Above Left: Tower 77, undated photo (Dennis Hogan collection) Above Right: This undated photo of Tower 77 taken by John B. Charles appeared in issue #17 of Crosstie, a magazine for the San Antonio Division of Southern Pacific published in 1987.
Above Left: Tower 77, undated photo (Dennis Hogan
collection) Above Right: This
undated photo of Tower 77 taken by John B. Charles appeared in issue #17 of
Crosstie, a magazine for the San Antonio
Division of Southern Pacific published in 1987.
In the early 1880s, rail
baron Jay Gould became President of both the Missouri, Kansas & Texas (MK&T,
"Katy") Railway and the Texas & Pacific (T&P) Railway. The two railroads had
built into Denison and Sherman, respectively, and both shared the goal of
building a line to Fort Worth. Gould directed the T&P to build
from Sherman to Fort Worth via Whitesboro, 17 miles west of Sherman. The Katy
had a branch line from Denison to Gainesville that
passed through Whitesboro, hence a T&P / Katy connection could be established
there to facilitate Katy access to Fort Worth using the T&P's tracks. Gould had
his railroads establish
an unlimited
rights agreement to share the tracks to Fort Worth, effectively creating a new main line
for the Katy. The Whitesboro - Fort
Worth segment became known as the Joint Track for the next hundred
years, and the railroads shared its maintenance expenses.
South of
Whitesboro, the Joint Track passed through the town of Denton which
Gould saw as a connecting point for Katy service to
Dallas (the T&P already served Dallas with its main east / west line from
Texarkana via Marshall.) Gould had the T&P buy the
bankrupt Dallas & Wichita (D&W) Railway and extend it seventeen miles from
Carrolton to Denton. The D&W had been an effort by Dallas investors to build a
rail line to serve mineral rich areas near the Red River. Construction from
Dallas had begun in 1871 but only twenty miles had been completed
by 1878. That year, the D&W formally platted the town of Carrollton, a name the area
had adopted decades earlier because many settlers were from Carrollton,
Illinois. The T&P sold the completed Dallas - Denton line
to the Katy in December, 1881, giving the Katy its own route between Denison and
Dallas via Whitesboro and Denton. To extend his St. Louis-based Missouri Pacific
(MP) enterprise into Texas via gateways at Texarkana and Denison, Gould leased
both the T&P and the Katy to MP.
In February, 1886, the St. Louis,
Arkansas & Texas (SLA&T) Railway was created by the judge overseeing the
bankruptcy of the Texas & St. Louis (T&SL, "Cotton Belt") Railway which owned a
single main line between Bird's Point, Missouri and Gatesville, Texas via
Texarkana. The judge went against the advice of T&SL President Sam Fordyce who
believed there were operational issues that would inhibit profitability. Despite
Fordyce's concerns, the receivership ended with the SLA&T becoming the new
Cotton Belt. In 1887, the SLA&T began building a branch line west from Mt.
Pleasant, intending to compete with Gould on eastern and Midwest traffic to Fort
Worth. Fifty-seven miles west at Commerce, the line split into two branches: one
to Sherman via Whitewright (much of the
right-of-way is now Texas Highway 11) and one to Fort Worth. The Fort Worth
branch routed via Greenville and
Plano, passed north of
Dallas (where a spur was
later built into downtown), and continued west through
Carrollton where it crossed the Katy. Beyond
Carrollton, it turned southwest to Fort Worth,
crossing the Joint Track at the future site of
Tower 18. With the expense of maintaining these lengthy branch lines coupled
with vigorous competition by Gould, the SLA&T's finances began to sink. Fordyce
accepted a secret offer from Gould in 1888 to have the Cotton Belt cooperate
with MP on traffic through Texarkana. Through loans and stock
purchases, Gould gained financial leverage over the SLA&T, positioning him to
guide its reorganization when it became insolvent in 1889. The new company
created in 1891 was called the St. Louis Southwestern Railway (SLSW or SSW, but
mostly just "Cotton Belt" which Gould had wanted as the official name.) It was
headed by Gould's son Edwin.
