A Crossing of the Fort Worth & Denver South Plains Railway and the Panhandle & Northern Texas Railway
Tower 141 was a crossing of the Ft. Worth and Denver South
Plains
(FW&DSP) Railway and the Pecos and Northern Texas (P&NT) Railway on the south
side of Lubbock.
The P&NT had been founded in 1899 to build between Amarillo
and Farwell, and was then acquired by Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in
1901. Under the P&NT charter, numerous additional Santa Fe lines were built in
the
Panhandle region. Ultimately, the P&NT built a 203-mile main line connecting
Santa Fe lines in the Panhandle with Santa Fe lines in the central and eastern
parts of Texas. This
line was completed in 1911 between Lubbock and Coleman, passing through Slayton
and near Sweetwater. The P&NT was merged with Santa Fe's Panhandle and
Santa Fe subsidiary in 1948.
In 1928, the Ft. Worth and Denver City (FW&DC)
completed a branch line between Silverton and Lubbock under the charter of the
FW&DSP
which had embarked on a strategy
of gaining access to agricultural business in the South Plains area. They had
previously
built a branch line under this same charter from the
FW&DC main line at Estelline
to Quitaque, and this line was extended to Dimmitt in 1928. The FW&DSP line into
Lubbock crossed the P&NT at Tower 141, which was commissioned as a 7-function
automatic interlocker and authorized for service on February 12, 1931. A letter
in the archives of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center (HMRC) from Santa
Fe to the Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT) dated February 13, 1931 states that the interlocker "...began
service February 13, 1931 at 10:00 am, Train 93 being the first through the
plant which was working entirely satisfactory." (special
thanks to Stephen Hesse for his research at HMRC)
Tower 141 was a
significant interlocker in Texas railroad history because it was the first
automatic interlocker installed in Texas. RCT jointly authorized automatic
interlockers for two FW&DSP crossings of the P&NT, one in Lubbock and one in
Plainview. The Lubbock interlocker was installed first, and got the lower tower
number. The rationale for automatic interlockers and the process of gaining
Commission approval is presented in more detail in the discussion of the Plainview
interlocker (Tower 142.)
Below:
An overpass on M. L. K. Jr. Boulevard now passes over the former Tower 141
crossing. The Santa Fe main line remains intact and runs diagonally across the
image from the top edge at upper left (toward the New Mexico border at Farwell)
to the bottom edge at lower right (toward Slaton and Sweetwater.) The former
FW&DSP runs diagonally from the upper left edge to the lower right edge.
Originally, the terminus of the FW&DSP in Lubbock was just over a mile northwest
of the crossing - those tracks remain in place today serving industries.
Southeast of the crossing, the FW&DSP immediately curved back to the northeast
and proceeded to Silverton. Today, the curve remains in place but the tracks
only serve industries in the vicinity and do not extend out of Lubbock. Instead
of a diamond, the crossing was removed and the former FW&DSP tracks on either
side feed into the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) main line and/or
yard tracks. BNSF is the successor to both railroads.
Below: Joe McMillan took this photo of a southbound Santa Fe train
crossing at Tower 141 on April 11, 1964.