Texas Railroad History - Tower 183 - Tyler

A Remote Control System for Lufkin Junction

 
Jody Garner took these photos c.2005 at the Tower 183 crossing in Tyler showing what might have been the last operational railroad gate in Texas (removed shortly thereafter.) This was one of the early rail grade crossings in Texas, dating to the latter 1870s. At the time, it was a crossing of the Tyler Tap Railroad and the International & Great Northern (I&GN) Railroad. The Tyler Tap eventually morphed into the St. Louis Southwestern (SSW, "Cotton Belt") Railway, and in 1925, the I&GN became part of Missouri Pacific (MP.) By the mid 1990s, both rail lines were owned by Union Pacific. Above Left: This view is to the north showing the gate positioned against the former I&GN tracks toward Lindale. The brick columns at left are for a perimeter fence at the Cotton Belt depot which had recently been renovated. An abandoned equipment cabinet sits in the distance at right. Another cabinet near the crossing might have been in use. Above Right: This view looks east along the former Cotton Belt line toward Big Sandy, with the North Beckham overpass visible in the distance. The former Cotton Belt passenger platform laid with bricks is in the foreground, and columns for the depot's perimeter fence are to the right.

While the Houston & Great Northern (H&GN) Railroad was building its main line from Houston to Palestine in 1872, the International Railroad reached Palestine as it built between Longview and Hearne. The two railroads agreed to merge under the name the International & Great Northern (I&GN) Railroad. The I&GN would need a railroad charter from the Legislature, so while waiting for the bill to pass, the two companies adopted a combined management team at a Houston headquarters in December, 1872 to operate both railroads as a single enterprise.

Above: Dallas Daily Herald, April 4, 1873

The management team at Houston kept building while waiting for the new charter. A branch to Mineola via Tyler built by the H&GN in 1873 departed the International's main line at Troup, southwest of Longview, the closest point to Tyler. Construction by the International southwest from Hearne continued, but stopped at Rockdale in January, 1874. The delay in the Legislature's approval of the I&GN charter was due to a major issue over the International's claim for construction subsidy bonds to be issued by the State. Citing unspecified corruption, the Texas Comptroller had refused to countersign and register the bonds despite the State engineer's report that the work covered by the bonds was of high quality and met the requirements of the International's charter. As legal proceedings moved slowly, a lengthy debate raged statewide. Much ink was spilled as to whether the bond issuance was in accordance with state law, or instead constituted a demand by the International for an unconstitutional subsidy. A compromise was eventually found, and the charter bill passed in 1875. Construction out of Rockdale toward Austin resumed a year later.

Above: Galveston Daily News, March 26, 1875

The H&GN branch to Tyler and Mineola was the initial step in reaching Denison where the Missouri, Kansas & Texas (MK&T, "Katy") Railway had opened a new bridge over the Red River. Export commodities from the Plains and Midwest states had begun to move south to Houston and Galveston through an interchange with the Houston & Texas Central (H&TC) Railway at Denison. The I&GN wanted to gain a share of this traffic by offering an alternate route from Denison to Houston via Troup and Palestine.

Prior to the H&GN construction, citizens of Tyler had recognized that their town was likely to be bypassed by the major railroads under construction: the International was 18 miles south and the Texas & Pacific (T&P) Railway was 18 miles north. This led to the chartering of the Tyler Tap Railroad in 1871 to connect with either the T&P or the International. No work was undertaken until after the H&GN had arrived at Tyler in 1873, influencing the Tyler Tap's decision to lay tracks to Big Sandy to connect with the T&P. This was accomplished in 1877, but unfortunately, as a narrow gauge railroad, the Tyler Tap could not interchange cars with the T&P. Instead, trans-loading was accomplished over a parallel siding.

