Texas Railroad History - Tower 44 and Tower 167 - Hillsboro

Two Crossings of the Katy Railway

Left: Railroad executive John W Barriger III took this photo facing south from the rear platform of his business car as his train passed northbound through Hillsboro on tracks of the Missouri - Kansas - Texas ("Katy") Railway. Barriger often photographed railroad structures during his trips, and here, his shutter finger was triggered by the sight of Tower 44 which hosted an interlocking plant on the north side of Hillsboro. Barriger was close enough to the tower that his photo clearly shows the crossing tracks at this complex junction. The track passing to the left of the tower is the Trinity & Brazos Valley (T&BV) line coming from Mexia north through Hillsboro continuing to Cleburne. It crosses the Katy's north / south double track at an acute angle in the foreground. The other track crossing horizontally is the St. Louis Southwestern (SSW) from Corsicana entering from the east (left) and crossing to the west side of the Katy tracks where it turned south and terminated in Hillsboro. This photo was probably taken in the early 1930s. The T&BV tracks past Tower 44 between Hillsboro and Cleburne were abandoned in 1932. Salvage operations might not have commenced immediately, so the tracks could have remained in place for a few years. (photo courtesy John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library) Below Left: Ken Stavinoha provides this image of Tower 44. Neither the original source of the photo nor its timeframe is known. The reverse side of the photo has "Hillsboro" written in pencil. Below Right: This view of Tower 44 looks north, taken by Barriger some years after the photo at left. A small hut (purpose unknown) is barely visible in the shadows beside the tower where the T&BV tracks had been located. The SSW tracks cross the Katy at an angle and pass behind the house and the light colored building on the left side of the image. (photo courtesy John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library)

                    

Hillsboro (spelled Hillsborough until it was changed by the Post Office) was established as the county seat of Hill County in 1853. The first railroad into Hillsboro arrived nearly thirty years later in 1881 with tracks of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas (MK&T, "Katy") Railway. [The corporate name changed to Missouri - Kansas - Texas Railway, MKT, in 1923; it was still the Katy.] Although the Katy owned the tracks through Hillsboro, it was arguably the Missouri Pacific (MP) Railroad that built them, an arrangement attributable to railroad magnate Jay Gould. Gould needed an outlet to Mexico and ports on the Gulf to maximize profitability of his Midwest railroads, so he decided to focus on Texas, eyeing the Katy as a potential component of his long term plan. The Katy had bridged the Red River into Denison in 1872, exchanging freight and passengers with the Houston & Texas Central (H&TC) Railway which had a route between Denison and Houston. Normally, Gould would simply buy controlling interest in a railroad and name himself President, but the dilution of Katy stock and the lack of large private blocks for sale prevented this approach. Instead, over several years he was able to infiltrate Katy management with his loyalists who paved the way for him to be named President in December, 1879.

With little personal ownership of Katy stock, Gould could best reap the benefits of its profitability by leasing the Katy (in December, 1880) to MP which he controlled through a large ownership position acquired in 1879. MP was based in St. Louis and did not have a presence in Texas. With accounting and operating policies tilted heavily toward MP, its stockholders would enjoy the profits of the combined enterprise while Katy stockholders... would not.

Gould directed MP to build from Denison to Fort Worth, continuing south to Hillsboro and Waco, eventually to turn east toward Houston. Except for a large portion of the Denison - Fort Worth line that was owned by the Texas & Pacific (T&P) Railway (for which Gould was the effective CEO by the fall of 1880 - he would become its President in April, 1881), title to all of the new construction was assigned to the Katy for compliance with Texas railroad ownership laws. Publicly, particularly in the newspapers, all of the work was presented as an MP operation. To expedite construction, Gould had MP (Katy) deploy construction forces to Waco to establish rights-of-way through town and begin building a Brazos River bridge. There may also have been limited grading north toward Fort Worth to meet the track gangs building south. Tracks from Fort Worth were a mile south of Alvarado, 27 miles north of Hillsboro, by early August. Although a shortage of rails delayed the final push by a few weeks, MP's tracks, owned by the Katy, entered Hillsboro in October, 1881 from the north. Tracks were complete between Fort Worth and East Waco by mid December, and the first construction train crossed MP's new Brazos River bridge into downtown Waco on December 22, 1881.

