Texas Railroad History - Tower 63 - Mexia (Springfield)
A Crossing of the Trinity & Brazos
Valley Railway and the
Houston & Texas Central Railway
Above Left: When Everett
DeGolyer Jr. acquired the negative of this photo of Tower 63 taken by Albert D.
"Dean" Hale, he wrote on a note card that the photo had been taken on October 24, 1961. The
tower was located about 1.5 miles south of downtown Mexia and this view looks
farther south down tracks belonging to the Houston & Texas Central (H&TC)
Railway, a subsidiary of Southern Pacific (SP). The tracks were part of SP's
main line between Dallas and
Houston. In the foreground, Burlington - Rock Island (B-RI) tracks
cross at an acute angle on a southeast (left) / northwest (right) heading; the
tower sits in the obtuse southwest angle of the crossing. It began operations on April 26, 1906, but by 1961, it was no longer
occupied, having been superseded in the 1930s by a cabin interlocking. Across
the SP tracks from the tower, two white equipment cabinets are visible,
perfectly aligned from this angle; the power pole is atop the cabinet farthest from
the camera. Presumably one of these cabinets hosted the manual interlocker
controls that a B-RI train crewmember would operate to change the trackside signals
to allow his train to
cross the diamond. The cabin interlocking plant was most likely housed in the
tower as there would be no other reason for the vacant tower to have remained standing for more
than two decades after the original interlocking plant was retired. This is reinforced by
what appears to be a slightly slack wire coming out of the back of the tower and
disappearing at upper right; a vacant tower unused for any purpose wouldn't need
power. Also, available photos of the
crossing (like this one) do not show the presence of a
traditional interlocking cabin to host the plant in the style
commonly used across Texas. (photo courtesy DeGolyer Library,
Southern Methodist University; hat tip Dennis Hogan and Stephen Taylor)
Above Right: This 1962 aerial
image ((c) historicaerials.com) has been annotated to show the Tower 63 crossing
(yellow circle), an abandoned SP roundhouse (pink rectangle) and a building of
unknown purpose (blue rectangle.) The roundhouse casts a shadow indicating that it was still standing
in 1962 but
it is not visible in Dean Hale's photo. It was not particularly large, so it may simply be
out of view
behind the tower due to the angle of the photo. An article in the July 24, 1913
edition of the Mexia Weekly Herald notes that
"...work will soon be started on the new terminal improvements of the Houston &
Texas Central, which will include a 12-stall roundhouse...". A building of
unknown purpose is visible down the tracks in Hale's photo with a railcar on a siding in front of it.
It is no longer standing but its foundation remains visible on satellite
imagery. The building first appears on aerial imagery in 1960. Imagery from 1933
shows multiple yard tracks full of railcars beginning just north of where the
building was eventually built and running south for a little over a half mile.
These were presumably part of the "new terminal improvements" mentioned in the
article. The yard tracks are no longer visible on 1960 imagery.
 |
Left: Tom Kline describes his
photo...
"It's a shot of the Mexia Turn headed back to Teague after crossing the SP. I do not know who the photographer was but he was the engineer on the local powered by a Fort Worth & Denver SD7 who took it while waiting for his brakeman to board the wooden, outside-braced Rock Island caboose. You can see him waving a highball as he steps aboard. This photo came from engineer Bob James, a longtime employee of the B-RI who believes the date to be in the early '60's..."
Since the Mexia Turn was headed back to Teague and had just
crossed the SP tracks, the brakeman was most likely returning to his
train having just
set the Tower 63 cabin interlocking controls to allow resumption of unrestricted
movements on SP's line. |
Below: Dillon Mcadams supplies this interesting photo of Tower
63. Similar to Tom Kline's photo above, it looks northwest toward Mexia along the
B-RI tracks, probably in the early 1960s. Since the camera is at roughly the
same height as the roofline of the tower, the photo appears to have been taken by someone
standing atop a caboose (or possibly a locomotive) or maybe it was a drone shot before drones were invented?
Assuming the presence of a train, it was almost certainly stationary since a movement with a photographer atop
the train would have been highly irregular. The wide angle of the photo combined
with the elevation of the camera rules out the photo being taken from inside a
caboose or locomotive. The open derail on the tracks in the
foreground suggests that a crewmember has set the interlocker controls
to allow unrestricted movements on the SP tracks. Note the white pole trackside beyond the
diamond. This is the Tower 63 Home Signal for eastbound movements toward Teague,
hence the signal light faces away from the camera. Also note that the pole is
several feet farther from the tower than the nearby derail mechanism spanning
the tracks. If the photographer is truly atop a caboose, its locomotive passed that signal
earlier and has stopped with the caboose positioned just past the westbound
derail. The westbound Home Signal is not visible because the end of the caboose
is between the derail and the signal. The train is prepared to continue toward
Teague but ... might it be waiting for the man climbing the stairs of the
abandoned tower?