In 1879, new investors came into the ownership group of the Tyler Tap and modified its charter with expansive plans. Among the changes, the railroad was renamed the Texas & St. Louis (T&SL) Railway. In 1880, converting to standard gauge, the T&SL extended the existing tracks southeast from Tyler to Athens and northeast from Big Sandy to Texarkana, with plans to continue across Arkansas toward St. Louis. Right: The T&SL's first ad in the statewide newspaper of record, the Galveston Daily News, ran in the issue of January 21, 1881. It is historically significant because it shows the T&SL claiming the moniker "Cotton Belt Route". While "cotton belt" was a common geographic and geopolitical term for various cotton-producing areas in the South, this is the first known instance of the T&SL using "Cotton Belt Route" as a marketing slogan for the railroad. The public embraced it; "Cotton Belt" would be the nickname of an operational railroad for the next 110 years.

Rail baron Jay Gould had been alarmed by the 1872 announcement of the merger creating the I&GN. Gould had been planning to expand his east coast and Midwest rail empire into Texas, but the I&GN would be a formidable competitor. It already served Houston and Galveston, and it had legitimate plans to reach Austin, San Antonio and Laredo; Gould had no rails in Texas at all. The T&P provided the I&GN with a friendly connection between Longview and Texarkana from which other railroads facilitated direct access to St. Louis, territory controlled by Gould. Gould plotted a lengthy effort to gain control of the I&GN beginning with a takeover of the Katy to be his initial rail presence in Texas.

Gould could not buy his way into control of the Katy; its stock was much too diluted and there were no large blocks for private sale. Instead, his takeover plan involved infiltrating Katy management with his loyalists led by William Bond, the Katy's Second Vice President. Bond orchestrated Gould's election as President of the Katy in December, 1879, giving Gould control of the Red River bridge at Denison, an important element of his plan to gain leverage over the I&GN. With little Katy stock ownership, Gould could best reap the benefits of the Katy's profitability by leasing it to a railroad he controlled, the Missouri Pacific (MP) Railroad based in St. Louis in which he had a large ownership position; this occurred in December, 1880. As a result of lease accounting and operating policies tilted heavily toward MP, its stockholders (particularly Gould) would enjoy the profits of the combined enterprise while Katy stockholders would see their company simply remain afloat -- not losing money but not profitable.

To execute his plan for capturing the I&GN, Gould also needed to control the T&P. Its construction had stalled at Fort Worth, so he made a deal with T&P management to build their line from Fort Worth to El Paso at his expense, with his equity accruing incrementally with each mile completed. When his ownership passed 50% in April, 1881, Gould became T&P President, gaining control over the I&GN's access to Texarkana. Since he also controlled the Katy's Red River bridge, he effectively had boxed-in the I&GN, impacting its traffic to and from the Midwest. I&GN management recognized their predicament and sold out to Gould two months later in a swap for Katy stock. Gould became President of the I&GN and leased it to the Katy for 99 years, allowing the I&GN to continue using its own name (a recognized brand, the largest railroad in Texas at the time.) In December, 1881, the I&GN reached the Mexican border at Laredo, with Gould in control.

In direct competition to MP, the T&SL had expanded rapidly, extending its main line southwest from Athens to Corsicana and Waco in 1881. By 1883, the T&SL was operating between Bird's Point, Missouri on the Mississippi River, and Gatesville, Texas, via Texarkana, Tyler and Waco. This expansion overextended the T&SL, causing it to enter receivership in 1884, though the bankruptcy undoubtedly helped keep it from falling into Gould's hands. In February, 1886, the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas (SLA&T) Railway was created by the bankruptcy judge to become the new Cotton Belt, going against the advice of T&SL President Sam Fordyce who believed there were unsolved operational issues that would inhibit profitability. Within a year, the SLA&T had decided to build new branch lines into north Texas from its main line at Mt. Pleasant to compete with Gould on traffic from Sherman and Fort Worth. Gould knew that the Cotton Belt was on thin ice financially, so he used this to his advantage by offering Fordyce a secret arrangement for the Cotton Belt and MP to cooperate on traffic through Texarkana. Once Fordyce accepted, Gould began to gain financial leverage over the SLA&T with loans and stock purchases. This positioned him to guide the Cotton Belt's reorganization when it became insolvent, as Fordyce had predicted, in 1889. Right: The Fort Worth Daily Gazette of April 3, 1888 welcomed the arrival of the Cotton Belt tracks to Fort Worth in its typical, over-the-top fashion. Perhaps the Cotton Belt had a special fare to Fort Worth for World Dwellers.

