Sunshine illuminates the east face of Tower 42 while the larger northern face remains in the shadow on October 8, 1992.
Photo by Myron Malone
The area now known as Texarkana has been a major transportation junction for hundreds of years - Indian tribes used a trail passing through the area to move between the Mississippi River and the desert southwest. In 1873, the Texas & Pacific (T&P) Railway laid out the Texas side of the town, shortly before a rail connection was established with the Cairo and Fulton Railroad that had built across Arkansas. The T&P was operating under a Federal charter to build a railroad across Texas, and it acquired two other dormant railroads in 1872 to get started. In 1873, the T&P completed main lines between Texarkana and Marshall, Marshall and Dallas, and Texarkana and Sherman.
Another railroad entered Texarkana when the Texas & St. Louis narrow gauge railroad completed a line from Tyler to Texarkana in 1880. This line was eventually converted to standard gauge and became part of the St. Louis Southwestern (SSW) Railway, commonly known as the Cotton Belt.
In 1885, the newly chartered Texarkana & Northern Railroad built ten miles of rail north from Texarkana to the Red River for logging purposes. This line was later acquired by the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf (KCP&G) Railroad, led by Arthur Stilwell, to form a part of the main line he was building from Kansas City to the Gulf of Mexico. Renamed the Texarkana & Ft. Smith (T&FS) Railway, it was extended south under a revised charter along the Texas-Louisiana border and eventually reached the new town of Port Arthur in 1897. The T&FS became part of the Kansas City Southern (KCS) Railway when the KCS acquired the assets of the KCP&G during foreclosure.
The level of rail traffic through Texarkana on these three railroads justified the establishment of two interlocking towers. Tower 28 was established as a manual interlocking in October, 1903 where the T&P main line to Marshall crossed the T&FS south of town. Nine months later, Tower 42, a more complex electric interlocking, was opened near downtown Texarkana where all three railroads crossed. Tower 42 survived into the 1990s before it was razed. The fate of Tower 28 is unknown. All of the original rail lines into Texarkana remain active today, except for the T&P line to Sherman which has been abandoned between Paris and the outskirts of Texarkana. The T&P and SSW lines are owned by Union Pacific, while KCS continues to own and operate the T&FS line.
Location Map, Texarkana, Texas Interlocking Towers
Map by Jim King
