Above: Looking east along the Katy line at the site of Tower 91, a cabin interlocker still stands.
A Crossing of the Missouri - Kansas - Texas Railway and the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railway
West Point is a small, rural community in western Fayette County that was established in 1887 at the junction of two rail lines. That year, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas ("Katy") railroad built through the area as they constructed a line from Waco to Houston. The San Antonio and Aransas Pass built a rail line from Yoakum to West Point in the same year. Two years later, construction resumed north from West Point across the Colorado River to Lexington and eventually to Rockdale, Cameron and Waco. In 1914, traffic on the SA&AP route increased significantly as the "Dalsa Cutoff" was completed between Giddings and Hearne. This enabled Southern Pacific transcontinental trains between Los Angeles and the midwest to bypass Houston via the Dalsa Cutoff through West Point. Tower 91, a manual interlocking tower, was formally established in West Point at this time.
Both railroads eventually became part of Union Pacific: the Katy as a part of the Missouri Pacific system - the SA&AP as a part of the Southern Pacific system. The crossing at West Point continues to be frequently used. East-west trains service the coal-fired power plant in eastern Fayette County. The north-south Dalsa Cutoff between Flatonia and Hearne remains a major route.