                
Above: With no mention of the Katy, newspapers followed the progress of MP's construction from Fort Worth to Hillsboro. The Post Office formally dropped the "Hillsborough" spelling in 1888, but as these items demonstrate, "Hillsboro" had become the preferred spelling years earlier. Left: The Austin Weekly Democratic Statesman of January 13, 1881 discussed the progress of MP's survey party proceeding south from Fort Worth. Center: The Brenham Daily Banner of September 7, 1881 noted that the tracks were nearing Hillsboro. Right: The Fort Worth Daily Democrat of October 11, 1881 reported on the first passenger train between Fort Worth and Hillsboro.

By the spring of 1881, Gould had begun negotiations to buy the International & Great Northern (I&GN) Railroad, Texas' largest at the time. I&GN profitability was largely dependent on Midwest traffic through St. Louis, but Gould had gained the potential to interfere with the service by acquiring control of the two railroads that provided the I&GN's connection to St. Louis. In particular, the I&GN was dependent on the T&P for service between Longview and Texarkana, and Gould became T&P President in April, 1881. On June 1, 1881, it was announced that Gould had acquired all of the I&GN common stock in a two-for-one swap for Katy stock. Gould became President of the I&GN and leased it to the Katy for 99 years.

Why would Gould lease the I&GN to the Katy? Didn't the Katy own the I&GN? Although Gould had used Katy stock to acquire the I&GN, he had obscured the actual ownership by secretly placing the I&GN stock certificates for safekeeping with his friend in Fort Worth, General Grenville M. Dodge (Chief Engineer of the T&P, known most famously as the Chief Engineer for the eastern part of the Transcontinental Railroad.) Gould was concerned that because the parent Katy corporation was based in Kansas, its direct ownership of the I&GN might violate Texas law. If challenged, Gould could claim the I&GN was based in Fort Worth, owned by Gen. Dodge! The I&GN continued operating under its own name -- it was well known by the public but this also helped to present the facade that the I&GN was not owned by another railroad. For Gould, the less said about this topic, the better.

MP's problem in Texas was that it could not comply with two elements of state law: it did not have its headquarters in Texas and it did not have a Texas railroad charter from the Legislature. Ironically, the Katy also lacked both of those requirements! An 1870 Texas law had authorized the Katy to rely on its Kansas charter for permission to build into Texas over its planned Red River bridge for the purpose of connecting to the H&TC. The law also allowed the Katy to build "...in the general direction of Waco and Austin, to the Rio Grande...". As indicated by his I&GN stock finesse, Gould was aware of a key legal shortcoming for the Katy, specifically that it lacked a Texas headquarters, a requirement added to the Texas Constitution in 1876. Gould's argument for building south from Denison (not that he needed one) would be that he was merely following the Kansas charter as interpreted by the 1870 Texas law. Gould could have had the Katy establish a Texas subsidiary corporation and a local headquarters, but that would take time and might require stockholder approval. Gould wasn't fazed; he knew that politicians always wanted more railroads. It was hard for legislators to question the legality of MP's southward march with the Katy while also making speeches to their constituents at each town's celebration of new MP service.

MP continued building south from Hillsboro to Waco, Temple and Taylor, where construction paused in 1882. Taylor was also served by the I&GN, and Gould built a Division Headquarters facility there serving both railroads. In 1886, Gould resumed MP's construction toward Houston.

In late 1886, Gould directed MP to build branch lines between Greenville and Dallas, and between Dallas and Hillsboro. Gould already had a Katy line from Denison through Greenville to Mineola that connected there with the T&P and the I&GN. The new branches provided a connection between Denison and Dallas via Greenville, continuing to the MP main line at Hillsboro. [MP also had a (Katy) Denison - Dallas route via Denton on the Joint Track.] Typical for new branch lines, MP chartered new railroads (as subsidiaries of the Katy) to accomplish the work. For the Dallas - Hillsboro branch, the Dallas & Waco Railroad was established in late 1886. Financial and legal issues delayed construction but the line was finally completed in 1890. Left: The Fort Worth Daily Gazette of March 15, 1888 carried this story from Waxahachie discussing the local real estate market being stimulated by the approaching rails of the Dallas & Waco. It would be the town's second railroad in two years, the other being the H&TC's Ft. Worth & New Orleans Railroad between Ft. Worth and the H&TC main line at Garrett. By this time, the H&TC was owned by the vast Southern Pacific (SP) system.

