Gould would reap the
benefits of moving Katy profits into MP while the Katy broke even on paper. To
the public, it was MP that began expanding into Texas with new MP depots in each
town. Since Gould considered the Katy to be a "Texas railroad" (which MP
definitely was not) the title to new tracks would be held by the Katy to
(ostensibly) comply
with State law.
To execute his plan for capturing the I&GN, Gould also
needed to control the T&P. It had been stuck in Fort Worth since 1876,
unable to finance its continuation to El Paso. Gould made a deal to build the
remainder of the T&P at his expense, with his equity in the railroad accruing
incrementally with each mile completed. He became T&P President when his equity
reached controlling interest in April, 1881. This was
critical to Gould's plan because the T&P provided the I&GN's route between Longview and
Texarkana, where there were railroads that led directly to St. Louis. Since
Gould also controlled the Katy's Red River bridge, he effectively had boxed-in
the I&GN, impacting its volume of traffic to and from the Midwest. I&GN management sold out to Gould in
June, 1881 in swap for Katy stock. Fearing that he might run afoul of Texas'
railroad ownership laws, Gould kept the precise ownership of the I&GN murky. To
move I&GN profits to MP, Gould leased it to the Katy, but it continued operating
under its own name because it was well-known in Texas.
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Among the new construction on Gould's mind was an extension
of the Katy from Greenville to Mineola. A railroad
chartered by Katy interests had completed a line from Denison southeast to Greenville
in 1880, and it had been acquired by the Katy at Gould's direction. Gould wanted
to complete the Denison-to-Houston route originally envisioned by the I&GN so
that southbound freight at Denison could take "Gould all the way" rather than
the H&TC route. In 1881, Gould directed the Katy to build the 51 miles from
Greenville to Mineola, creating a junction of three Gould railroads and
facilitating the alternate route from Denison to Houston. Left: Galveston Daily News, June 24, 1881 |
In April, 1888, Katy stockholders
were able to summon a quorum and fire Gould for malfeasance. New
Katy management immediately sought bankruptcy protection. At the time, Gould was
engaged with legal problems stemming from lawsuits filed months earlier by the
Texas Attorney General against the Katy and the I&GN. Katy management asked the
bankruptcy court to void the MP lease, and they eventually succeeded under a
ruling by the Texas Supreme Court. To clean up the mess resulting from the
Katy's track construction without a valid railroad charter, the Legislature
enacted a Katy charter in October, 1891, creating a Denison-based subsidiary to
make it all legal. Gould
was able to remain President of both the T&P and the I&GN (and MP) while the Katy returned to being
an independent railroad. Gould died in December, 1892, and his son George took
over. It would be another twenty-five years before the Gould family was no longer involved
with MP, the T&P and the I&GN.
The I&GN went into bankruptcy in 1908
and again in 1914. Finally independent of the Gould family, it emerged in 1922 as a new corporation (the
International - Great Northern, "I-GN") and immediately became a target for acquisition because of its vast track network. MP
tried to buy it in 1924 but the sale was nixed by the Interstate Commerce
Commission (ICC) which had jurisdiction instead of the Railroad Commission of
Texas (RCT) because the Federal Transportation Act of 1920 had expanded the
ICC's powers over interstate railroads. Not to be deterred, MP executed its fallback strategy by helping to
arrange for the New Orleans, Texas & Mexico (NOT&M) Railway to buy the
I-GN, simply to keep it out of the hands of other competitors. The NOT&M had
been a component of the Gulf Coast Lines (GCL) marketing collective, a group
of railroads in south Texas and Louisiana formerly owned by the St. Louis & San
Francisco ("Frisco") Railway. During the Frisco's bankruptcy that began in
1914, the bankruptcy judge separated the GCL railroads which were profitable on
their own. The NOT&M was then re-chartered by the State of Louisiana to become
the parent company of the GCL railroads. The sale of the I-GN to the NOT&M was
approved by the ICC in June, 1924. The ICC then allowed MP to buy the entire NOT&M on January 1,
1925, acquiring the target I-GN plus all of the other GCL railroads.
Overnight, MP became a huge force in Texas railroading.
