Panhandle & Santa Fe Interlocker at Pampa
Above: John W Barriger III
took this photo from the rear of his business car in the early 1940s as his
train proceeded northbound on Panhandle & Santa Fe tracks through Pampa. By
this time, the
cabin at far left may have housed some automated electronics for the Tower 136
interlocker, with manual override controls located in the depot.
Pampa was named by the foreman of the White Deer Land Co.
(for its resemblance
to the pampas he had seen in Argentina) when when the area was selected for a
station in 1887 by the Southern Kansas
Railway of Texas. The railroad had been chartered in Texas a year earlier by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
to be a Texas-based component of the Southern Kansas Railway to comply with
Texas' railroad ownership laws. The Southern Kansas had built
southwest from Kansas through Indian Territory (Oklahoma) into the Texas Panhandle.
Soon after building through Pampa, the new
town of Panhandle City was established in 1888 and construction stopped there.
To bridge a 15-mile gap between Washburn, a stop on
the Fort Worth & Denver City (FW&DC) Railway, and Panhandle City, the Panhandle
Railway was founded and built by Fort Worth investors.
Santa Fe was able
to reach Amarillo using trackage rights on the
FW&DC via Washburn. In 1899, it connected there with the Pecos & Northern Texas
(P&NT) Railway which continued
southwest through Canyon into eastern New Mexico.
Santa Fe acquired the P&NT in 1901 and instigated a long term project to improve
its route to the west coast with construction of the Belen Cutoff across eastern New Mexico.
Compared to its existing main line through northeastern New Mexico and
southeastern Colorado, the Belen Cutoff would provide Santa Fe with a
faster, lower gradient route between Belen, New Mexico and Wichita, Kansas via
Canyon, Amarillo, Panhandle City, Pampa and Canadian. Santa Fe built its own
line from Panhandle City into Amarillo in 1908 and abandoned the Panhandle
Railway tracks to Washburn which it had acquired in 1900. All of
Santa Fe's properties in this region of Texas were ultimately consolidated under
the Panhandle & Santa Fe (P&SF) Railway in 1914.
Pampa grew as the county seat of Gray County, becoming a major farming center
for the vast plains of the Texas Panhandle. Oil was discovered in the area, and
this led other railroads to become interested in serving Pampa. In 1927, the
Clinton-Oklahoma-Western (COW) Railway was chartered to build due west into
Pampa from Oklahoma. Santa Fe acquired the railroad while it was still under
construction and completed the line in 1929, entering at the northeast edge of
Pampa and paralleling the Santa Fe main line into the yards. In 1929, the Fort
Worth & Denver Northern (FW&DN) Railroad was chartered to build to Pampa from
the FW&DC main line at Childress. The route would go due
north to Shamrock and then west to Pampa through oil rich areas. This 110-mile
line was built in 1932, becoming the last, newly constructed continuous rail right-of-way
of more than 100 miles ever built in Texas.
Although the arrival of the FW&DN into Pampa might have motivated the
establishment of an interlocker, the Tower 136 interlocker was actually
commissioned before either the COW or the FW&DN reached Pampa. Railroad
Commission of Texas (RCT) records list a commissioning date of 8 May 1928 at
"P&SF Yards". As explained by the establishment of
Tower 135 a few months earlier in Canyon, this was an identical situation
where P&SF was directed to seek RCT approval for their interlocking system, even
though no other railroad was involved. Like the situation at Canyon, the main
purpose of the plant at Pampa was to interlock the transition between single
track and double track. Santa Fe had laid a second main line between Canyon and
Pampa in the mid 1920s to improve traffic flow through Amarillo, the need
largely resulting from the development of significant oil and gas fields in the
Panhandle.
The P&SF main line through Pampa survives as a major route for Burlington
Northern Santa Fe (BNSF). The FW&DC line into Pampa was abandoned in 1970. The
COW branch survived a bit longer, into the early 1980s.
Map of Pampa
Above: According to notes in the
Tower 136 file at DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, the
interlocker was an electronic plant located at the "east end of double track"
in the P&SF yards northeast of downtown, controlled by a "table type interlocking
machine in depot." Although a connection with the FW&DC existed, it is unlikely that it was
ever a major source of traffic exchange. The blue spur that ends near US 60
was the FW&DC passenger station lead.
Above: The brick
FW&DC passenger depot has survived at what appears to be its original location
along the passenger lead. The FW&DC dropped "City" from its name
in 1954, so it was
simply a FW&D depot at the time service ended. Below: The former P&SF passenger depot remains open, most likely used as an
office since passenger services ceased. The busy BNSF main line does not
carry any regularly scheduled Amtrak service.