At the end of 1887, construction stopped as Gould's rail empire entered a period of financial turmoil. The issues were mostly with Gould railroads located elsewhere, but in Texas, Gould's problem was the election of James S. "Jim" Hogg as Texas Attorney General in November, 1886. The focus of Hogg's campaign had been his claim that Texas railroads were guilty of poor service, poor facilities, price-fixing and other violations of their charters and other state laws. Hogg began filing lawsuits against various railroads including the I&GN and the Katy. Deferred maintenance had caused the I&GN infrastructure to deteriorate leading to poor service and routine accidents. Gould was unconcerned; travelers were thankful for any railroad service, particularly in rural towns. But Texas railroad charters required companies to maintain good facilities and good service, so Hogg wasted no time going after Gould.

Katy stockholders were also going after Gould. They had long recognized that he was draining Katy profits into MP under the lease, but they had also discovered that it was very difficult to summon a quorum for a special stockholders meeting due in part to the stock dilution. As they began to get closer to holding such a meeting, Gould undertook diligent efforts to prevent it and he ultimately resorted to judicial intervention. The stockholders eventually prevailed in court and were allowed to hold a meeting in May, 1888. They fired Gould for malfeasance associated with the terms of MP's lease and then promptly sought bankruptcy protection, asking the court to declare that MP's lease was unlawful because it resulted in violations of Texas law, an argument that Gen. Hogg had made in his lawsuit against the Katy. In 1890, the Texas Supreme Court confirmed the termination of MP's lease while also confirmig that the Katy was a "foreign" railroad because it lacked both a Texas charter and a Texas headquarters. While this ejected MP from any presence in Texas, it also created an enormous mess pertaining to Katy assets and its operations in Texas. The bankruptcy court retained supervision of the Katy while the Legislature sorted it all out.

                    
Above: With Gould dismissed and the MP lease voided, the Katy was under the protection of a Kansas bankruptcy court which had permitted it to continue its operations and branch line construction while waiting for the Texas Legislature to act. The Dallas & Waco had stopped at Waxahachie in early 1888, but it had built as far as Milford by the end of 1889. This prompted the Waxahachie Democrat (quoted left by the Hillsboro Mirror of January 29, 1890) to speculate on the branch line from Dallas becoming the main line to Denison via Denton or Greenville (i.e. instead of the Katy's Hillsboro - Denison route via Fort Worth.) By April (center, Galveston Daily News, April 29, 1890) it was becoming clear that the Federal courts would not present any impediments to finishing the Dallas & Waco branch to Hillsboro. Right: The Fort Worth Daily Gazette of October 19, 1890 predicted two additional months to complete the track-laying into Hillsboro. Later newspaper reports indicate that delays pushed the commencement of Dallas - Hillsboro service into February, 1891.

The Katy would continue to operate in Texas under its Receiver, Kansas businessman George A. "Judge" Eddy, until it could be reorganized pursuant to a new Texas charter to be enacted by the Legislature. The Katy asserted its rightful ownership of the I&GN, intending to fire Gould from his position as I&GN President. Exceedingly clever legal shenanigans by Gould prevented that from happening. First, Gould made a very short term personl loan to the I&GN and then, as IG&N President, refused to pay it back. With the debt unpaid, Gould then forced the I&GN into bankruptcy for failure to repay. This gave the I&GN (and thus, himself) the protection of the bankruptcy court, preventing the Katy from removing him as I&GN President. As the Katy sought to intervene in the I&GN bankruptcy litigation (so it could repay the debt and fire Gould), Gould approached Gen. Hogg privately to admit that the I&GN really was owned by the Katy (which Hogg had speculated but couldn't prove.) Gould reminded Hogg that the Katy was a "foreign" railroad that might soon own the I&GN. Hogg was vigorously opposed to the idea of a "foreign" company owning Texas' largest railroad, so he filed an injunction to prevent the Katy from taking any action to oust Gould. Keeping the I&GN out of the Katy's hands long term would ultimately deliver it to Gould.

The Legislature finally passed a Katy charter law on October 28, 1891 granting rights to a newly created Texas subsidiary of the parent Katy corporation. The Texas-based Katy subsidiary would be headquartered at Denison and it would own most of the Katy's current Texas rail lines, but not the I&GN. Gould's delaying tactics had provided time for Hogg to lobby the Legislature into souring on the idea of allowing the Katy to own the I&GN, leaving the Katy with little choice but to sell it back to Gould for the paltry sum of $350,000. Why so little? Gould still controlled the T&P and MP, the two railroads that comprised the I&GN's best route between Longview and St. Louis via Texarkana. No railroad was willing to risk the wrath of Gould to outbid him.