Named for the owner of an
1833 land grant, the town of Mexia was founded in 1870 by the Houston & Texas Central (H&TC)
Railway as it built north from Hearne toward
Denison and the Red River. Within fifteen years,
economic growth stimulated by the railroad had increased the town's population
to 2,000 residents as it became an important farming supply center. In 1902-03, the
Trinity & Brazos Valley (T&BV) Railway built northwest from
Hillsboro to
Cleburne and southeast from Hillsboro through Malone and
Hubbard into Mexia. Construction stopped
at Mexia and did not cross the H&TC tracks. In 1905, the T&BV was
acquired by the Colorado & Southern (C&S) Railway as part of a
grand plan conceived by a member of its Board of Directors,
Benjamin Franklin Yoakum. Yoakum was a native Texan born in 1859
in Tehuacana, a small community near Mexia (the T&BV laid tracks within a mile
of Yoakum's birthplace.)
Yoakum
started in railroading as a member of an International & Great Northern
(I&GN) Railroad track
gang. In 1886, he was hired as a clerk by the San
Antonio & Aransas Pass (SA&AP) Railway, and within a year, he had
risen to the position of Traffic Manager. Yoakum quickly advanced to become the
General Manager of the SA&AP. He subsequently became its Receiver when it
entered bankruptcy in 1890. SP wanted to buy the SA&AP out of bankruptcy but
this would have violated Texas' railroad competition laws since SP had a
subsidiary that competed directly with the SA&AP. Instead, SP offered to help
SA&AP exit bankruptcy by agreeing to back any construction bonds SA&AP issued. SP's incentive was
its belief that it would benefit from traffic generated by a healthy
SA&AP. Yoakum and the bankruptcy judge signed off on the plan, and the
bankruptcy was settled in 1892.
Yoakum left the SA&AP to become Vice President of the Gulf,
Colorado & Santa Fe (GC&SF) Railway at age 33. In 1897, he moved again, to become General
Manager of the St. Louis & San Francisco ("Frisco") Railway in St. Louis.
Yoakum quickly rose to become the Chairman of the Board of the Frisco while also becoming the Chair of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the
Chicago, Rock
Island & Pacific (CRI&P, "Rock Island") Railway, effectively its
CEO. Leading two major Midwest railroads while also a member of the C&S Board
placed Yoakum among the most powerful railroad men in the U.S. Yoakum was
considered a marketing genius, so much so that his July, 1911 address to the
Texas Farmers' Congress at College Station is
available as a hardcover book on
Amazon!
Both the Rock Island and the Frisco wanted an export outlet
on the Gulf of Mexico for Midwest agricultural products, so Yoakum set out to
build one. Rock Island's interest in owning a line to the Gulf dated to the
early 1890s when it built from the Plains States through Indian Territory
(Oklahoma) into
Fort Worth. By 1901, the Frisco, too, had built
through Indian Territory into north Texas at Carrollton
from which it served Fort Worth via trackage
rights.
|
Right: The Conroe
Courier (or was it the
Conroe Clairvoyant) carried this
brief passage, not part of any other article, on November 8, 1901, a
full year before the T&BV was named and chartered. Yoakum was not
associated with the T&BV investors, but his interest in a Fort Worth -
Galveston line to serve the Frisco and Rock Island railroads from north Texas was well known by late
1901. One of the T&BV investors was Edward M. House whom Yoakum knew
from his time in Texas railroading. Perhaps House was the source of
rumors of Yoakum's interest in an unchartered, unnamed railroad for
which he was apparently already working on
"trackage arrangements" with Santa Fe. Credit to the
Courier for precisely predicting
what would happen four years later! |
 |
 Left:
San Antonio Daily Express
October 15, 1902
Construction of the T&BV started at
Hillsboro in October, 1902, and was completed between Cleburne and Mexia
in November, 1903.
Left:
Southern Mercury (Dallas) November
12, 1903
Efforts to extend the T&BV southeast to Beaumont were underway but
nothing would materialize. The T&BV had a rail line but not much
business. |
 
Mexia State Herald, October 17, 1902
Austin Statesman, September 5, 1903 |
Yoakum's Frisco and Rock Island railroads
carried Midwest export commodities but their lines terminated in
Fort Worth, 250
miles from Galveston. The southbound traffic was
mostly passed to SP and the GC&SF which had
routes from Fort Worth to Houston and Galveston.
The I&GN opened a Fort Worth - Galveston route via Houston in 1902
creating yet another option.
Yoakum envisioned building his own line from Fort Worth to Houston and
Galveston, and he also wanted to serve Dallas which was a promising market,
much larger than Fort Worth.