The third railroad into Carrollton resulted
from the efforts of native Texan B. F. Yoakum to expand his rail empire into north
Texas. Yoakum had begun his executive career in 1887, rising rapidly into
management of the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railway in
San Antonio. By April,
1893, he had relocated to Galveston, becoming Vice President and General Manager of the Gulf, Colorado
& Santa Fe Railway, a subsidiary of the much larger Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe
(AT&SF, "Santa Fe") Railway. At that time, Santa Fe owned a subsidiary, the St.
Louis & San Francisco ("Frisco") Railway, which operated complementary rail
lines in the Midwest, particularly Missouri. The Panic of 1893 put both
railroads into receivership, and when they emerged a few years later, the Frisco
was independent, no longer owned by Santa Fe. In 1897 at age 38, Yoakum was
hired to be the Vice President and General Manager of the Frisco based in St.
Louis. Yoakum's knowledge of the Texas market led him to project the Frisco as a
major player in rail service between the Midwest and Galveston, and he began
efforts to build additional lines from Oklahoma into north Texas. The Frisco had
already built into Paris in 1888, and by sharing
the Katy's Red River bridge, it built into Denison in 1901 (under the charter of
the St. Louis, San Francisco & Texas Railway), continuing south to Sherman. New
Frisco lines into Vernon and
Quanah would soon follow. With Fort Worth as his
goal, Yoakum chartered the Red River, Texas & Southern (RRT&S) Railroad to build
southwest from Sherman. Construction reached Carrollton in 1902 and from there,
Yoakum negotiated an agreement to use the Cotton Belt tracks to Fort
Worth. The RRT&S was formally merged into the Frisco in 1904.
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For several years, Yoakum had been
working closely with the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway as it
pondered a merger with the Frisco. Yoakum eventually took on the role of
CEO for Rock Island but the railroads never merged. In 1893, long before
Yoakum's involvement, Rock Island had formed a Texas subsidiary, the
Chicago, Rock Island & Gulf, to build south into Fort
Worth. Tired of handing over his Houston /
Galveston traffic to Southern Pacific at Fort Worth, Yoakum directed
Rock Island to build tracks from Fort Worth to Dallas as an initial step toward a
main line to Galveston. At Irving, the tracks passed within eleven miles of Carrollton,
so Yoakum had Rock Island build
north from Irving to Carrollton in 1908.
The end result was three railroads crossing at grade in Carrollton -- the Katy, the Cotton Belt and the
Frisco / Rock Island -- motivating the establishment of the Tower 77
interlocker. The Frisco and Rock Island lines made a
direct connection at Carrollton, giving Frisco trains access
to both Dallas and Fort Worth via Irving and allowing Yoakum to
relinquish the Cotton Belt trackage rights the Frisco had been using to
reach Fort Worth. Left: The Fort Worth Record & Register of July 30, 1908 reported on the plans to build an interlocking plant at Carrollton. |
The Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT) authorized Tower 77 to commence operations on December 7, 1908 with a 23-function electrical interlocking plant. Although the Frisco and Rock Island tracks connected seamlessly as a single railroad at Carrollton, it was Rock Island that actually owned the tracks at the tower and thus, Rock Island was listed by RCT as the official participant in the tower's recurring expense sharing, along with the Katy and the Cotton Belt. The Fort Worth Record & Register article cited above asserts that "The Rock Island is making the arrangements for the work and expects to begin construction..." which would be the normal arrangement, i.e. Rock Island was the last railroad to reach the crossing so it stood to bear the entire capital cost of the tower. Normally, the railroad that designed and built the tower also took responsibility for staffing its operations and maintenance. Yet in 1916, RCT identified the Katy as the railroad tasked with staffing and maintaining the tower. Whether it had always been that way is undetermined. RCT records show the function count for Tower 77's interlocking plant varying over time, jumping up to a high of 39 functions in 1916 and falling to a low of 21 functions in 1923 before settling at 28 functions in 1926. It would retain that value through the end of 1930 after which RCT no longer published the data.
Right: The
Carrollton Chronicle of August 3, 1923 reported that Tower 77
had been completely destroyed by fire the prior Sunday afternoon, July
29. The fire also destroyed the Union Depot that had been built to serve
all three railroads at Carrollton. It was apparently a massive fire, its
flaming debris able to ignite the tower which was located across the
tracks from the depot. Editorials quickly followed calling for a "modern
brick depot" like those being built "...at several of the towns
nearby..." A
Carrollton Chronicle article dated September 14, 1923
reported that work on the new depot would begin before the end of
September, and that it would be "...brick, modern and up to date...a
credit to the town." Left:
The interlocking tower was also rebuilt, per the
Carrollton Chronicle, September 5, 1924. |
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Above: This image of Tower 77 was captured from a video
compilation of 8 and 16 mm. movies taken by H. K. Vollrath in the first half of
the 1950s. The movies were transferred to a VHS tape and made available on
YouTube
by Neil Dahl (hat tip, Jimmy Barlow.)