The new Katy charter bill was signed into law by Texas Governor ...  Jim Hogg! His lawsuits against the railroads had boosted his political standing, enabling him to win the Governor's race of 1890. During the campaign, Hogg proposed the creation of the Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT), and a law was promptly enacted in 1891 creating the agency. Ten years later, a new state law would grant RCT the power to manage rail junction safety for both at-grade and grade-separated crossings, leading to the introduction of interlocking plant technology in Texas.

After being freed from the MP lease by the Texas Supreme Court, the Katy remained an independent railroad for nearly a hundred years. It was acquired by Union Pacific (UP) in 1988 and merged back into MP which UP had acquired in 1982. MP continued operating under its own name until 1997 when UP consolidated all of its railroads under the UP name (by this time, including SP.) Thus, the tracks through Hillsboro originally built by MP but owned by the Katy now serve as a major north / south line for UP.

The next railroad into Hillsboro was the Cotton Belt in February, 1888. It had originally been chartered as the Tyler Tap Railroad in 1871 to bring rail service to Tyler by "tapping" the T&P at Big Sandy, which occurred in 1877. Two years later, the name was changed to the Texas & St. Louis (T&SL) Railway when a 107-mile segment was built from Big Sandy to Texarkana extending into Arkansas. Right: The T&SL's first ad in the Galveston Daily News ran in the issue of January 21, 1881. It is historically significant because it shows the T&SL claiming the moniker "Cotton Belt Route". While "cotton belt" was a common geographic and geopolitical term for various cotton-producing areas in the South, this is the first known instance of the T&SL using "Cotton Belt Route" as a marketing nickname for the railroad. The public embraced it; the nickname would reference an operational Texas railroad for the next 110 years. Gould viewed the T&SL as a genuine threat to his business, leading to a significant right-of-way skirmish in Waco. By 1883, the T&SL was operating from Bird's Point, Missouri on the Mississippi River to Waco and beyond. Overextended, the T&SL entered receivership in 1884 (which probably kept it from falling into Gould's hands.) In February, 1886, the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas (SLA&T) Railway was created by the bankruptcy judge to become the new Cotton Belt, going against the advice of T&SL President Sam Fordyce who believed unsolved operational issues would doom the enterprise. Despite Fordyce's concerns, he became President of the SLA&T. Within a year, Fordyce had decided to compete with Gould by building new branch lines in north Texas, one of which would be from Corsicana to Hillsboro. Left: The Cotton Belt -- identified only by its nickname -- aggressively promoted its faster route to Memphis and St. Louis with "No Change of Cars..." This ad appeared in the Hillsboro Mirror of January 15, 1890, but it was generic; it did not mention any Texas towns.

The MP (Katy) line from Fort Worth had stimulated commerce and population in Hillsboro, but the town lacked a direct route to the northeast toward St. Louis, Memphis and the east coast. Fordyce's Corsicana - Hillsboro branch line would create such a route via Texarkana that was significantly faster for Hillsboro residents than what Gould could offer. Railroad committees in both Hillsboro and Corsicana backed Fordyce's plan, and they agreed that the branch should take a southern route through the community of Dresden. Left, Top: The Hillsboro Reflector of May 26, 1887 printed this letter sent by Fordyce to the railroad committees to make them aware of strong interest on the part of the citizens of Milford to be on the proposed SLA&T branch line. Milford was thirteen miles northeast of Hillsboro, somewhat out of the way for an optimum route from Corsicana. Yet, Milford's representative had been able to convince Fordyce of the value of routing through there. When construction actually occurred in 1887-1888, neither Milford nor Dresden was on the branch line. Instead, the route was a more direct path through Blooming Grove and Mertens. Milford would gain rail service in 1889 when the Dallas & Waco built through the community. Dresden, thirteen miles southwest of Corsicana, never obtained rail service. Left, Bottom: The Temple Daily Times of February 9, 1888 announced inauguration of Cotton Belt service to Hillsboro from Corsicana. Right: This map highlights railroads through Hillsboro c.1920. In 1913, an electric interurban subsequently known as the Texas Electric (TE) built into Hillsboro, crossing the Katy at grade on the north side of town. That crossing became the location of Tower 167 in 1931. The TE also had grade-separated crossings of the Katy and the T&BV on the south side of town.

Knowing the Cotton Belt was on thin ice financially, Gould made a secret agreement with Fordyce in 1888 for MP and the Cotton Belt to cooperate on traffic through Texarkana. This gave Gould the opportunity to assist Fordyce with loans and by making private SLA&T stock purchases, gaining valuable financial leverage. Gould was thus positioned to influence the reorganization when the Cotton Belt became insolvent in 1889 (as Fordyce had predicted.) The next bankruptcy plan created a new railroad dominated by Gould known as the St. Louis Southwestern Railway (SLSW or SSW, but more commonly just Cotton Belt.) Gould installed his younger son Edwin as President of the Cotton Belt, and Edwin ran a profitable railroad for more than three decades, retiring in 1925.

