A Crossing of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad and the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway
Tower 126 was located in Ft. Worth approximately 4,000 feet
south of Tower 55. The Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT) noted this site as
being at Violet St. (a street which no longer exists), but it was
more commonly known to railroaders as Polk's Tower. An electric
interlocking with 33 functions was placed in service at Polk's
Tower on 15 June 1926. The 1927 Annual Report of the Railroad
Commission of Texas lists Tower 126 as being at "Fort Worth,
Polk's Stock Yard". The following year, the report started
calling it "Ft. Worth (Violet St.)".
The interlocking controlled a crossing of the Houston & Texas
Central (H&TC) Railroad and the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe
(GC&SF) Railway. The Santa Fe line was their main route between Ft. Worth
and Cleburne built in 1891. The H&TC line was built
in 1886 by the Ft. Worth & New Orleans (FW&NO) Railroad and connected Ft. Worth with the H&TC
at Waxahachie, providing a route to the H&TC main line at
Ennis. H&TC then acquired the FW&NO in 1901 to given them a direct presence in Ft.
Worth.
The crossing at Polk's existed beginning in 1891 when the Santa Fe crossed the
FW&NO. The FW&NO yard ended up west
of the Santa Fe and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad ("Katy") at Broadway Street, so their tracks crossed both main lines to go
southeast to Ennis. After crossing the Santa Fe at
Polk's, the tracks went southwest paralleling the Santa Fe past Main Street and
then turned southeast to cross the Katy main line at Tower 53. At the time
Polk's Tower was constructed in 1926, the H&TC was controlled by the Texas & New Orleans
(T&NO) Railroad, a Southern
Pacific (SP) property. Documents at DeGolyer Library indicate that the tower size was
approximately 14 ft. by 20 ft., and the Sanborn Fire Insurance map of 1951 shows
the tower as a two-story structure. Clearly, this was designed to be a manned tower as there
would otherwise be no need for a two-story building. On March 20, 1961, RCT
wrote a letter to Santa Fe, T&NO and the St. Louis - San Francisco ("Frisco")
Railroad stating that "Polk's Interlocking" had been officially eliminated. The
Frisco involvement may have been related to trackage rights on the Santa Fe, but
this is unconfirmed.
Kal Silverberg explains the reason for the demise of Polk's Tower..."Both the Santa Fe and SP lines proceeded north from Polk's to Tower 55. At some later time [c.1961], a track swap was arranged between SP and Santa Fe, most likely due to SP not being able to switch at their yard because Santa Fe trains were blocking the lead. The diamond at Polk's was removed, and the roads swapped tracks. A new diamond was placed underneath the Allen Avenue bridge, and the tracks swapped back. This gave SP more room to switch at the south end of Broadway Yard and led to the confusing state where Santa Fe used the SP bridge over Rosedale, and SP used the Santa Fe bridge. There was a hand throw connection to the Katy from the SP just south of the diamond under Allen Avenue. The new diamond was protected by automatic signals, but appears to have never been under control of any tower. Since this diamond and Tower 53 were not interconnected, it was possible for the SP to have a green signal at Tower 53 (once it was automated), a red signal at the new diamond, and, if the train was long enough, still block the Katy main line until they could pull into Broadway Street Yard."
What's slightly confusing about this scenario is that as the tracks proceeded in parallel north from Polk's to Tower 55, the SP line ended up on the west with the Santa Fe line on the east. This gave SP more room at Broadway Yard to the north near Tower 55, but also created the need for the diamond at Allen St. The SP line came in from the southeast, so it had to cross the Santa Fe somewhere if it was to be the west line of the two going north to Tower 55. Originally, that crossing had been at Polk's.
There is no longer a diamond beneath the Allen St. bridge. After the BNSF consolidation and the UP/SP merger, trains working the line to Ennis began taking the Katy main north to Tower 55, eliminating the former H&TC/Katy crossing at Tower 53. This left both lines at Polk's available to BNSF and eliminated the need for the crossover at Allen St.
Historic Map, Polk's Tower
Above: The 1951 update to the 1910 Sanborn map shows a two-story signal tower
at the Santa Fe / H&TC crossing. Because this was
an "update" to the 1910 map, numerous details from the 1910 were left in place,
such as the "H&TC RR" designation which had
been
retired by the T&NO.