To accomplish his plan, Yoakum sought a Texas railroad charter in 1902 to build from Fort Worth to Galveston via Dallas under the name
Chicago, Rock Island & Gulf (CRI&G.) For compliance with
Texas law requiring railroads owning tracks in Texas to have
headquarters in state, the CRI&G was organized as a Fort Worth-based
subsidiary of the Illinois-based CRI&P corporation. The CRI&G charter
was granted, including a provision that consolidated into the CRI&G
three existing Rock Island subsidiaries in Texas (one in Fort Worth and
two others in the Texas Panhandle.)
The CRI&G began by laying tracks
from Fort Worth to Dallas in 1903. Yoakum's surveyors
had found a low grade / low
curve route from Dallas to Houston that would be superior to the lines of his competitors,
but Yoakum did not continue with construction.
Route secrets were hard to keep in the railroad business, and Yoakum's
survey had created substantial consternation for the
other railroads in Texas. Attempting to prevent construction of a
superior route to the Gulf coast from north Texas, individual railroads
approached Yoakum to engage in negotiations seeking an alternate
arrangement.
Right: This
article from the Navasota Daily Examiner
of May 16, 1902 announced that the Secretary of State and the Attorney
General had approved the CRI&G charter; it would next go to the
Legislature for approval. The article continues by listing the counties
specified in the charter through which the railroad would pass as it was
built from Fort Worth to Galveston. The list accurately tracked the line
that was eventually built, but beyond Dallas it was
not the CRI&G
doing the construction. |
 |
The railroads in Texas
rightfully viewed Yoakum's plan to build to Galveston as a serious threat,
but could they stop it? The GC&SF wanted to
expand the volume of traffic it was carrying for Yoakum between Fort Worth and Galveston.
It was, however, owned by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (AT&SF, "Santa
Fe") Railway, a direct competitor to Rock Island in the Midwest and Plains
states, hence the GC&SF could not give Yoakum everything he wanted. The I&GN
offered to sell its route between Fort Worth and Houston, but the line had construction problems and Yoakum wasn't interested. SP Chairman E. H. Harriman
had the most to lose because in 1883, SP had acquired the H&TC whose route from
Fort
Worth to Houston (via main line connection at Garrett) was carrying most of Rock
Island's Gulf coast traffic. Harriman was also aware that Rock Island surveyors
had identified a superior route between Dallas and Houston. Negotiations ensued
and eventually, Harriman
capitulated, giving Yoakum essentially everything he wanted. The two men
signed a massive contract that would potentially reshape the course of Texas
railroading ... but the contract required approval by the Railroad Commission of
Texas (RCT.)
 |
Left: The deal between Rock
Island and SP was
top-of-the fold front page news on
May 15, 1903 in the Austin Statesman.
The article called it the "Rock Island - Central deal"; "Central" had become a
nickname for SP due to its ownership of the H&TC. The article explained
that Yoakum had agreed to route Rock Island traffic to and from
the Texas Gulf coast exclusively on SP lines under full operational rights
granted by SP on four of its subsidiaries: the H&TC (Denison to Houston),
the Houston East & West Texas (Houston to
Lufkin and Shreveport), the Galveston, Houston & Northern (Houston
to Galveston) and the Texas & New Orleans
(Dallas to Beaumont and Houston to
Orange.)
RCT interpreted the
contract as ceding effective control of the four SP subsidiaries to
Yoakum, constituting in essence a partial merger or joint venture between SP and Rock Island. RCT
looked back at various laws passed by the Legislature granting railroad
mergers, finding there was little difference in the
details specified by the legislative enactments compared to the requirements
of the proposed contract. An Austin
Statesman story on May 21 explained that the proposed
contract does "...not require the Rock Island to build one mile of track
nor one house [depot] of any kind, and still the company acquires all of
the benefits and advantages as if the matter had come before the
Legislature without any disguise, as a straight merger proposition." The
story went on to predict that
this argument would "...form the several grounds upon which the
Commission will refuse..." to approve the contract.
The
newspaper was right; the Commission voted 2 - 1 to deny approval.
As a result, Yoakum changed strategy, aggressively moving to compete, rather than
cooperate, with SP. And Yoakum had a few cards up his sleeve waiting to be
played. |
Only a couple of weeks after submitting the contract to
RCT, Yoakum began to execute another component of his larger vision. Yoakum's
former boss, Uriah Lott, had gone to St. Louis to convince Yoakum that the Lower
Rio Grande Valley presented a golden opportunity. It had no connection to the
national rail network and it could generate substantial traffic due to its
agricultural production, a growing population, and proximity to Mexican railroads
if an international rail bridge was built over the Rio Grande River
(accomplished 1910.) Yoakum bought
into the concept and began by chartering the St. Louis,
Brownsville & Mexico (SLB&M) Railway on June 6, 1903. He hired Lott
to build it, ostensibly between Brownsville and
Houston. Construction would proceed
south and then north from Robstown using materials shipped by rail from the Port
of Corpus Christi.