Jay Gould died in December, 1892 and was succeeded by his son George as President of MP, the T&P and the I&GN. By 1917, the Gould family was no longer involved with any of those railroads.

The next railroad into Hillsboro was the Trinity & Brazos Valley (T&BV) Railway chartered there in 1902 to build southeast to Mexia, ostensibly heading for Beaumont. The Mexia line was completed in 1904 along with a northwest extension from Hillsboro to Cleburne. The T&BV was acquired on August 1, 1905 by the Colorado & Southern (C&S) Railway as part of a grand plan by C&S Board member Benjamin Franklin Yoakum to build a major north / south line between Fort Worth and Houston. Yoakum, a native Texan born near Mexia, had advanced from a track gang on the I&GN to become simultaneously the CEO of both the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific (CRI&P) Railroad and the St. Louis & San Francisco ("Frisco") Railway, two major Midwest railroads that were attempting to merge. Both railroads had built tracks from Missouri and Kansas through Oklahoma into north Texas. Yoakum had begun assembling a Houston-based collection of small railroads that would span from New Orleans to Brownsville and compete with SP along the coast. Known by the marketing name the Gulf Coast Lines (GCL), Yoakum's lack of a connecting route between Houston and Dallas / Fort Worth made it particularly galling to be handing freight over to SP to be carried between the GCL and his north Texas railroads. Yoakum began his project for a north / south line by building Rock Island tracks from Fort Worth to Dallas in 1903. To build to Houston, Yoakum needed the T&BV's charter which could be modified easily. Getting a new charter from the Legislature would encounter stiff opposition from other railroads. Yoakum had befriended Edwin Hawley, a well known railroad investor and the principal owner / financier of the C&S. Teaming with Hawley added financial heft to Yoakum's railroad play in Texas. Hawley was willing to buy the T&BV because Yoakum's plan would eventually yield a C&S route from Denver to Houston and Galveston. The C&S already had Denver - Fort Worth service operated in Texas by its Fort Worth-based subsidiary, the Fort Worth & Denver City (FW&DC) Railway. [The 'C' was dropped in 1951, becoming simply the FW&D.] After Hawley acquired the T&BV, he sold a half-interest to Rock Island. To extend the T&BV toward Houston and Dallas, Yoakum first built across the H&TC tracks at Mexia toward the community of Brewer, eleven miles distant. Brewer (which Yoakum renamed Teague, his mother's maiden name) was at the midpoint of a Houston - Dallas route that Rock Island surveyors had mapped in 1903. It would host a major yard and maintenance shops for the T&BV. Yoakum's northward construction from Teague stopped at Waxahachie where he obtained trackage rights on the Katy into Dallas. Southward into Houston, the T&BV connected with the Houston Belt & Terminal (HB&T) Railway, a property Yoakum had founded to build a union depot and to function as a switching railroad around Houston. The HB&T connected to the two GCL railroads that served Houston - the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico (south) and the Beaumont, Sour Lake and Western (east.) Right: The Houston Daily Post of February 21, 1903 reported that RCT had ordered the T&BV to build an interlocking tower at Hillsboro. By RCT rules, the T&BV had to pay the entire capital expense because its tracks arrived at the crossing after 1901. Prior to the T&BV, RCT had not required an interlocker for the Cotton Belt (SSW) / Katy crossing at Hillsboro. Left: This index for the 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance map set of Hillsboro has been annotated to show the parallel paths of the steam railroads through Hillsboro and the location of Tower 44 where they crossed on the north side of town. RCT commissioned Tower 44 on July 7, 1904 as a mechanical interlocker with 24 functions. All three railroads, the Katy, Cotton Belt and T&BV, shared the tower's recurring operations and maintenance (O&M) expenses, but the specific apportionments are undetermined. That same day, July 7, 1904, RCT also commissioned towers at Cleburne, Malone and Hubbard. Like Hillsboro, all were on the T&BV's Cleburne - Mexia line. The T&BV likely ran a special passenger train to carry the inspector and supporting railroad personnel along the route to optimize the time that would otherwise be required to inspect all four towers. Their construction had begun more or less simultaneously, and RCT had numbered them consecutively west to east along the T&BV line -- Towers 43 through 46. All four were erected and commissioned prior to the C&S acquisition. At Tower 44, the Katy had the O&M responsibility (per 1916 RCT report) but it seems unlikely that the Katy had led the design and construction of Tower 44. Other Katy towers in Texas (e.g. Tower 53, Tower 64, Tower 93, Tower 109) were concrete but Tower 44 was built with wood, most likely by the T&BV which had the capital expense obligation. The Katy might have taken over the O&M responsibility when the T&BV entered a lengthy receivership in 1914.

