www.txrrhistory.com - Tower 49 and Tower 166 - Plano
Two Crossings of the Cotton Belt, 300 Yards Apart, South of
Downtown Plano
Tower 49: Crossing of the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad and the
Houston & Texas Central Railroad
Tower 166: Crossing of the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad and
the Texas Electric Railway
When the Houston & Texas Central (H&TC) railroad built north from Dallas toward the
Red River in 1872, it passed through an unincorporated settlement north of
Dallas. A year later, the citizens of this area incorporated and the town became
known as Plano (Spanish for "flat" or "plain", accurately describing the local
terrain). H&TC eventually became part of the Southern Pacific (SP) system, and
was ultimately absorbed into the Texas & New Orleans (T&NO) Railway, SP's
principal operating company in Texas. The H&TC helped the local economy grow, and it grew even quicker
when a second railroad, the St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas Railway (SLA&T),
arrived in 1888, passing through town as construction proceeded westward from
Commerce to Ft. Worth. When the SLA&T went bankrupt in 1891, the St. Louis
Southwestern Railway (SSW, more commonly called the "Cotton Belt") acquired the
property through a newly chartered Texas subsidiary. Both rail lines saw steady
traffic for many years, and the Cotton Belt line, now owned by Kansas City
Southern (KCS), still sees trains daily as part of a significant intermodal rail
link between Ft. Worth and Meridian, MS. The H&TC north/south line remained in service until the early 1990s. At that time, the Dallas
Area Rapid Transit (DART) system acquired the right-of-way and began
construction of an electric light rail line serving Plano from downtown Dallas. This is
now the DART Red Line serving thousands of commuters each day.
The DART service has been well-received by the citizens of Plano, and why
not? Their parents and grandparents were certainly familiar with electric rail
service in Plano. The Texas Traction Co. built an interurban line to provide
service between Dallas and Plano (and points north) beginning in 1908. The route
paralleled the H&TC line all the way through town. In 1916, the Texas Traction
Co. was absorbed into the Texas Electric Railway Co. which was chartered for the
purpose of consolidating two Dallas-area interurban companies. The Texas
Electric lasted until the end of 1948, the last interurban operating in the
state at the time.
About 300 yards apart, the H&TC and Texas Electric rail lines each crossed
the Cotton Belt at grade about 3/10ths of a mile south of downtown Plano, and
both crossings were eventually interlocked. Tower 49 was established in 1904 as an electric interlocker at the
H&TC
crossing, and the 1921 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Plano
depicts it as a 2-story "R.R. Interlocking Plant" in the northwest quadrant
of the diamond. The structure no longer appears on the next Sanborn map (1949),
so it is likely that it was dismantled between 1921 and 1949. This may have
occurred shortly after the Southern Pacific (SP) was granted permission to
control the Cotton Belt in 1932; with both rail lines under common operational
control, the need for a manned tower to remain in service would have been
reduced.
Tower 166 was the designation for the interlocker protecting the Texas
Electric/Cotton Belt crossing, but it was authorized for operation much later,
in 1931. The details of this interlocker remain to be researched -- it is listed
in the 1931 Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT) Annual Report as "Under
Construction" in a table dated December 31, 1930, and the number of interlocker
functions is not listed.
Above: With North to the right, the Texas Electric and H&TC rail lines are
seen
running parallel through Plano, crossing the SSW at grade south (left) of
downtown.
The image is an excerpt from the 1921 Sanborn index map.
Below: A detailed map from the 1921 Sanborn collection shows Tower 49 as a
two-story "R.R. Interlocking Plant" with an external staircase on the southeast
corner of the building. Unfortunately, the Texas Electric crossing is cut off to
the
left and does not appear on any other maps.
Texas & New Orleans Railway, Dallas Division, 1926 Side Track Records,
Page 69 (courtesy T&NO Archives)
Above: This side track chart for the crossing in Plano shows Tower 49 as a black
rectangle in the northwest
quadrant of the crossing. North is to
the left, and the east/west Cotton Belt line is the dashed
diagonal line.
The Texas
Electric Railway is shown as a horizontal dashed line. Tower 166 did not exist
until five years
after this record was drawn.
Modern Photo - Tower 49
Above: Although the tower is long gone, the Tower 49
identity for the automatic interlocker at this crossing was still
in use when
this photo was taken in 1997. Facing south along the former H&TC rail line, the
former Cotton Belt line
crosses east to west (left to right) just beyond
interlocker cabinet 49. This scene looks considerably different today as
the DART Red Line now occupies the north/south
right of way, crossing the site of Tower 49 on a bridge to provide
grade
separation from the KCS (ex-Cotton Belt) line that is still in use.
Photo by Jim King
Below: This is an image of an artwork of the crossing site painted by J. B. Erwin
in 1977. The date that the
scene depicts is unknown, but a station is visible
near the crossing. The 1949 Sanborn Fire Insurance map
shows a joint depot of
both railroads located in the northeast quadrant of the crossing. Assuming this
is the
depot in the image, the two square signs in the image beneath the "Plano"
sign may have contained the
names and logos of the two railroads. It is likely
that when Tower 49 was dismantled, the interlocking controls
were relocated from
the tower and operated remotely by the station agent, perhaps for a period of
years.
Remote controls would have been eliminated when the automatic interlocker
was installed.
Below: This image of the crossing at the site of Tower 49 was drawn as part of a
"Bird's Eye View"
of Plano in 1891. The artist was Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler who
traveled extensively throughout
Texas in 1890-91 producing Bird's Eye View maps
of numerous Texas towns. Fowler's map of
Plano included details of the railroad
crossing that was the future site of Tower 49. The Plano
Cotton Compress is
shown adjacent to the crossing with bales of cotton ready to be loaded. The
interurban line eventually ran along the opposite side of this business.
Location Map - Tower 49
Above: This satellite image of the Tower 49
crossing shows the DART double track occupying the former SP north/south
right-of-way
while the former Cotton Belt tracks cross roughly east/west, now used by KCS.
The connecting track in the southeast quadrant is an
illusion -- the spur curves under the DART overpass to serve the business on the
east side of the DART tracks. "I Avenue" is the former
Texas Electric right-of-way just west of the DART tracks.
Above: This bird's eye view of the Tower 49 location facing west shows the spur
curving under the DART tracks to the south. Note the
white house at the upper right center edge of the image; this house is visible
in the image below.
Below: Facing south, "I Ave.", the Texas Electric right-of-way, is barricaded at
the Cotton Belt tracks and does
not cross at the site of the former Tower 166 interlocker. The house at the
lower left center edge is visible in the
image above. This provides some perspective of the distance between Towers 49
and 166.
