Photo from the collection of Mark Nerren.
Tower 125 was established as a cabin interlocker in 1929 in Mauriceville at a crossing of the Texarkana & Ft. Smith Railroad (T&FS) and the Orange & Northwestern Railroad (O&NW). The crossing had existed since 1902 when the O&NW built through the area four years after the T&FS had arrived. The O&NW line was chartered to connect southeast Texas forests with lumber mills in the Orange area. The line extended northwest out of Orange, eventually reaching Newton in 1906. The T&FS was under the control of the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad which was led by Arthur Stilwell. In 1896, Stilwell decided to use the T&FS charter to construct a line to the Gulf of Mexico to connect with his north/south line through Arkansas and Louisiana, and he founded the city of Port Arthur to be the terminus of his railroad empire.
By 1929, the O&NW was controlled by the Missouri Pacific (MoPac) system into which it was later merged (1956), and the T&FS was controlled by the Kansas City Southern (KCS) system into which it was later merged (1943). At some point, a combination tower and depot was constructed at Mauriceville and the cabin interlocker controls were presumably moved to the interior of the structure.
In 1963, MoPac abandoned the former O&NW line north of
Mauriceville. Four years later, the newly chartered Sabine
River & Northern (SR&N) railroad built a new line on the
abandoned O&NW right-of-way from Mauriceville to Bessmay,
and this line remains in SR&N service today. The former T&FS
line continues operation as a main north/south line of the KCS
system.
Above is a 1960 photo of Tower 125, an interesting example of a combination depot and tower. The photo below, taken in August 2004 by Jim King, shows that this crossing looks considerably different 44 years later.
