www.txrrhistory.com - Tower 53 - Fort Worth (Ney)
A Junction of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas, the Houston & Texas Central, the
Fort Worth & Rio Grande, and the International & Great Northern railroads
Tower 53 was originally listed by the Railroad Commission
of Texas (RCT) as "South
Ft. Worth (Ney)", and was located at the south end of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas
(MKT) Railroad's Ney Yard. The tower controlled a junction of four
railroads: the MKT ("Katy"), the Houston & Texas Central
(H&TC) Railroad owned by Southern Pacific (SP), the Fort Worth & Rio Grande
(FW&RG) owned by the St. Louis San Francisco Railway ("Frisco"), and the
International & Great Northern (I-GN), a railroad later acquired by Missouri
Pacific (MP).
The
eventual need for Tower 53 began in 1881 when the Katy built from Ft.
Worth to Hillsboro. Five years later, the FW&RG built from Ft. Worth to
Brownwood. To connect with the Katy, a spur was eventually built due east from
FW&RG's main line in west Fort Worth and then north to the Katy yards that had been
established in south Ft. Worth. Santa Fe built a line into Ft. Worth from the
south in 1891, so the FW&RG spur and the Santa Fe main crossed at Bird's Siding,
a little over a mile southwest of Tower 53.
Also in 1886, the Fort Worth and New Orleans
(FW&NO) Railroad
built from Fort Worth east to Waxahachie, crossing the Katy in the process (a
crossing reportedly protected by a gate in the pre-interlocker days). In 1901, the FW&NO became
part of the H&TC, with whom it connected in Waxahachie. The
fourth railroad at Tower 53, the I-GN, arrived in 1902 when I-GN built a main line from Waco
to Fort Worth. The I-GN line went over the H&TC a mile southeast of the Katy
yards, but I-GN added a spur from that location which paralleled the H&TC
all the way to the
Katy crossing (a spur upon which Echo Lake Drive South now resides, which begs
the question...was Echo Lake built as a water source for H&TC or I-GN steam
engines?). On July
23, 1904, the Tower 53 interlocker opened serving four railroads. In later years, this made it
possible for the Katy, SP, MP and Frisco to interchange cars without having to go
through Tower 55.
Modern Photos of Tower 53 Site (Photos by Jim
King)
Facing northwest, the former SP line comes in from the right and
joins the former Katy main heading
north to Ney Yard.
Looking southeast at what is now known as Midlothian Jct., Tower
53 would have been visible as a
structure along the right edge
of this photo.
Tower 53 was a manned interlocking tower that had twenty five functions. It
continued in operation until it was retired in
1957-58 and replaced with an automatic interlocking. The late 1990s
merger of SP with Katy successor Union Pacific (UP) allowed trains on the former
SP branch to Ennis to begin operating to Tower 55
via the Katy main line, eliminating the need for the Tower 53 crossing as of
August 8, 1997.
Above: A close up of the Tower 53 crossing. The H&TC line from the southeast
(lower right)
crossed to the northeast prior to the UP/SP merger.
Location Maps for Tower 53
Above: This 1927 Sanborn Fire Insurance index
map has been annotated with the railroads
of south Ft. Worth and Tower 53. Tower 124 is
Bird's Siding.
Below: A satellite map of the area shows the rights-of-way of the railroads in
south Ft. Worth. The I-GN spur to Tower 53
(not annotated)
is now occupied by Echo Lake Drive South.
