Above: a locomotive crossing the diamond eastbound on the T&P, with interlocker electronics cabin at left (undated Chuck Harris photo)
Below: c.1900 view of the Big Sandy depot, long before the interlocker was established (Chino Chapa collection)
A Crossing of the Texas & Pacific Railway and the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad
Above: a
locomotive crossing the diamond eastbound on the T&P, with interlocker
electronics cabin at left (undated Chuck Harris photo)
Below: c.1900 view of the Big
Sandy depot, long before the interlocker was established (Chino Chapa
collection)
In 1873, the Texas & Pacific (T&P) Railway built west across northeast Texas
from Marshall to Dallas. A few years later, the Tyler Tap Railroad was organized
to "tap" the T&P main line at a location near Big Sandy Creek. This would
provide the citizens of Tyler with rail service over a
21-mile narrow gauge line. Because the lines were of different gauge, there was
no direct connection. Instead, the Tyler Tap paralleled a T&P siding for a
quarter of a mile to facilitate offloading cargo between the two
railroads. In 1880, under new ownership and renamed the Texas & St. Louis (T&SL)
Railway, the line was extended north across the T&P to Texarkana via Mount Pleasant,
a distance of 107 miles. Unable to make favorable connections at Texarkana, the T&SL continued building
northeast
into Arkansas in 1882 and 1883.
In 1886, the T&SL was sold at
foreclosure to the newly formed St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas (SLA&T) Railway
which was chartered for the purpose of acquiring the T&SL. The SLA&T
immediately converted the tracks to standard gauge and established rail
connections with the T&P at Big Sandy Switch. But the SLA&T soon
suffered the same financial difficulties that had beset the T&SL. It was sold at foreclosure in January,
1891 to the newly chartered St. Louis Southwestern (SSW) Railway. Unlike its two
predecessors, the SSW was able to operate successfully as it expanded into east,
north and central Texas. Over the years, it became more commonly known
as the "Cotton Belt", a moniker they adopted on their locomotives and rolling
stock. In 1932, Southern Pacific (SP) gained control of the SSW but continued to
operate it as a separate company until 1994.
Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT) records
state that a 20-function electric interlocker, Tower 137, was commissioned at
Big Sandy on August 14, 1928. Since a union depot
had long existed at the crossing, it is likely that
the interlocker controls were located there in lieu of a manned tower. Today, both
lines are operated by Union Pacific (UP) and continue to see significant traffic. A
Virtual Railfan camera system shows
live video of the Big
Sandy crossing.
Above: Although not involved
at Big Sandy, Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad records from their Chief Engineer's
office contained this 1915 track chart of Big Sandy (courtesy, Ed Chambers).
This was more than a decade prior to the establishment of the Tower 137
interlocker.
Annotated Google Earth Image, Big Sandy
Above: Much has changed in Big Sandy over the past century. This Google Earth image from
April, 2019 has been annotated to explain the track topology and mark the location
of the former Union Station. The station (yellow rectangle) served both
railroads, hence it was inevitably near the Tower 137 diamond (red circle). The
original 1928 interlocker controls were in the station, but they were long gone
by the time the station was razed (1958-1961 timeframe), having been replaced by
automation and remote control. The 1928 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Big Sandy
has some dimension notes from which the station size can be calculated as
approximately 20 ft. by 70 ft. including its outer platforms. Its south edge was
20 ft. from the T&P main line (blue arrows); as a result, the original
interchange track (yellow dashed line) between the T&P and the Cotton Belt
passed north of the station.
As of 2020 (and likely for many years prior), two switches have defined the
endpoints of a 100-yard segment of main line track
(blue oval) immediately west of the Tyler St. grade crossing. The west switch is where the interchange track (yellow
arrow) departs the former T&P main line to transition to the former Cotton
Belt tracks. The east switch is for a siding (orange
arrows) that extends 7,500 ft. to the west. The former Cotton Belt main line (pink
arrows) also has a siding (green arrows) accessed by a switch (purple arrow)
located 750
ft. west of the diamond. A crossover track (pink oval) provides a connection
between the two sidings. As of 2020, this crossover track is manually
switched and has derails in place. It could be (but is not, apparently) used to facilitate the occasional
westbound-to-southbound movements that occur at Big Sandy. Instead, those
movements are accomplished by bringing the rear of the westbound train past the
interchange switch, backing up onto the interchange track until the lead
locomotive reaches the former Cotton Belt main, and then pulling forward on the
main to proceed south to Tyler, all of which can be accomplished using remote
controlled switches. At various times (but not continuously) dating from the
1915 track chart through 1996 aerial imagery, there has been a connecting track
(pink dashed line) at the west end of Big Sandy between the two sidings. This
track does not appear on 2004 or later aerial imagery.
