Tower 24 photo courtesy of the Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum.
A Crossing of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad
Tower 24 photo courtesy of the Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum.
Temple, Texas was founded by the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe (GC&SF) Railway in 1880 as a construction camp that quickly evolved into a major railroad town. Temple became a junction of the Santa Fe's three major rail segments and this led the company to locate major yards, shops and medical facilities there. Within a couple of years of Temple's founding, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) Railroad ("the Katy") built through Temple as they constructed a main line to Houston from Ft. Worth. The Katy tracks crossed the Santa Fe's line in Temple and in 1903, a manned interlocking tower was authorized to control this junction, designated Tower 24 by the Railroad Commission of Texas. It remained in service for many years; the date that it was de-commissioned and removed has not yet been determined. Both rail lines remain heavily used today. The former GC&SF line is now a Burlington Northern Santa Fe route. The MKT line is now a Union Pacific route between Sealy and Ft. Worth.
