Texas Railroad History - Tower 186 - Sherman
This
crossing of the Frisco (SLSF) and a Southern Pacific (SP) spur track was located
in south Sherman. In a post to Railspot on 4/11/2018, Steve Goen explained..."The
sole purpose for that connection leading west from the SP wye was interchange
between the MKT and the SP and they crossed the SLSW to do it."
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A switch stand and line of trees along a right-of-way
are all the mark the location of the former Tower 186.
Location of the above photo is just west of the original SLSF
"Frisco" main line through Sherman. Photo is
looking toward the east. Far tree line parallels the second
Frisco main line built east of the original alignment. Very
little evidence remains of this interlocker. However, there
is one abandoned railroad bridge just west of this location that
helps document the existence of the interlocker. (Myron Malone photo) |
Text by: Harry Bilger 1/10/2002:This track from the SP crossing the Frisco at
Tower 186 appears to
be the connection between the SP and MKT. The rail line on indicated
as the MKT line running down Branch St south to Park and then
west to the Cotton Mill (Sherman Manufacturing Co). I never knew
that connection was there, but didn't get down into that part
of town very often. It's pretty rugged in that creek bottom there
with all those woods.
The Cotton Belt connection with the MKT crossed the Frisco up
in town at King Street, where you can still see the gate protecting
the now non-existent crossing. I suspect that the SP used that
connection to the MKT later when the SP and SSW consolidated their
services in Sherman. A Frisco employee timetable from around 1920
(the date of the Sanborn map) should show the crossing and indicate
if it was a gate or tower. My guess would be a manual gate similar
to that at the SSW crossing, only across the Frisco when the connection
was actually being used for a movement.
Text by Tom Greco 1/10/2002
There's pretty scant information about this site in any of
my timetables, but here's what I found:
*The SL-SF&T timetable of May 1, 1947 actually lists this
as "T&NO Crossing" at MP 647.0 (from St.Louis),
and shows the crossing as "interlocked" on the schedule
page. However the special instructions have two paragraphs on
signal indications at the crossing, including this:
"Trains finding dwarf home signal displaying a red light
must stop short of the signal, flagman will go to the crossing
and if no T&NO trains or engines using the crossing, proceed
on hand signal from the flagman at the crossing."
This seems to confirm that by 1947, the crossing was an automatic
interlocking. Incidentally, the crossing was 0.1 mile north of
a station called "Stock Track", which had a 59-car siding.
It's quite conceivable that the interlocker would've also controlled
the siding switches (although I'm operating under the assumption
that this was an SP tower, in which case
they might have wanted nothing to do with Frisco switches!).
*SP timetables list "St.L-SW Ry. Crossing" 1.03 miles
south of Sherman, which was in turn shown as 0.02 miles (let's
be precise here!!) south of the T&P Crossing in Sherman. On
the TopoZone map, this distance puts that "crossing"
real close to where we're talking about. No other information
is given about this crossing, and I'm thinking that this would
be where the SSW comes in on the map below and joins the SP at
the north leg of the wye.
*SSW lists an "H&TC Crossing" and later "H&TC-SLSF&T
Crossing", but this last appears to be two separate places.
In 1929, under the heading "Railroad Crossings at Grade",
the timetable lists the SLSF&T Crossing as being at MP 588.5,
which puts it 0.7 miles south of Sherman station. Among the five
crossings listed, only one is specifically shows as "interlocked",
so I'll assume none of the others (including the SLSF&T) were
interlocked in1929.
But let me list my sources for you, in case you get any other
clues:
SL-SF&T Ry.
TT 35-A of 5/1/47
SL-SF/SL-SF&T
TT 39-B of 7/18/55
St.Louis, Arkansas & Texas Ry. (later SSW)
TT 16 of April 27, 1890
SSW Ry of Texas
Texas Division TT 5 of 1/27/29
8 of 1/5/30
9 of 8/22/43
1 of 12/21/47
H&TC RR RR
TT 10 of March 25, 1897
First Division TT 156 of 1/2/10
177 of 5/21/16
SP
Dallas Division TT 183 of 7/31/21
209 of 10/4/31
Dallas & Austin TT 1 of 12/13/31
34 of 10/12/41
Location Map for Tower 186
Historic Location Map for Tower 186