As the SLB&M was being
built, Yoakum began buying smaller railroads and negotiating trackage rights in an
attempt to assemble a network from Houston to New Orleans that would compete
with SP along the Gulf Coast. He correctly anticipated that due to the massive
hurricane that had destroyed Galveston in 1900, Houston's inland port would
drive the regional economy to create the dominant commercial and population
center along the Texas coast. Houston was also halfway between Brownsville and
New Orleans, thus it became Yoakum's center of operations for his evolving
collection of coastal railroads.
The press referenced them as Yoakum's "Gulf Coast lines" and the name
stuck. Yoakum eventually adopted Gulf Coast Lines (GCL) as a
marketing term for the network, and it operated seamlessly enough to be
perceived by the public as a single railroad. Yoakum used a financial syndicate
backed by the St. Louis
Trust Co. to finance the purchase and expansion of various GCL railroads to
be managed individually by Frisco executives. In 1910, Yoakum had the Frisco buy
the GCL railroads outright from the syndicate.
 |
Right: By early 1904,
rumors were spreading that the T&BV would become part of Yoakum's "Frisco
- Rock Island system". While true in general, almost all of the details
speculated were incorrect.
The CRI&G line from Fort Worth
to Dallas was complete, but Yoakum did not proceed with construction to
Houston as authorized by the charter. Instead, he enlisted the C&S to
buy the T&BV to become the basis of a Dallas - Houston route built on
Rock Island's survey. As a C&S Director, Yoakum had befriended Edwin
Hawley, the well-known principal owner / financier of the C&S. Teaming
with Hawley added financial heft to Yoakum's railroad play in Texas, and
having the C&S buy the T&BV gave Hawley skin in the game since it would
eventually yield a Denver - Galveston route. Through its Colorado
holdings and its Fort Worth & Denver City
(FW&DC, later FW&D) Railway subsidiary, the C&S already had Denver -
Fort Worth service. The T&BV would simply close the gap to Houston and
Galveston. At Yoakum's request, the C&S sold a half interest in the T&BV to Rock Island.
Yoakum
may have had one more card to play. In
1903, a tip regarding documentation possessed by the Kentucky Railroad
Commission enabled RCT to assert that SP had secretly and unlawfully
acquired ownership of the SA&AP. RCT threatened to sue, but SP admitted
guilt and
acquiesced to RCT's order to cancel its SA&AP
stock and not back any new SA&AP bonds. SA&AP was selling bonds to finance a line from Alice
to Edinburg in the Lower Rio Grande Valley,
but without SP's backing, the bond market dried up and it lacked the resources to
execute
construction to the Valley. It built only as far south as Falfurrias,
giving Yoakum's SLB&M control of the Valley. Though it seems likely
Yoakum was the source of the tip, he never admitted to it. Harriman was incensed and spitefully vowed to parallel any new tracks
built by Yoakum in Texas.
Left: As Yoakum neared retirement from the railroad business, the Mexia Weekly Herald
of October 3, 1912 ran an article on his legacy. Like many of his
railroad peers, Yoakum had long claimed the title "Colonel",
at least since age 30 (Galveston Daily
News, May 8, 1890) while he was the General Manager of the
SA&AP. |
Fort Worth
Record & Register, January 7, 1904 |
 |
On August 1, 1905, the C&S bought
the T&BV. Yoakum was able to modify the charter to authorize building east
from Mexia to the community of Brewer. From there he would build north to
Dallas and south to Houston on the Rock
Island survey. Remaining west of H&TC's tracks for two miles south through
Mexia, the T&BV crossed over at Springfield, a spot named
for a nearby ghost town that had been the original county seat of
Limestone County; this became the site of Tower 63. The T&BV's
construction reached the Rock Island survey at Brewer, which Yoakum incorporated as the city of Teague (his mother's maiden name); it would host a
T&BV
yard and maintenance shops. At the north end of the Rock Island survey, Yoakum obtained
trackage rights on the Missouri, Kansas
& Texas ("Katy")
Railroad at Waxahachie, eliminating the need
to build all the way into Dallas. Yoakum's new Dallas - Houston line was
designed to be faster and more efficient than SP's route via Hearne and
Mexia, creating a serious problem for Harriman. Before it was finished,
Harriman had already opened a competing line.
The Mexia - Nelleva Cutoff was Harriman's answer to the T&BV.
It shortened SP's distance between Mexia and Navasota by ten miles. This
was an insignificant savings; the line was ultimately unsuccessful.
