www.txrrhistory.com - Tower 44 - Hillsboro
A Crossing of the Missouri - Kansas - Texas Railroad, the
Trinity & Brazos Valley Railroad, and the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad
Hillsboro (spelled Hillsborough until changed by the Post Office in 1888) was
established as the county seat of Hill County in 1853, well before the arrival
of the Missouri - Kansas - Texas (MKT) Railroad. The MKT,
commonly called "the Katy", built through Hillsboro from Ft. Worth in 1881,
continuing south to Taylor in 1882 as part of their long term plan to reach the
Gulf. Since the Katy also served
Dallas, a decision was made to build a Dallas to Hillsboro line to provide a more
direction connection between Dallas and points south. This was done under the
newly chartered Dallas & Waco Railway which reached Hillsboro from Dallas in 1890
and was integrated into the Katy system in 1891. The Katy established shops in
Hillsboro and built Katy Lake to provide a permanent water supply for steam
engines. The shops were closed in 1930 in favor of larger facilities in Waco,
but Katy Lake remains intact near the junction of the two Katy lines north of
town. The Katy tracks through Hillsboro eventually became owned by Union Pacific
(UP), which abandoned the line to Dallas in the 1990s (although the abandoned
Katy bridge over Interstate 35 remained intact well past 2000).
The second railroad into Hillsboro was the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas
Railroad, an early component of the "Cotton Belt", a railroad eventually
consolidated under the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad corporate name. The
Cotton Belt system had a major junction at Corsicana, and in 1887, they began
constructing a branch line from Corsicana to Hillsboro. The last five miles was
finished in 1888, including a crossing of the Katy near the junction of its two
lines. Hillsboro remained the end of the line for this Cotton Belt branch and
the route was abandoned in 1940. Portions of the former Cotton Belt grade near
Hillsboro have been re-used as a utility right-of-way.
In 1902, the newly chartered Trinity & Brazos Valley (T&BV) Railroad
established corporate offices in Hillsboro and began construction there,
building southeast to Mexia in 1903 and northwest to Cleburne in 1904. In 1905,
the T&BV was acquired by the Colorado & Southern Railroad which was under the control of
B. F. Yoakum. Yoakum was also the CEO of both the Rock Island and the St. Louis
San Francisco ("Frisco") railroads, and he used the T&BV charter to build from Mexia to
Teague,
and from Teague south to Houston and north to Waxahachie, where trackage rights
to Dallas were obtained from the Katy on their Hillsboro line. This created a
direct route between Dallas and
Houston via Teague for the benefit of Yoakum's other railroads.
Although this line is now a major route for Burlington Northern Santa Fe,
it was initially unprofitable, a contributing factor to the T&BV entering receivership in 1914.
Receivership ended in 1930 under the newly organized Burlington - Rock
Island Railroad. After abandonment of the lines from Hillsboro to Cleburne (1932) and Mexia (1935), only the Houston - Waxahachie
main line and a branch from Teague to Mexia (abandoned 1976) remained from the
original T&BV construction. Many sections of State Highway 171 between Mexia and
Cleburne are built on the former T&BV right-of-way, and State Highway 22
occupies the T&BV right-of-way between Interstate 35 and downtown Hillsboro.
Tower 44 was established in 1904 when the T&BV's construction to Cleburne
needed to cross the Katy and Cotton Belt lines north of town near the existing Cotton Belt/Katy
diamond. Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT) records list Tower 44
as a mechanical interlocker with 28 functions. This was likely a manned, 2-story structure; thus far
neither photographs nor plans for Tower 44 have been located, but Katy records
show the tower located at the crossing. When the Cotton Belt was abandoned in
1940, the interlocker would have been retired and it is likely that the tower
structure was relocated or razed at that time.
Above: This image is a photograph of a Katy track chart owned by Bruce Blalock of
the Katy House B&B in Smithville. In
this
chart,
west is "up" and Tower 44 is the black rectangle adjacent to the crossings. It
is apparent from this chart that
the Katy retained
two main tracks past Tower 44 for the Fort Worth and Dallas lines. The routes
separated approximately
a quarter mile
further north.
Below: This image from the 1925 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Hillsboro shows
Tower 44 adjacent to Covington Street.
Left to right, the tracks are Cotton Belt (main), Cotton Belt (spur), Katy (Ft.
Worth main), Katy (Dallas main), and T&BV
(main) closest to Covington. The map shows that the tower was located before
Covington St. ends with a right angle turn
onto Chenault St. This is consistent with the presence of a concrete bridge
abutment for the Cotton Belt which remains well
hidden in the trees next to Covington St. and is consistent with the Katy track
chart above showing the tower south of the
Cotton Belt crossing. Magnification of the Sanborn image shows a two-story
"Signal Tower".
Site Photo, Tower 44
Above: Looking northeast from near downtown Hillsboro, the current UP
main line curves northeast and then back to due north. Tower 44 would
have been visible in this photo prior to 1940. Concrete abutments can be found
in the stand of trees to the right where the Cotton Belt bridged a
small creek close to the Tower 44 crossing. Sanborn maps of Hillsboro show the
Cotton Belt serving the business at left.
Below: The Katy depot at Hillsboro is now a Chamber of Commerce office. (both
photos by Jim King)
Tower 44 Site Map