Below Left:
The three lines crossed close to one another, and the Carrollton depot sat
immediately southwest of the Cotton Belt / Katy diamond. The equipment cabinets
occupy the site where the tower stood. (Jim King photo, 2001)
Below Right: The depot was
refurbished and relocated 300 ft. northeast as part of a redesign of the area to
support the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) line through Carrollton. From this
view, the tower sat between the block light in the distance at far right and the tracks behind it. (Google
Street View, Sept. 2019)
The City of Carrollton has placed a historical marker on the west side of the depot that reads...
Carrollton, Texas Designated Historic Landmark
The Carrollton Crossing
In 1878 the Dallas - Wichita Railroad came to Carrollton
and by 1879 the Katy Railroad owned the
line. By 1908 there were three railroads using Carrollton as a way station. The Cotton
Belt and
Katy provided passenger service and maintained a depot
while the Frisco railroad only provided
freight service. Prior
to the 1940's, all significant commence was by rail. Access to
the railroads
enabled Carrollton to grow and prosper.
Above: Looking northeast, the
former Katy crossings of the Cotton Belt (SSW) and Rock Island remain intact
though neither railroad is still around. The Katy / Cotton Belt depot was in the
southeast quadrant of the Katy / Cotton Belt diamond, with Tower 77 located
north across the Cotton Belt tracks. The Katy tracks are operated by the Dallas,
Garland and Northeastern (DGNO) Railroad, extending only a few miles farther
north to serve industry spurs. DGNO also operates the Cotton Belt tracks east
from Carrollton into north Dallas, but since January, 2021, this line has been
mostly out of service. In 2019, DART initiated a
project to convert this right-of-way into the light rail Silver Line between
Plano and DFW Airport. Carrollton is already served by the DART Green Line which
follows the Katy right-of-way. To the west, the Fort Worth & Western Railroad
operates the Cotton Belt tracks from Carrollton to Ft. Worth. The Frisco tracks
through Carrollton are operated by its successor railroad, Burlington Northern
Santa Fe (BNSF). Below: This
simulated 3-D view of Carrollton crossing shows all three diamonds and the
relocated depot (purple circle.)
Below Left:
Equipment cabinets sit in place of Tower 77 across from the depot (prior to its
relocation) in this 2009 image. The massive changes attributable to DART had not
yet occurred in Carrollton. (Microsoft Virtual Earth)
Below Right: Tower 77 casts a narrow and lengthy shadow
from the west sun in this 1958 image ((c) historicaerials.com). The next
available image is ten years later, by which time Tower 77 was gone. Frisco
timetables show that at least by 1963, the interlocking had been converted to an
automatic plant which implies that the tower had been removed.
Above: This Google Street View from February, 2024 faces
east showing the massive construction activity underway at the former site of
Tower 77. The active BNSF (ex-Frisco / Rock Island) tracks cross diagonally in
the foreground, but the diamond with the former Cotton Belt tracks (straight
ahead) has been removed. Below:
In the opposite direction, the former Katy tracks pass horizontally across the
image, crossing the BNSF tracks and a very short
section of former Cotton Belt tracks beneath the overhead DART bridge. Farther
west, the former Cotton Belt tracks remain intact from Fort Worth via Grapevine
to provide access to a low-rise industrial area in Carrollton served with
numerous tracks.
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Right: This 1938 oil on masonite painting by
Florence McClung is titled "Carrollton Station and Switch Tower". This
image, from the Portal to Texas History at the University of North
Texas, is from a 1996 auction catalog generated by the
David Dike Fine Art Gallery. McClung was a well-known Texas painter based in Dallas where she had lived since her family arrived there in 1899 when she was five years old. Known mostly for painting rural scenes and western landscapes, she also painted a few urban scenes around Dallas. McClung died in 1992 at age 97. |
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