In 1880, the newly chartered Kansas & Gulf (K&G) Short Line Railroad proposed to build between Tyler and Sabine Pass to provide a Gulf of Mexico port for east Texas timber products. The company began by acquiring the assets of the defunct Rusk Transportation Co. (RTC) which had built a 17-mile wooden-rail tram between Jacksonville and Rusk in 1875. RTC's charter had been modified to extend its wooden rails north to Tyler and south to Sabine Pass, hence the K&G merely planned to implement, albeit with narrow gauge iron rails, what the RTC had started. Left: The Galveston Daily News of January 28, 1881 reported that the financing of the K&G had been secured. The plan to connect to "Bremond's road" was a reference to the Houston East & West Texas (HE&WT) Railway that was under construction at the time by Texas rail pioneer Paul Bremond. It was a narrow gauge line through east Texas between Houston and Shreveport. The K&G planned to connect at Lufkin, which the HE&WT expected to reach in 1882. The K&G built 29 miles from Tyler to Jacksonville in 1882. Another 43 miles was built south to Lufkin in 1885, partly using the RTC right-of-way. The K&G was sold to the SLA&T in 1887 but remained a separate entity. When the SLA&T went into receivership in 1889, the K&G did also. The SLA&T bankruptcy ended on January 12, 1891 with creation of the St. Louis Southwestern (SSW) Railway (still the Cotton Belt.) A new, independent Tyler Southeastern Railway was chartered to replace the K&G. The Tyler - Lufkin tracks were converted to standard gauge in 1895, and four years later, the Cotton Belt bought the Tyler Southeastern.

To no surprise, the creation of the SSW in 1891 was dominated by Gould, who installed his younger son Edwin as President (and Edwin held that title until his retirement in 1925.) A series of ownership changes in the late 1920s resulted in the Cotton Belt becoming a subsidiary of Southern Pacific (SP) in 1932, but still operated under the SSW corporate name. It was still mostly called the Cotton Belt, and that moniker would finally be retired operationally in 1992 when it became fully merged into SP.

In April, 1888, Katy stockholders were able to summon a quorum and fire Gould for malfeasance. New Katy management immediately sought bankruptcy protection. At the time, Gould was already engaged with legal problems stemming from lawsuits filed months earlier by the Texas Attorney General against the Katy and the I&GN. Katy management asked the bankruptcy court to void the lease to MP, and they eventually succeeded under a ruling by the Texas Supreme Court. When all the legal dust settled by the end of 1891, Gould was able to remain President of both the T&P and the I&GN (and MP) while the Katy returned to being an independent railroad. Gould died in December, 1892, and his son George took over. The Gould family's involvement with MP, the T&P and the I&GN would last another twenty-five years. Left: Railroads Near Tyler c.1910 After the Cotton Belt's acquisition of the Tyler Southeastern line that went south to Lufkin, the only two railroads at Tyler were the SSW and the I&GN. In addition to the aforementioned T&P and MK&T railroads, there were two other major railroads with tracks in the vicinity of Tyler: Texas & New Orleans (T&NO) Railroad --  The T&NO was a subsidiary of SP that became the primary operating railroad for SP lines in Texas and Louisiana. SP subsidiaries were leased to the T&NO in 1927 and fully merged in 1934. SP acquired the SSW in 1932 but chose not to merge it into the T&NO. The T&NO line through Jacksonville was built in 1902 as part of an agreement with the State of Texas to complete a line between Dallas and Beaumont. Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe (GC&SF) Railway -- The GC&SF line into Longview resulted from several east Texas railroads being pieced together by Santa Fe to form a complete line from Beaumont. The final segment was 21 miles built between Center and Gary in 1906 that crossed the HE&WT northeast of Lufkin at Tenaha.

