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.



Last Revised: 1/23/2010 JGK - Contact the Texas Interlocking Towers Page.