Above: Barriger took this photo of Tower 44 sometime in the latter 1930s after the T&BV had been abandoned. The hut at far right sits atop the T&BV right-of-way beside the tower. Barriger's view is to the north from the rear platform of his business car on a southbound Katy train. (photo courtesy John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library) Right: This track chart of Hillsboro (Ed Chambers collection) was produced in 1915 by the Katy's Office of Chief Engineer. It shows several connecting tracks among the railroads, and indicates that the two parallel Katy tracks through town combined to a single track south of the Katy depot. Although the electric interurban was in operation through Hillsboro in 1915, its tracks do not appear on this chart. The red rectangle shows the location of Tower 44 which is depicted on the 1924 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Hillsboro as a 2-story Signal Tower with a door on the north side. Although external staircases on towers were sometimes illustrated on Sanborn maps (e.g. Towers 9 and 41 in Navasota), Sanborn's cartographer did not do so here for the staircase on the north side of Tower 44 (see photos at top of page.)

Left: A news report in the Houston Post of October 26, 1910 discussed plans submitted to RCT a day earlier for expansion of Tower 44's interlocking plant. The plant's function count would increase from 24 to 32 to account for signals, switches and derails necessitated by a new T&BV track across the existing rail lines to serve a cotton compress. Right: Although the Post story described the plans as being "received" on the 25th, the Galveston Tribune of October 26 reported that RCT had "approved" the new plans on the 25th.

Left: This snippet from the 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Hillsboro has been annotated to show that each railroad built its own freight and passenger depots, except the Cotton Belt, which built a combination depot. Hillsboro did not have a Union Depot. Since the railroads had parallel main tracks and sidings through town, walking between passenger depots was a safety issue. In 1906, RCT reported an average of 53 trains per day past Tower 44, but the frequency of operations was probably higher during daylight hours near the depots due to switching movements that did not need to go as far north as Tower 44. Overall, it was a dangerous place for passengers to change railroads. The Texas Legislature gave RCT the authority to order railroads to collaborate on building union passenger depots wherever RCT deemed it to be a worthwhile expense in the interest of the traveling public. Hillsboro was Exhibit A for a town where construction of a union depot would improve safety and convenience for a significant number of daily travelers. RCT ordered the three railroads to build a union depot at Hillsboro, but the order was met with resistance by the railroads.   Above: The Lancaster Herald of September 30, 1910 reported on RCT's decision to file suit against the railroads for failure to execute orders to build union depots at Hillsboro and Dallas. The railroads at Dallas soon complied with RCT's order.

 
Above Left: Four years later, the Brenham Daily Banner of August 27, 1914 reported postponement of a hearing planned by RCT to discuss the apportionment of costs to the railroads for a union depot at Hillsboro. By this time, the railroads had generally agreed to build a union depot but were vigorously opposed to RCT's cost sharing plan. Above Center: The postponed hearing took place on September 9 as reported by the San Antonio Express of September 10, 1914. While the railroads had agreed to share the capital cost of the depot, no agreement had been reached for the cost of staffing and maintaining it. Above Right: Eighteen months later, the Austin Statesman and Tribune of April 12, 1916 reported that the Cotton Belt was conferring with the Attorney General regarding postponement of the upcoming district court trial in the "famed Hillsboro depot case." The story goes on to explain that RCT had won the original trial ruling but an appellate court had reversed the lower court because it deemed the cost sharing formula to be unfair. A postponement of the trial was inevitable because both the Katy and the T&BV were now under the protection of Federal bankruptcy courts and thus could not be forced to answer a state court summons. The Katy chose (and was eventually allowed) to participate in the trial.