Far
Left: In addition to Tower 63, the H&TC and T&BV crossed in three other
locations, all of them grade-separated. On the north side of
Corsicana, the T&BV passed beneath the H&TC about 1,300
feet southeast of
Tower 165. The Mexia - Nelleva
Cutoff crossed the T&BV twice, going over it south of Jewett and under
it north of Jewett. In Waxahachie, T&BV
trains exercising Katy trackage rights crossed the H&TC at grade at
Tower 67.
SP's Dalsa
Cutoff opened in 1914 so that
Dallas - San Antonio trains could avoid transiting Houston,
saving a
full day. Traffic on the Dalsa Cutoff would otherwise have passed
through Houston and likely used the
Mexia - Nelleva Cutoff if Dallas was an endpoint. Thus, the Dalsa Cutoff
helped hasten the demise of the Mexia - Nelleva Cutoff.
Left:
((c) historicaerials.com) In this 1955 aerial image south of
Mexia, the red arrow points to Mexia Junction where the Mexia - Nelleva
Cutoff (orange arrows) joined the H&TC main line (pink arrows.) The
Cutoff grade is visible but there are no tracks; it was abandoned in
1933.
A mile and a half farther north, the H&TC crossed the T&BV
tracks (green arrows) from Teague at Tower 63 (yellow circle.) West of
Tower 63, the T&BV's original main line to Cleburne only goes a couple
of miles north into Mexia. The tracks west of Mexia were
fully abandoned by 1942. |
Yoakum had a busy month in August, 1905. The T&BV acquisition by the
C&S occurred on August 1, followed by the sale of 50% of the T&BV to
Rock Island. Yoakum chartered the Galveston Terminal Railway (GTR) on
August 29 and assigned its ownership to the T&BV. Two days later,
Yoakum chartered the
Houston Belt & Terminal (HB&T) Railway as a switching railroad that would also build a
union passenger station in downtown Houston. The
T&BV owned 25% of the HB&T, and two GCL
railroads each owned 25%; the GC&SF owned the other 25%. As the
GTR and HB&T were being built, the T&BV tracks reached
Houston in early 1907
but did not continue to Galveston. SP's Galveston, Houston & Northern
(GH&N)
subsidiary provided the T&BV with trackage rights from Houston
to Galveston. The T&BV switched to GC&SF trackage rights in April, 1908
as part of a deal granting rights to the SLB&M between Algoa
and Houston.
Harriman kept his vow to parallel Yoakum's new
construction by having H&TC build the Mexia - Nelleva Cutoff. The objective was
to reduce the distance and straighten the H&TC grade between Dallas and Houston.
Unfortunately for Harriman, his options were limited and
the Cutoff didn't accomplish
much. It was mostly a symbolic move, and it required so little construction effort that it
was operational before the T&BV main line was completed to Houston. The Cutoff branched off the
H&TC main line at Nelleva Junction on the northern outskirts of
Navasota and went north
to Mexia Junction via the communities of Iola and Jewett. Between them the Cutoff ran literally side by side with the T&BV for 42 miles.
At Mexia Junction, it reconnected to the H&TC main line about 1.5 miles south of
Tower 63. In 1913, H&TC expanded yard tracks and made other improvements between
Tower 63 and Mexia Junction to facilitate better switching between the main line
and the Mexia - Nelleva Cutoff.
The Cutoff was 94 miles long and somewhat straighter, but it only
shortened the total distance between Mexia and Navasota by ten miles compared to
the main line route. There were
no population centers of any size, hence there was little local commerce. The
Cutoff's only benefit was improving the speed of freight trains between Dallas and
Houston, but a sizable portion of that traffic was simply transiting Houston to
or from SP's Sunset Route for San Antonio and points west. In 1914, SP opened the Dalsa (Dallas - San Antonio) Cutoff
between Hearne and Flatonia to allow traffic to bypass Houston, saving a day
of transit time. Opening the Dalsa Cutoff was the death knell for the Mexia -
Nelleva Cutoff since it caused a significant reduction in the number of Dallas - Houston
freight trains.
Right:
This article in the
Waxahachie Daily Light of December
14, 1906 announced the opening of SP's Mexia - Nelleva Cutoff.
 Left: (Railway Age, May 21,
1932) In 1927,
SP began to consolidate its Texas and Louisiana lines by leasing the H&TC to the
Texas & New Orleans (T&NO) Railroad. In 1932, T&NO and H&TC jointly applied to abandon the
Mexia - Nelleva Cutoff; the rails were removed in 1933.
