Photo by Doyle Davis.
A Crossing of the Panhandle & Santa Fe Railway, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and the Fort Worth & Denver City Railway
Evan Werkema describes Tower
75...
"This three-story concrete interlocking tower
once controlled Santa Fe's crossing of the Fort Worth and Denver (Burlington)
and Rock Island main lines, and the junction with Santa Fe's Dumas District to
Las Animas, CO. The 15x30 tower was built in 1927 to a plan similar to the
concrete interlocking tower standard plans shown on pages 218-221 of Santa Fe
System Standards, Volume 2. The stairway, door, and window placement and other
details deviated from the plan. Each tower in Texas had a unique number assigned
to it, and East Tower was tower 75. The number was displayed on the faded
plaques below the East Tower signs. The railroad always referred to the tower as
East Tower, however. The tower's duties diminished with the demise of the Rock
Island. It was closed in April 1986 and demolished in mid-1990."
On April 8, 1953, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a ruling in a case involving the Panhandle & Santa Fe (P&SF) Railway at Amarillo. The P&SF was the defendant accused of operating several train movements in violation of the Safety Appliance Act. The ruling includes this interesting description of the tracks and operations associated with East Tower.
"As shown by a map of the yards, the defendant's classification yard, referred to as the West Yard, is located to the left, or west, of the major portion of the Amarillo Yards and the tracks of Fort Worth [and Denver] and those of Rock Island. The points where these lines converge and cross is protected by an interlocking plant, controlled from what is denominated East Tower. Beyond the interlocking plant, and some five miles from the classification yards of defendant on its Dumas Branch, is located the Amarillo Stock Yards. It is served by an industry track. Southwesterly of East Tower, and the point of convergence and crossing of the lines of the three carriers, is located the Western Stock Yard Corporation, some two miles from the West Yard, or classification tracks, of the defendant. East of the point of convergence and crossing of the three main lines are the interchange tracks of the defendant and the Rock Island. These tracks are some two miles from the defendant's West Yard. Each of the movements here in question moved within the interlocking plant. The briefs tell us that an interlocking plant is a system or arrangement of levers, switches, lights and derails so interconnected that they must be arranged in a predetermined order for the selected movements of the plant. In the case of this plant, the movements are controlled by an operator in the East Tower who determines the priority of movement as between trains on the different railroads that attempt to use at the same time the area defined by the limits of the interlocking, and by manipulating levers indicates that fact by a system of lights. Rails which do not have priority are broken at points about 400 feet in advance of the crossings by means of what is called a "split-rail" derail."