The I&GN went into bankruptcy in 1908 and again in 1914. Finally independent of the Gould family, it emerged in 1922 as a new corporation (the International - Great Northern, "I-GN") and immediately became a target for acquisition because of its vast track network in Texas. MP tried to buy it in 1924 but the sale was nixed by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC.) The ICC had jurisdiction instead of the Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT) because the Federal Transportation Act of 1920 had expanded the ICC's powers over interstate railroads. Not to be deterred, MP executed its fallback strategy by helping to arrange for the New Orleans, Texas & Mexico (NOT&M) Railway to buy the I-GN, simply to keep it out of the hands of competitors. The NOT&M was a collection of railroads that operated between New Orleans and Brownsville under the marketing name Gulf Coast Lines (GCL.) The sale was approved by the ICC in June, 1924, and the ICC then allowed MP to buy the NOT&M on January 1, 1925, acquiring the I-GN and all of the GCL railroads. MP suddenly went from having no rail mileage in Texas to having the most.

With a table dated December 31, 1902, RCT began publishing a comprehensive list of active interlockers in Texas along with associated details, e.g. the tower number, the location, the railroads involved, and the interlocking plant's function count. RCT's effort to introduce interlocker technology into Texas was pursuant to its authority to regulate safety aspects of railroad grade crossings granted under a state law passed in 1901. RCT continued producing an annual interlocker list until a final table dated December 31, 1930 was published. The last entry in that final table was Tower 170 at Conroe ... but RCT did not stop numbering new interlockers (though there weren't as many as in the early years.) RCT would sometimes mention new interlockers in its annual reports, but it never produced a complete list of the numbers above #170 that had been assigned. In 1986-87, William J. Neill researched the interlockers commissioned by RCT beyond 170. The results were published in The Cross Tie, a magazine (of which Neill was Editor) published for employees of SP's San Antonio Division. He determined that RCT had continued issuing new towers numbers through Tower 215 in 1966. This excerpt (right) from The Cross Tie #17 shows Neill's list of Towers 171 through 184, including Tower 183 at Tyler. The original research that Neill conducted to associate Tower 183 with Tyler is undetermined, but so far, no evidence has been found to support the claim that Tower 183 controlled the SSW / I-GN crossing, or that there was any kind of safety system at that crossing that would have been commissioned by RCT. It seems to have had an unremarkable swing gate, nothing more.

Jody Garner in a 2008 email wrote "... All I ever saw at the crossing was a gate and this is dating back to the mid-50's. However, the gate is no longer there, having been removed a couple of years ago. At one time a very substantial amount of interline traffic came off of the Cotton Belt, particularly Arkansas rice which was routed to Freeport. In the 1950's, a lot of butane in Warren tank cars came from somewhere on the Cotton Belt. There was a switch engine stationed in Tyler until about 1990."

Independent SP documentation obtained by Carl Codney gives commissioning dates for Towers 182 and 184 as April, 1936 and December, 1937, respectively. Thus, Tower 183's planning should have supported a commissioning date in that timeframe, though it might have drifted into 1938. Other than gates (which are neither numbered nor commissioned by RCT) no references to any control system for the Tyler crossing have been found in Employee Timetables (ETTs) issued by SSW or MP. Left: A 1940 Special Instructions bulletin issued by the Cotton Belt reported the MP crossing at Tyler as "protected by crossing gate." If Tower 183 provided some kind of protection for this crossing in the 1938 timeframe -- even signals controlled electronically by a gate latch -- shouldn't it have been mentioned in a 1940 SSW ETT?

Left: This excerpt from a 1920 Cotton Belt ETT indicates some kind of train order office at "I. & G. N. Crossing.", presumably a yard office, or inside the Cotton Belt depot. If there was a "tower" there, it was unknown to RCT.

A 1950 Cotton Belt Special Instructions bulletin reproduces the same paragraph as the 1940 bulletin regarding the gate at Tyler. Although a 1920 Cotton Belt ETT (above) refers to occupying "main track to the tower to report for orders" there is no indication that this was an interlocking tower, more likely a yard tower or dispatcher's office, possibly inside the depot (which was at the crossing.) That same ETT does not list the I&GN / SSW diamond among the crossings noted as interlocked. MP ETTs from 1961 and 1971 also list only a gate, and as the photos at top of page show, the gate was still intact in 2005. At least through that timeframe, the railroads never even bothered to install an automatic interlocker. Most likely, the presence of yard tracks and the nearby depot meant that all Cotton Belt trains were operating slowly enough anyway to account for the gate position visually. "When way is seen and known to be clear, trains and engines may proceed over crossing at Restricted Speed without stopping." The Cotton Belt didn't need an interlocker or anything else; the gate was satisfactory for their operations and for MP's, which had less traffic across the diamond.

