A crossing of the Texarkana & Ft. Smith Railway and the Texas & New Orleans Railway
On June 1, 1896, the Texarkana & Ft. Smith (T&FS) Railway opened a 19-mile route between Port Arthur and Beaumont. Port Arthur was named for railroad magnate Arthur Stilwell, and at the time, the T&FS was part of Stilwell's Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gulf Railroad which was on the verge of completing a railroad from Kansas City to Port Arthur. This was completed in 1899, but the company failed and was taken over by Kansas City Southern (KCS) Railway, which continues to operate the route today. Nearby, the Texas & New Orleans (T&NO) Railway operated a branch line from Beaumont to Sabine Pass on tracks originally built by the East Texas Railway in 1881. The route had been acquired by Southern Pacific (SP) in 1882 and conveyed to T&NO, SP's primary operating company for Texas railroads. T&NO built an industrial spur off this line to serve industries in south Beaumont, and this line crossed the KCS rails at a location called Chaison, no doubt named for the nearby community founded by McGuire Chaison in 1854. On October 8, 1915, a cabin interlocker, designated Tower 103, was authorized for service at this crossing by the Railroad Commission of Texas.
Tom Kline took these photos of the remnants of the Tower 103 interlocker in
April, 2000.
Tom writes "The view [above] of the interlocker electric lock and rod operated
derail is looking northeast.
The track to the left is the KCS and you can see the light towers for Lamar
University's stadium that
are up against the tracks. Below: The instruction plate is on a relay case
behind the view above.
Jimmy Barlow adds the following discussion (dated 8/14/2005).
"When I was in Beaumont last weekend, I took time to check out
the Tower 103 interlocker. This is where UP's Chaison Spur business
track crosses the KCS main line immediately south of KCS's Chaison
Yard. The spur breaks off UP's Sabine Industrial Lead (old SP/T&NO
Pt. Arthur branch) half a mile north of Guffey, serves a concrete
plant on the east side of US-69, and after crossing the KCS serves
the petrochemical area dominated by the Mobil refinery (now Exxon Mobil). The crossing itself is kind of interesting, with the UP track
having a short but steep ascent to the KCS from either side.
Even so, there are derails on the UP maybe 50 yards on each side
of the diamond. These are controlled by a single CTC-style switch
motor to which they're connected via the same type of rod system
found at manual interlocking towers! UP's absolute signals are
a dinky little 2-aspect style on medium-height poles, and the
rails are very shiny. Indeed, KCS personnel at Chaison estimated
that UP crosses there at least 5 days a week. This spot is easy to photograph, with access via Olin Rd off
MLK, less than half a mile north of MLK's intersection with US-69
in south-east Beaumont. Local "railspert" Gary Williams says that both T&NO
and KCS had depots at Chaison years ago. If I recall correctly...the current KCS yard office was built as a passenger station
(to replace their old downtown station--on KCS Street!--when they
vacated that facility in the mid '60's), but I have a feeling
Gary was talking about an earlier KCS depot. He also says that
long-gone old-timers used to say that T&NO once ran a "mixed"
train to Chaison from downtown Beaumont! I wonder if it appears
in any old timetables? (Note: This area is called Zummo on some
maps; don't know if that was ever a rail name or not.) Interestingly, the first street south of Olin Rd and on the
same side of MLK is labeled "V W and R Dr." I got all
excited when I saw that street sign, hoping those were the initials
of some old railroad, although I couldn't think of any rail line
so named (and subsequent research has turned up none). Sure enough,
a brother-in-law who lives in that area tells me they stand for
Van Waters & Rogers, a former chemical distributor (now known
as Univar) who at one time owned a warehouse on the one-block-long
dead-end street. He said the warehouse now belongs to healthcare
products provider McKesson--which could explain why MapQuest shows
that street to be McKesson Dr."
The map above depicts the historical locations of the main rail lines and
junctions in the Beaumont area, some of which are no longer in service.
Legend: Yellow => Missouri Pacific (MP), Blue => Southern Pacific (SP), Purple
=> Kansas City Southern (KCS), Green => Santa Fe (GCSF)
Satellite Image, Tower 103 Vicinity