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As a means of introducing interlocker technology into Texas, a 1901 State law authorized RCT to issue safety regulations for crossings of two railroads. State law required all trains to stop completely before proceeding across a diamond, a rule that did not apply at interlocked crossings. Stopping wasted time, fuel and water since crossings were unoccupied most of the time. At Mineola, the H&GN had not built across the T&P main line in 1873, hence the Katy had to cross it to make a connection with the I&GN. The crossing was interlocked with a manned two-story tower, Tower 62, commissioned by RCT on December 12, 1905 with a 12-function mechanical interlocking plant. The tower was staffed by the T&P, but recurring expenses for labor, utilities and maintenance were split evenly since both railroads used half of the interlocker's functions. RCT reported Tower 62 seeing an average of 25 movements per day over the twelve months ending June 30, 1906. |
On September 27, 1915, the Katy went into
receivership. A comprehensive report on the condition of the company and its
options for regaining solvency was commissioned by the Receiver and prepared by
consultant J. W. Kendrick of Chicago. Kendrick's report, delivered in January,
1917, succinctly described the problem that led to the Katy's financial woes.
Simply put, the Katy was "Built originally as a granger
line, with grades conforming...to the general surface of the territory...with
rails of light sections and odd weights, with narrow banks and cuts...wet and
undrained, with bridges much too light...with light engines...of antiquated
design...unwisely purchased...by administrations which utterly failed to
recognize the coming changes in transportation methods... handicapped by
extraordinary interest charges upon...nondescript indebtedness, so large as to
make it necessary to starve the property...maintenance in order to keep it
solvent..." Kendrick noted that the Katy's "...payment of dividends was
commenced in 1906 and continued until 1914, during which time $4,160,000 was
dispensed to stockholders that should have been returned to the property in the
form of well conceived improvements..." In short, the railroad had been
severely mismanaged, leaving it physically and financially non-competitive.
In discussing freight opportunities, Kendrick's report mentioned that
"...lignite, or semi-bituminous coal, is produced in large quantities on the
Mineola Branch..." What Kendrick did not know was that the rapidly
developing petroleum industry, and the expansion of the availability of
electricity as a source of power, led to a sharp recession for Texas lignite
beginning in 1920. Kendrick also mentioned "...manufacture of boxes and
fruit and vegetable containers..." as a business in Mineola that provided
freight to the Katy, but this was hardly enough to keep the line busy. And while
Kendrick's data showed the Katy received more freight from the T&P
than from than any other railroad, it is likely that the vast majority of this
interchange was in Fort Worth and Dallas where both railroads had a sizeable
presence. Kendrick also mentioned that the Katy was paying one-third of the cost
to operate the Mineola passenger station.
| In the aftermath of Kendrick's report, the
bankruptcy court continued working to create an arrangement that would
establish long term viability for the Katy. It finally emerged
from bankruptcy in 1923 as a new corporation with a new name, the
Missouri - Kansas - Texas Railway (but everyone still called it
the Katy.) At Mineola, the peak period of Katy traffic across the Tower 62 diamond is undetermined, but the traffic had substantially declined by the early 1920s. With limited Katy traffic at Tower 62, the railroads decided to eliminate the manned tower and replace it with a cabin interlocker which would be much less expensive to operate and maintain. Cabin interlockers were used in situations where a lightly used rail line (the Katy) crossed a busy line (the T&P.) Cabin interlockers were so named because the controls were typically located in a trackside hut to be operated by train crews from the lightly used line (hence there was no staffing expense for operating the interlocker.) At Mineola, the signals were normally left so that T&P trains had unrestricted permission to cross the diamond. When a Katy train approached Mineola, it would stop at the diamond so that a crewmember could disembark, enter the cabin and set the controls to grant permission for his train to PROCEED across the diamond. This action also signaled any approaching T&P trains to STOP. When the crossing was completed, the crewmember would reset the controls for unimpeded movements on the T&P and return to his train. On November 26, 1922, the T&P activated a new cabin interlocker to replace the existing manned tower at Mineola. The manned tower was closed, and the tower operators who lost their jobs filed a complaint with the United States Railroad Labor Board. Their argument was that the railroads had essentially built a new tower (the cabin interlocker) with the same manual controls as the ones in the old manned tower. But the controls in the new tower were being operated by train crewmembers instead of members of the tower operators' union, the Order of Railroad Telegraphers, as required by their contract with the railroads. Right: The Katy line from Greenville to Mineola remained viable as a lightly used branch for many years. It was finally abandoned in 1956 at which time the Tower 62 cabin interlocker was retired. Eleven rail miles west of Mineola at Grand Saline, another cabin interlocker, Tower 130, controlled the T&P crossing of the Texas Short Line (TSL) Railroad. |
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Left: The U.S.