 Editor's Note: The RCT interlocker archives at DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, should be able to answer the question of the nature and location of Tower 183. But from several visits to DeGolyer in 2007, the notes I took have no references to it. I was collecting as much information on all of the towers as possible and it's possible that I simply overlooked it, although I have notes on many other towers in the same numerical range. The file folders were in numerical order, but in some cases, the folder for a particular tower was empty or not present.

Bill Neill must have found some evidence to indicate that Tower 183 was at Tyler. Having done so, he may not have conducted additional research to determine where in Tyler it was located; the SSW / I&GN crossing was the only one in town. No objective documentation from RCT or any railroad has been found to reference Tower 183 or any kind of safety system at the I-GN / SSW diamond that might have been numbered by RCT. So far, all Internet search results for Tower 183 ultimately trace back to the information provided in The Crosstie #17. If Tower 183 wasn't at the SSW / I-GN crossing, what else might account for RCT's assignment of interlocker #183, assuming that it was in Tyler?

In 1938, the Cotton Belt began a project to relocate its Lufkin Branch connection. The branch switched off of the SSW main line six-tenths of a mile west of the I-GN crossing. The tracks had been located in rural farm land when laid in 1882, but fifty years later, the area was valuable residential real estate despite the presence of the rail line. Neighborhoods with expensive homes had evolved, creating new streets and a dozen grade crossings of the Lufkin Branch, two of which were high-traffic state highways. Grade separation was determined to be infeasible, so the City and the railroad opted to relocate the tracks. The Lufkin Branch switch on the SSW main line was moved 1.5 miles farther west and a new track 1.8 miles long was built from there to connect to the Lufkin Branch about two miles south of the original switch. Those two miles of original Lufkin Branch right-of-way (ROW) were abandoned, and the land was repurposed by the City to benefit the neighborhoods. Right: A news item in the December, 1938 issue of Railway Signaling reported the Cotton Belt's acquisition of a B-30 miniature-lever desktop control panel built by Union Switch & Signal Co. The B-30 was to be used to control "...the switch and signal functions at the relocated Lufkin Branch connection." B-30s were commonly used to control signaling and interlocking systems. By 1928, RCT had established that it was very protective of its authority to approve all interlocking devices, even those that were used by a single railroad for its own purposes with no other railroad involved. The test case was RCT's assertion that it had the authority to review and approve the interlocking plants employed by the Panhandle & Santa Fe Railway to arbitrate the transition on and off the double-track segment Santa Fe had built between Canyon and Pampa. In the context of the Lufkin Branch relocation, the fact that a B-30 control panel was employed -- typically used to control an interlocking plant -- virtually guarantees that this remote control system was numbered and commissioned by RCT as Tower 183.

Right: The same Cotton Belt 1940 Special Instructions bulletin referenced above also describes the procedure for navigating "Lufkin Junction", the name applied to the new switch for the Lufkin Branch off the SSW main line. The procedure included the old "Hidden Crank Trick"...

Above: This map of the relocation project appeared in the May, 1939 issue of Railway Signaling in a story discussing the details of the remote control project for the Lufkin Branch. Right: The story includes this photo of the B-30 control panel. The photo's caption is "The control panel in the dispatcher's office has an illuminated track diagram and two levers."