The former T&P
line is now UP's Mineola Subdivision. The former Cotton Belt line is now UP's
Pine Bluff Subdivision north of the diamond and its Corsicana Subdivision south
of the diamond. As the vast majority of movements on the Cotton Belt come south
on the Pine Bluff Subdivision, there is a crew change hut a short distance north
of the Pearl St. grade
crossing (at far right) where most (but not all) southbound trains stop. From there, trains continue onto
the Corsicana Subdivision or take the interchange track to go west onto the
Mineola Subdivision.
Below:
This annotated composite image from 1955 ((c)historicaerials.com) shows the
passenger station (yellow rectangle) and an interchange yard (pink rectangle).
By this time, the original interchange track north of the station had been
removed. The passenger station does not appear on the 1961 USGS Topographic Map for Big Sandy.
Instead, a new interchange track through the station's
former site is in place, i.e. equivalent to (and perhaps identical to) the
one that exists today. At least by 1996 (the next historic aerial after 1957),
the interchange yard had been removed, replaced by a connecting track between
the two sidings at the west end of the former yard (pink dashed line above.) By 2004 (the next historic
aerial after 1996), that connecting track had been removed, perhaps because it
duplicated the facility for southbound-to-westbound (or eastbound-to-northbound)
movements provided by the interchange track north of the diamond. Instead, a new
interchange track between the two sidings had been installed (in the "opposite"
direction), apparently the same one that exists
today (pink oval above.) The lake that is barely visible north of the former T&P tracks
at far left is Big Sandy Lake, constructed by the T&P to provide water for steam
locomotives.
 |
Left: The 1928 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Big Sandy details the Union Station as a "R R Station" with an interior north/south width of 14 ft. The notation at bottom appears to read "20 to MAIN LINE TEXAS & PACIFIC RR", presumably noting that the platform was 20 ft. from the T&P main line tracks. The various other notations on this image have not been deciphered. Based on this drawing, the station was approximately 20 ft. by 70 ft. including the exterior platform. |
Google Street Views of Big Sandy, September
2013
Above Left: This view to the
west on the Mineola Subdivision from the Tyler St. grade crossing shows the
siding switch in the foreground. The Pine Bluff Subdivision connecting track
comes in at right and merges with the main line approximately 100 yards west of
the siding switch. Above Right:
This view from the Tyler St. grade crossing is to the northeast, with the acute
angle diamond in the foreground and the connecting track to the left. The
Mineola Subdivision crosses the diamond left to right; the Corsicana/Pine Bluff
Subdivisions cross right to left. An
interlocker equipment cabinet (of ancient vintage) sits to the right of the
diamond.
Below Left:
The five tracks visible (from nearest to farthest) are the Corsicana Subdivision
main, the Corsicana Subdivision siding, the siding interchange track, the
Mineola Subdivision siding, and the Mineola Subdivision main line.
Below Right: With a southbound train approaching, this view is
to the northeast along the Pine Bluff Subdivision showing the crew change
facility. The switch in the foreground is for the connector to the Mineola
Subdivision.
Tower 137 Diamond
Above: Looking south toward an
interlocker equipment cabinet, the crossing diamond at Big Sandy is almost invisible due
to
the acute angle at which the two lines cross. This is due to the Tyler Tap
being a narrow gauge line when
originally constructed; freight was offloaded between rail cars on parallel
tracks since the cars could
not be interchanged. The silver cabinet sits a few yards south and east of
the site of the former Union Station. (Jim King photo, c.2005)
Above: Having built Big Sandy
Lake to provide a water source, T&P built a massive water tank trackside less
than a half mile from the lake. (Stanley Fisk photo, Sept. 2020)