Railroad Labor Board published this description of the case brought by the tower operators.
The Board ruled against the operators; the cabin interlocker at Mineola remained
in service. Presumably the 2-story tower was razed soon thereafter, but eyewitnesses suggest otherwise. When Mineola resident Joyce Alexander Williams interviewed two life long residents for their recollections of a tower near the Katy / T&P crossing, both Wayne Collins and Larry Barlow recalled seeing the tower and said it was located on the south side of the diamond. Wayne Collins was certain that the tower was removed between 1941 and 1945 because it was there when he left for World War II military service and it was gone when he returned. |
In 1956, MP ended a lengthy bankruptcy and merged its various subsidiaries into a consolidated MP corporation.
Along with several others, the I&GN was fully merged and ceased to exist.
The T&P was not a subsidiary of MP although MP had
owned a majority of T&P's stock since the 1930s. MP had never exercised operational
or executive management control over the T&P. Instead, the two railroads collaborated closely on
operations by coordinating schedules and sharing yards and other resources.
In 1968, MP decided to abandon eleven miles of former I-GN track between
Mineola and Lindale, hence the MP / T&P interchange at Mineola was no longer
needed. The two railroads had better locations to exchange traffic e.g.,
Longview, Dallas and Fort Worth. In 1976, MP elected to acquire the remaining
shares of T&P stock
and take executive control, merging it into MP and retiring the T&P name. In 1982, Union Pacific (UP)
acquired MP, but MP continued to operate under its own name. In 1988, UP bought
the Katy and merged it into MP, reuniting the two railroads a century after the
Texas courts had broken MP's lease. The Katy had survived as an independent
railroad all of that time, but another receivership was looming and UP wanted
the Katy's tracks, many of which were complementary to those of MP.
Above:
This composite image from 1957 aerial photography ((c) historicaerials.com)
shows the path of the Katy, T&P and I-GN railroads through Mineola. The Katy
had been abandoned between Mineola and Greenville only a year earlier, so the
right-of-way remained visible.
  |
 Above: This magnification ((c)historicaerials.com) from the 1957 composite map shows the abandoned Tower 62 crossing of the Katy and the T&P. A possible rectangular foundation (yellow oval) is visible on the south side of the T&P tracks. The lack of a shadow makes it less likely to be a structure. On the north side of the T&P tracks, a small building is visible (pink oval) casting a shadow to the west. This is the cabin interlocker that replaced the manned tower in 1922. The abandoned cabin remained in place to at least 1995. Railroads sometimes left cabins in place for many years (in this case, ~ 39 years) after abandonment (e.g. Tower 213 and Tower 179, both still standing decades later.) |
Above Left to Right: Eastbound on US 80 coming into
Mineola, the highway curves where the Katy railroad formerly crossed at grade at
an acute angle, becoming parallel to the roadway. The utility poles in the left
photo are relatively close to the highway, perhaps ten feet from the paved edge
of the shoulder, because the Katy has not yet crossed. In the center photo
farther east, the camera is essentially looking straight down the Katy ROW.
Judging the distance between the pavement and the utility poles, the nearby
utility pole is still relatively close to the pavement but the poles in the
distance are significantly further away. In the right photo farther to the east,
the Katy ROW is probably somewhere to the right of the white stripe. It's
possible that the utility poles, which are now perhaps 30 feet from the edge of
the roadway, sit on the elevated grade, or perhaps the apparent elevation is
merely an artifact of the road construction. The tracks (and certainly the
original telegraph poles) were in place long before any highways were built. Since the Katy's abandonment in 1956, US 80 has been
widened into a
divided highway east of the apex of the curve in this section. This road reconstruction likely encroached on the
edges of the ROW, but it appears that most of the additional real estate required
was taken from the north side of the highway. The Katy ROW real estate was
essentially left intact along the south side, although the grade itself was
obliterated by various improvements
(e.g. drainage.) (Google Street View images)
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Left: Northwest of Mineola, a 1919 double-arched masonry culvert carried the Katy tracks. The Katy was in receivership at this time. Bridge and right-of-way reconstruction investments were authorized by the Receiver to repair and improve the Katy's physical infrastructure into a competitive posture. Numerous such culverts were rebuilt in the vicinity of Mineola. This one is between Mineola and Lake Holbrook. (Joyce Alexander Williams photo) |
Last Revised: 1/24/2026 JGK - Contact the Texas
Interlocking Towers Page.