Right: Prior to the 1938 relocation project, this 1934 aerial image shows the Lufkin Branch curving south off of the SSW main line at the original switch location, about 400 ft. east of the Palace Ave. grade crossing. Far Right: This 1947 aerial image shows the new Lufkin Branch switch off the main line farther west. The switch is about a hundred yards west of the S. Lyons Ave. grade crossing. To the south, the track immediately crosses Bellwood Rd. which parallels the main line. both images ((c) historicaerials.com)

Left: The Lufkin Branch relocation project required construction of 1.8 miles of track between Lufkin Junction and the reconnection point. About 1.3 miles of that track remains intact terminating at this trans-load facility for aggregates near the intersection of Earl Campbell Parkway and Old Noonday Road. Southeast across Earl Campbell Pkwy., the 1938 ROW is occupied by Old Noonday Rd. for a quarter mile down to Frankston Hwy. Old Noonday Rd. terminates there, but the ROW continues across the highway, curving southwest for a quarter mile to join the original (1882) ROW to Lufkin. The entire Lufkin Branch was abandoned in sections beginning in the early 1980s. The tracks at Tyler were abandoned c.1987. (Google Street View, February, 2023)

Left: If there was any doubt as to whether Tower 183 controlled Lufkin Jct., the presence of a traditional concrete style interlocker cabin at the switch should be persuasive. This style has been used extensively in Texas, so much so that it would not be surprising to find that it was specified by RCT. There are many other towers with the same concrete cabin. The newer style cabin to the left has the same control point ("CP") sign as the concrete cabin, presumably as its replacement. This Google Street View image is dated January, 2023. Street View history shows that the new cabin was installed between April, 2013 and May, 2021. Below: The remnant of the Lufkin Branch curves across Bellwood and immediately encounters a Derail sign. The yellow derail device prevents a runaway aggregates car from rolling out onto the main line. The sign reminds locomotives that the derail must be deactivated. (Google Street View, Jan. 2023)

In 1956, MP ended a lengthy bankruptcy and merged its various subsidiaries into a consolidated MP corporation. Along with several others, the I-GN was fully merged and ceased to exist. Although MP had owned a majority of T&P stock since the 1930s, the T&P was not a subsidiary; MP had never exercised management control. Instead, the two railroads collaborated closely on operations by coordinating schedules and sharing yards and other resources.

In 1968, MP abandoned eleven miles of former I-GN track between Mineola and Lindale, serving Lindale solely from Tyler. In 1979, MP abandoned another 2.7 miles south from Lindale followed by another 3.2 miles in 1984. Today, the tracks are physically intact nearly to Swan, but they are out of service, completely overgrown to the point that it is not worth scrapping them. If they are used at all north of the SSW crossing, it would only be for railcar storage (and not very many of them until they cut down the trees that have grown up between the rails!) South of the crossing, the tracks are in place to just beyond Main St. in Whitehouse, but Google Street View imagery from 2023 shows that they are out of service on the southeast side of Tyler beyond R. L. Lilly Rd. where they are marked with a red board. Beyond that point, the tracks are completely overgrown. Satellite imagery suggests that a nearby customer still has service. Jody Garner's 2008 email noted that "The American Standard air conditioning plant receives tank cars of Freon." ... and this appears to now be a Trane plant, which seems appropriate!

In 1976, MP acquired the remaining shares of T&P stock and took executive control, merging it into MP and retiring the T&P name. In 1982, Union Pacific (UP) acquired MP, but MP continued to operate under its own name. In 1988, UP bought the Katy and merged it into MP, reuniting the two railroads a century after the Texas courts had broken MP's lease. The Katy had survived as an independent railroad all of that time, but another receivership was looming and UP wanted the Katy's tracks, many of which were complementary to those of MP. The Cotton Belt became fully merged into SP in 1992, and soon thereafter, UP and SP began discussing a merger. The merger was consummated in 1996 with UP as the surviving corporation. In 1997, UP fully merged SP and MP, and began operating exclusively under the UP name.

Above: This Google Street View image from June, 2019 faces north along the former I-GN. The gate, its mounts, two poles and the nearby cabinet have all been removed since the 2005 photos (the distant cabinet remains standing at far right.) Note the proximity of the depot building to the diamond -- this might be the closest such positioning in Texas. Below: Also from June, 2019, this Google Street View facing east from N. Spring Ave. shows that one connecting track remains in place in the northwest quadrant. This appears to be the only quadrant that has ever had a connecting track.

 
Last Revised: 2/12/2026 JGK - Contact the Texas Interlocking Towers Page.