A Crossing of the Texas & New Orleans Railroad and the Missouri Pacific Railroad
A few years after the Civil War ended, the Houston and Texas
Central (H&TC) Railroad resumed its northward construction toward the Red River,
remaining east of the Brazos River, but passing close to it in Navasota, Bryan
and Hearne. The citizens of Waco saw railroad connections as a key to economic
growth for the Brazos valley agricultural region, chartering the Waco Tap
Railroad in 1866 to "tap" the H&TC line to the southeast. The name was changed
to the Waco & Northwestern (W&NW) Railroad in 1870 as construction proceeded
slowly. By 1871, the grade extended only 24 miles to the town of Marlin. To
complete the line, an agreement was reached whereby the H&TC would finish the
construction, building from their main line at Bremond to Marlin, and then
completing the construction on the existing grade into Waco. The completed line
entered Waco in September, 1872 and the branch was sold to H&TC five months later. Marlin grew rapidly as a result of the railroad, tripling in
population to 1,500 within a decade. In 1899, a second railroad
began building northward up the Brazos valley, passing through
Marlin en route to Waco. The Calvert, Waco and Brazos Valley Railroad
was originally chartered as an extension of the International
& Great Northern (I-GN) Railroad, but was eventually acquired by
the I-GN which completed the entire route from Spring to Ft. Worth
in 1902. Because of population growth, obtaining a right-of-way
for the I-GN through Marlin required running the tracks through downtown
along Ward St. For the right-of-way between Marlin and Waco, H&TC already
occupied the optimum route, so I-GN chose to take a circuitous path from Marlin north to Mart and then west to Waco,
a substantially less direct route. This
required crossing the H&TC line at grade in north
Marlin, a site later automated as Tower 191 in 1946.
The Texas & New Orleans (T&NO) Railroad, successor to the H&TC, abandoned the Bremond to
Waco route through Marlin in 1965. Missouri Pacific (MP), successor
to I-GN, took this opportunity to eliminate the lengthy segment from Marlin to Waco
via Mart by purchasing the T&NO's more direct route.
Rather than connecting to the T&NO tracks at the Tower 191 crossing, MP chose to eliminate
the tracks on Ward St. by using T&NO's entire route
through town. This eliminated the need for Tower 191, which was decommissioned,
but necessitated construction of a short connecting line in south
Marlin. Today, this route through Marlin is a Union Pacific (UP) main line.
Satellite Image, Marlin
Above: The 1965 connecting track in south Marlin connects the former I-GN route
south to Valley Jct. with
the T&NO route north to Waco, allowing the I-GN tracks on Ward St. to be
removed.