SP's Texas and Louisiana lines
were merged into T&NO in 1934 at which time the H&TC corporation
ceased to exist. |
 |
 |
 |
Left:
T&BV trains had been operating between Cleburne and Teague since March 16, 1906,
a few weeks before Tower 63 was completed. The first Houston - Fort
Worth train via Teague and Cleburne ran January 28, 1907 using trackage
rights on the GC&SF between Cleburne and Fort Worth. The first C&S
train for Denver - Houston service via Fort Worth, Cleburne and Teague
began October 1, 1907. (Houston Post, January 28, 1907)
Right:
T&BV's first Houston - Dallas train ran on July
1, 1907 as reported that afternoon by the
Waxahachie Daily Light. |
 |
A month after trains had begun running between Cleburne
and Teague, Tower 63 was commissioned by RCT on April 26, 1906 to control the
T&BV / H&TC crossing south of downtown Mexia. It had a 12-function mechanical
interlocker which was the typical minimum arrangement for a simple crossing, consisting of
a home signal, distant signal and derail in each of the four directions.
Approach route and detector locking was added to the plant in 1924. Which
railroad designed and built the tower is undetermined. RCT
records from 1916 list H&TC as the railroad with responsibility for tower operations.
This is usually a
strong clue as to which railroad built the tower, but since T&BV had entered
bankruptcy in 1914, H&TC might have preferred to take the staffing responsibility
at that time
to ensure there were no disruptions to its operations, which vastly exceeded
T&BV movements past the tower.
Photos show that Tower 63 shared
architectural features
seen in many SP towers (e.g. Tower 100) but it is
different from all of them. Since the crossing did
not exist until after 1901, RCT regulations assigned the capital
expense for the tower and interlocking plant entirely to the T&BV. This gave the
T&BV the right to take the lead for design and construction of the tower, but
the railroads might have agreed to have SP take the lead. It had substantially more
experience building interlocking towers, and its traffic through Mexia would
greatly exceed the T&BV's, hence SP's greater interest in ensuring that the
tower's design and construction was well-executed. Such arrangement might still have enabled the
T&BV to influence H&TC's design, perhaps accounting for the
architectural differences from
other SP towers.
The recurring operations and maintenance expenses
were split equally between the two railroads since they each
accounted for half of the interlocking functions. It was relatively rare for an
interlocking plant to retain precisely the same function count for decades since
functions were added and subtracted due to changes to connecting tracks and signals. Tower 63's function count never
changed, at least through the final comprehensive list of interlockers published
by RCT in 1931. There was no need for connecting tracks at the tower since the
two railroads interchanged in downtown Mexia.
 |
Construction and approval of Tower 63
proceeded rapidly after RCT's interlocking order was issued on December
14, 1905.
Left:
Waxahachie Daily Light, December 15, 1905; as the second railroad at the crossing, the interlocking at Mexia was to be installed by
the T&BV ("the first named road".) T&BV undoubtedly funded
the effort but it could have negotiated for SP to take the design and
construction lead.
Right:
These two Houston Post articles
(top, March 17, 1906;
bottom, April 28,
1906) reported the progress of Tower 63's construction. On April 17, 1906, the
Waxahachie Daily Light reported the construction complete,
hence it took about ten days for RCT's engineer to
travel to Mexia to inspect and approve the system for operations. |
 |
When exercising Santa Fe trackage rights
between Cleburne and Fort Worth, the T&BV did not stop at any
intermediate points. This was most likely a condition of Santa Fe's grant of
rights, but RCT ruled on December 16, 1907 that
the T&BV's failure to serve the towns along that route violated its state
charter. It ordered the T&BV to begin service to those communities
immediately. The
T&BV did so, but within a year, it began to deemphasize use of the
Santa Fe rights in favor of the main line through Waxahachie and Dallas,
and Rock Island's tracks between Dallas and
Fort Worth.
Right: The
Waxahachie Daily Light of August
11, 1908 speculated that because of grade differences, Yoakum would soon
opt for a Rock Island - Katy - T&BV routing through Dallas and
Waxahachie instead of sending the T&BV's Fort Worth traffic through
Cleburne and Teague. |
 |
 |
Yoakum moved from St. Louis to New York c.1907 but did
not retire from the Frisco. Financially, the relationship between the Frisco and
Rock Island railroads had begun to deteriorate as the expansion plans of Rock
Island's Reid - Moore ownership group were starting to unravel. Yoakum
secretly assembled a group of Midwest businessmen to raise capital for the
Frisco, and on December 1, 1909, he executed a surprise deal to purchase the
entire block of Frisco stock held by Rock Island. Because Reid - Moore was
facing immense public pressure, high debt, and scrutiny from the Interstate
Commerce Commission (ICC) they agreed to sell at a significant loss. Yoakum
restructured Frisco management and proceeded to buy the GCL railroads.