Below Left: The Austin Statesman of November 24, 1916 reported that the State of Texas would appeal the ruling of the trial court in the "so-called Hillsboro union depot case." The case had been tried before a jury in Austin. Below Center: Proclaiming a year later that "Hillsboro Union Depot Case Finally Out of Courts" (a subhead no one believed), the Galveston Tribune of November 28, 1917 reported the State had won its appeal. Below Right: The Houston Post of October 3, 1923 reported on oral arguments presented to an appellate commission assigned by the Texas Supreme Court to hear the "Old Railroad Case." Significant delay was attributable to the nationalization of the railroads during World War I under the U. S. Railroad Administration (USRA) which had commenced one month after the November, 1917 appellate ruling. The USRA had the power to force railroads to share depots. Whether this occurred in Hillsboro is undetermined, but it seems likely. The USRA was decommissioned by the Transportation Act of 1920 which also granted the Interstate Commerce Commission significant powers over the railroads. The Katy (1915 - 1923) and the T&BV (1914 - 1930) were both in Federal receivership which could also have inhibited any attempt by state courts to resolve the case. The Katy emerged from bankruptcy on April 1, 1923.
 

So how did it all end? Under the headline "Hillsboro Depot Case To Be Tried Here; Set For December 8", the Austin Statesman of November 19, 1924 explained that yet another trial was to be held regarding the apportionment of expenses for building and maintaining a union depot at Hillsboro. The last line of the story was "Any way that the case is decided by the trial court, it will again be appealed to the higher courts." That was undoubtedly true, but no subsequent newspaper stories about the potential Hillsboro union depot have been found. The case seems to have simply disappeared. The operations of the T&BV during its lengthy receivership were probably cut back, so its connecting passenger count at Hillsboro was probably very small. Cotton Belt service to Hillsboro was on a lightly used branch line that terminated there, so the number of inconvenienced passengers might also have been tiny. In the end, only the Katy had significant passenger traffic through Hillsboro, and its depot was adequate for that purpose. Passengers that previously had depended on the Katy for travel to Fort Worth and Waco now had an electric interurban line serving Hillsboro, and its depot was not near the steam railroad tracks. No evidence has been found to indicate that a union depot was ever built at Hillsboro.

The T&BV was in receivership from 1914 until 1930 when the Burlington - Rock Island (B-RI) Railroad was created as a paper entity to take ownership of the T&BV's assets. The B-RI was owned in equal shares by the Burlington system (successor to the C&S) and Rock Island. Burlington assigned its B-RI ownership to the FW&DC. Rock Island's half interest was assigned to its Texas subsidiary, the Chicago, Rock Island & Gulf. B-RI quickly abandoned unprofitable tracks from Hillsboro to both Cleburne (1932) and Hubbard (1935.) The tracks from Hubbard to Mexia were abandoned in 1942. Left: On September 20, 1932, the Delta Courier of Cooper, Texas carried this story on B-RI abandoning its Cleburne line. Right: The Ennis Daily News of June 19, 1935 opined on the demise of the B-RI line from Hillsboro to Hubbard which resulted in Hillsboro no longer having any B-RI service. Several sections of Hwy. 171 between Mexia and Cleburne are built on the former T&BV right-of-way. State Highway 22 occupies the T&BV right-of-way between Interstate 35 and downtown Hillsboro. The T&BV branch between Mexia and Teague was abandoned in 1976, but its main line from Teague north to Waxahachie and south to Houston is now a major line owned by Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF.)

	Left: In this undated photo, the Katy depot in Hillsboro had seen its better days and may have been headed for demolition. (Texas Historical Commission image)
	Left: Instead, the depot was restored to host the local Chamber of Commerce and it also serves as the town's Visitor's Center. (Google Street View, 2019)

Tower 167 In 1913, the Southern Traction Co. completed an electric interurban rail line from Dallas to Waco that passed through Hillsboro. In addition to moving passengers, the interurban also hauled box cars and package freight. At the north edge of Hillsboro, the interurban crossed the Katy line to Dallas at grade. A connecting track was added at the crossing to facilitate freight car exchanges between the Katy and the interurban. In 1917, the Southern Traction Co. merged with the Texas Traction Co. to form the Texas Electric (TE) Railway, the largest interurban system in Texas. On February 10, 1931, Tower 167 was commissioned by RCT as a 4-function mechanical interlocking plant to control the TE / Katy grade crossing. TE employees were responsible for operating the interlocker, most likely a member of the TE train crew disembarking from his stopped train to operate controls mounted trackside near the crossing. The Hillsboro installation appears to have been part of a larger effort to add interlocking plants to TE crossings of steam railroads, the others being Tower 165 (Corsicana), Tower 166 (Plano) and Tower 174 (Italy.) Left: This annotated snippet of a larger map ((c) Johnnie Myers, 1953) shows the TE / Katy crossing at Tower 167 on the north side of Hillsboro. After the SSW was abandoned between Hillsboro and Corsicana in 1940, the TE began using the SSW tracks to reach warehouses and businesses that still wanted service. The TE also repurposed the abandoned SSW depot. The TE crossed the SSW at grade near Tower 44 but the crossing was not part of Tower 44's controls and there's no evidence it was ever interlocked. The short east / west green lines on the map near Franklin St. mark the location of the TE station at the corner of Waco St. and Fancher St. (now the home of R&K Cafe II.) At the south end of Hillsboro, the TE had grade-separated crossings of both the T&BV and the Katy, passing beneath both lines. Although the map shows Wood St. hosting the TE rails, the 1925 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Hillsboro identifies it as Waco St., a name still in use today. The TE ceased operations at the end of 1948. Left: The TE (green) / Katy (pink) grade crossing is shown in this 1938 aerial image ((c)historicaerials.com.) The yellow arrow points to the Tower 167 control cabin south of the diamond. Under magnification, the cabin and its short shadow to the north are more apparent.

