www.txrrhistory.com - Tower 34 - Taylor
A Crossing of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) Railroad and the
International & Great Northern (I-GN) Railroad
One of the oldest major rail junctions in Texas is in Taylor. The first rail
line through the area was the International & Great Northern (I-GN) Railroad in
1876, followed soon thereafter by the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT, "Katy")
Railroad in 1882.
Tower 34 was established in 1904 to control the
crossing of the north-south Katy main line between Waco and Houston, and the east-west I-GN
main line from Laredo to Longview.
These two main lines resulted in Taylor becoming a rail center. Both lines are
still in service and the Taylor yards remain busy for Union Pacific, successor
to both railroads.
Tower 34 Site (photo by Jim King)
Above: Facing east, an
equipment cabinet occupies the former site of Tower 34 northeast of the crossing
diamond.
Below: The Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Taylor shows the tower located in the
northeast quadrant of the crossing. The "M. P. Lines"
notation refers to the Missouri Pacific Railroad, the first successor to the
I-GN. The magnification at lower right reveals the tower to
be a two-story structure with the staircase on the southeast corner.
Location Map - Tower 34
Above: This satellite image
of the Tower 34 site shows a train on the northwest connector.
Below: Microsoft Virtual Earth bird's eye view of the crossing, facing south. An
equipment cabinet occupies what
is presumably the former location of Tower 34 in the northeast quadrant.