Yoakum retired from the Frisco as it was sinking into a receivership that began
in May, 1913. A year later, the T&BV also went into receivership. It had
maintained a reliable business carrying Frisco and Rock Island traffic between
north Texas and the GCL carriers in Houston, but it was not enough to sustain
the entire railroad. The Teague - Cleburne tracks were not profitable, and there
was very little local traffic along the main line. The only towns of any size at
all -- Waxahachie, Corsicana and Teague -- were small and did not generate the
level of freight commerce and passenger traffic needed to reach profitability on
a consistent basis (due in part to Waxahachie and Corsicana each being served by
two other railroads.) The Federal judge overseeing the T&BV case canceled all of
its trackage rights agreements which devastated its operations. Waxahachie and
Cleburne became its farthest operational endpoints to the north, as was Houston
to the south. Direct service facilitated by trackage rights into Dallas, Fort
Worth and Galveston was no longer available on the T&BV.
In 1915, the
bankruptcy judge allowed the T&BV to sign a trackage rights agreement with SP
for access to Fort Worth over an H&TC branch line that passed through
Waxahachie. The judge also permitted a rights agreement to serve Galveston from
Houston over tracks of the GH&N. Because of Fort Worth's important rail
connections to the north and west, particularly the C&S route to Denver
(operated by the FW&DC in Texas) it was advantageous for the T&BV to seek
Receiver approval to operate direct Fort Worth - Waxahachie - Houston -
Galveston service using SP trackage rights at both ends. Use of the Katy tracks
to Dallas did not resume until the receivership ended.
 |
In 1930, a new
company, the Burlington - Rock Island (B-RI) Railroad, was created to
own and operate the T&BV rail lines out of bankruptcy. The Chicago, Burlington
and Quincy Railroad ("Burlington") had acquired C&S in 1908, hence
B-RI was owned jointly by Burlington and Rock Island. The parent
companies alternated taking the lead in managing
the B-RI over five year intervals; the FW&DC executed Burlington's
responsibilities and the CRI&G handled Rock Island's. According to the
Handbook of
Texas "...the Burlington-Rock Island owned twenty-six
locomotives, 346 freight cars, and nineteen passenger cars..." In
1931, the FW&DC
and Rock Island jointly leased the B-RI tracks north of Teague, creating what
became known as the Joint Texas Division (JTD.) Both railroads wanted
better operational control and flexibility.
Left: The
Fort Worth Press of July 8, 1930
reported that the Texas Attorney General had approved the name change in
the T&BV charter revision that was being advanced by the Texas
Legislature as part of the completion of the T&BV's bankruptcy
proceedings. Only one earlier reference to the name "Burlington - Rock
Island" has been found in Texas newspapers, in the
Houston Post-Dispatch of January
17, 1929. In an article discussing a dinner / dance to be held by the
Houston Traffic Club, guests for "the Burlington - Rock Island and
Trinity and Brazos Valley" were listed, suggesting that at least by the
start of 1929, the B-RI name was being associated with the T&BV. Since
the name was known in early 1929, it seems odd that no other B-RI
references prior to the Fort Worth Press
article have been found. |
Teague appears to have been chosen as the south
endpoint for the JTD lease because B-RI was preparing to engage in a serious
effort to curtail operations between Teague and Cleburne. The superior
north / south route built by the T&BV enabled the B-RI to be successful, but
only by diligently cutting back the route to Cleburne which was not profitable. This resulted in relatively quick abandonments starting with the
30 miles between Hillsboro and Cleburne in 1932. Another 25 miles was abandoned
between Hubbard and Hillsboro in 1935, and the
remaining 23 miles from Hubbard to Mexia was abandoned in 1942. In 1950, the JTD
was expanded to include all of the remaining B-RI tracks: the entire Waxahachie
- Houston main line and the Teague - Mexia branch. This made the B-RI
corporation superfluous but it continued to exist for another fourteen years.
As a result of the initial abandonments
between Hubbard and Cleburne, B-RI traffic through Mexia diminished
substantially, making Tower 63 a prime candidate for a cabin interlocker. These
were used where a busy line (SP) was crossed by a lightly used line (B-RI.) The
Tower 63 interlocking plant was replaced by a cabin
interlocker sometime in the 1930s, which saved money by eliminating tower staffing
expense and lowering
maintenance costs. The downgrade would likely have reduced the
interlocking plant's
function count from twelve to ten, eliminating the distant signals in both
directions on the B-RI line.
Distant signals would not be needed for the B-RI
because after the conversion to a cabin interlocker, trains on the B-RI were always
required to stop at the crossing. A fixed sign was sufficient to remind
approaching B-RI trains to stop. Once stopped, a train crewmember would disembark to set the interlocker
controls to trigger a STOP indication on SP's distant signals. A suitable
delay was implemented by the interlocking plant to ensure that any SP locomotive
approaching at track speed that was already closer than the distant signal would have time
to reach the diamond before encountering a STOP indication on the Home signal.
When the delay expired, the interlocking plant would grant a PROCEED signal to
the B-RI train. After his train had
crossed, the crewmember would reset the signals and return to his train -- e.g.
as in Tom Kline's photo at top of page.
|
Right:
This excerpt from a 1940 T&NO Employee Timetable (ETT)
indicates that Tower 63 had been converted
to a "Cabin Interlocking Plant" and was normally set for unrestricted T&NO
movements. The conversion had occurred earlier, at least by March 14,
1937 when a B-RI ETT listed Mexia as "Protected by Cabin Type Interlocking." The
Tower 63 building remained standing for at least two
more decades, presumably to host the interlocking plant. |
 |
In 1964, Rock Island and Burlington Northern (BN,
successor to the CB&Q) forced the B-RI company into foreclosure as a simple means to dissolve the
B-RI corporate entity. Its
assets were taken over by the parent railroads and they agreed to share maintenance
expenses and unlimited rights to operate over the B-RI tracks. It was clear by
this time, however, that Rock Island could only survive long term by seeking a
merger partner. Union
Pacific (UP) Railroad agreed to be Rock Island's merger partner, but the
potential deal was complicated. Rock Island's financial picture worsened as the
ICC
held hearings for ten years to take testimony
from other railroads opposed to the merger and to consider UP and Rock Island
counterarguments. The merger was approved in 1974, but the enormity of the plan
indicated how radically it would have impacted U.S. railroading. Various
terms and conditions specified by the ICC's Administrative Law Judge were
considered onerous by UP, and it chose not to proceed with the merger.
Rock Island went into bankruptcy on March 17, 1975. The railroad continued to
operate under the supervision of a Receiver, William Gibbons, appointed by the
bankruptcy judge. Attempts were made to reorganize and recapitalize the company,
but no viable recovery plan was ultimately forthcoming. Rock Island still owned
half of the JTD, and in 1976, Gibbons approved abandoning the tracks between
Teague and Mexia. Rock Island suspended all operations
on March 31, 1980. As its assets were liquidated, BN was left as the sole operator of the Waxahachie -
Houston main line through its FW&D subsidiary. In 1996, BN merged with Santa Fe to form
Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) which continues to operate the line. The
original H&TC route through Mexia is now operated by UP which
acquired SP in a merger in 1996.
 |
Left: In May, 2018, a Google
Street View camera caught this remnant of the B-RI on the side of the BNSF rail
bridge over US 190 at North Zulch. The bridge in the background is on what was
originally the right-of-way for the Mexia - Nelleva Cutoff. It now
elevates FM 39 over US 190. Approximately 71 miles of the Cutoff was acquired
by the Texas Highway Department for FM 39 between Iola and the southeast
outskirts of Mexia. Whether the track section at North Zulch required a bridge in
the early days is unknown. Both bridges are present in 1955 aerial
imagery. |
|
Right: South of
Jewett, the T&BV made a lengthy S-curve. When the Cutoff was built, it
made a grade-separated crossing over the T&BV through the center of the
curve. Since both railroads ran side-by-side north and south of the
curve, it appears that the T&BV chose to implement the curve simply for
the purpose of reducing the grade. This Google Street View image from
April, 2021 shows the west-facing view taken from FM 39 -- formerly the
Cutoff -- where BNSF's main line passes beneath the highway. |
 |
Below:
These two images are precisely aligned by geographic coordinates. In the 1962
image ((c)historicaerials.com), Tower 63 is still physically intact (upper right) casting a short shadow to the north. The B-RI still
operated into Mexia from Teague hence the crossing remained in service, though the B-RI
traffic level was miniscule. The 1962 image also shows that SP had a
turntable and roundhouse located 200 yards southwest of the tower, though they
were abandoned by 1962. These were part of the terminal improvements undertaken
in 1913 when H&TC expanded the yard between Tower 63 and Mexia Junction. The 2022 Google Earth image shows that
UP's former SP tracks remain in place, but all
traces of the tower, the B-RI tracks, the turntable and the roundhouse have been
obliterated. The area is now occupied by Eagle Mountain Tree Farm, Inc.
Right: Jim King's photo from c.1998 looks
northwest along FM 39 where it passed beneath the BNSF tracks three
miles northwest of Jewett. The underpass was narrow because when the
Cutoff needed to tunnel through an existing T&BV fill toward Mexia
in 1907,
the resulting underpass was only
wide enough for a single-track railroad.
When the Texas Highway
Department built FM 39 atop the Cutoff, they could either live with the
existing width or fund a rebuild of the B-RI tracks passing overhead. They
made the best of it, but the end result was still too narrow
to meet their standards unless reduced speeds were mandated with plenty
of warning signs deployed. By 2005, the entire underpass had been
rebuilt (below, Google
Street View 2023.) In the 2011-2012 timeframe, FM 39 was rerouted
northwest
of the underpass to curve around the north side of a new mining
operation.
 |
 |