Right: A Katy Employee Timetable (ETT) dated August 24, 1933 identified the location of the TE crossing at Hillsboro as "Lakenon" and noted that it was "Signaled" instead of "Interlocked." True interlocking machines incorporated time delays to deconflict signal changes in the presence of approaching trains. The TE interlockers did not. Their operation depended on TE train crew to observe the track before operating the controls to signal a STOP indication on the Katy. Below: The same ETT listed specific freight and passenger train speed limits when approaching the TE crossing signals at Italy and Hillsboro. This might have pertained to the fact that the Katy's signals were not truly interlocked at these crossings.

 
Above: These two photos (from the Johnnie Myers Collection) are each described as views of the TE passing beneath the T&BV at the south end of Hillsboro, but only the one at left is correct. This is true particularly because its caption in the book in which it appears was written by Johnnie Myers, an expert on the TE and the author of the book, Texas Electric Railway by Johnnie Myers (1982, Bulletin 121, Central Electric Railfans' Association.) Myers' caption reads "At the south end of Hillsboro, on the Waco line, Texas Electric turned right after passing under the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway bridge." This description aligns with the fact that the T&BV is known to have crossed over Waco St. (which hosted the TE rails) at the south end of Hillsboro. The unidentified photographer was facing south and the photo shows the location where the TE departed the roadway to curve to the southwest toward its next underpass at the Katy tracks about an eighth of a mile distant.

The undated photo above right showing the TE passing beneath the Katy railroad on the south side of Hillsboro was taken by William "Frank" Rogers. The photo was published electronically on July 8, 2020 in an article from the official blog of the Plano Conservancy for Historic Preservation. The article discusses Rogers' photography of the TE, but its commentary about this photo concludes with "In the distance, the tracks pass underneath a Texas and Brazos Valley Railroad trestle." (emphasis added, the 'T' was for Trinity, not Texas!) Perhaps the author did not realize that the TE passed under both the T&BV and the Katy on the south side of Hillsboro. The photo shows the Katy bridge with Rogers' camera facing north from a location southwest of the bridge. Note rooftops, utility poles and towers beyond the left fill toward downtown Hillsboro, details that would not appear if this photo faced south into the rural landscape outside of Hillsboro. The Katy bridge has been replaced by a newer one (below, Google Street View, June, 2026, looking northeast) and the right-of-way beneath it is now a highway, not the TE.
                        

 
Above Left: This 2023 Google Earth image has been annotated to show the paths of the TE, Katy and T&BV (B-RI) on the south side of Hillsboro. South of the TE / T&BV crossing (note purple bridge abutments added to depict the bridge that no longer exists) the former TE right-of-way curves southwest to become Abbott Ave. which passes beneath UP's former Katy tracks. This is the same curve visible beyond the bridge in the photo further above showing the TE making a southwest turn from the roadway while S. Waco St. continues ahead and curves to the left (southeast.) The satellite image reveals that south of the curve into Abbott Ave., the remnant of S. Waco St. has been relegated to secondary status. Frank Rogers' camera would have been located at the bottom left corner of this image looking generally north.

Above Right: This annotated 1938 aerial image ((c) historicaerials.com) shows a similar view on the south side of Hillsboro. The last segment of the B-RI (T&BV) through Hillsboro was abandoned (to Hubbard) in 1935, and this image suggests that the right-of-way had been cleared (or such operations were underway) by 1938. The red arrows show significant disturbed earth along the right-of-way consistent with removal of the earthen approaches and the T&BV bridge over S. Waco St. If the approaches were intact, shadows cast to the north should be apparent, but none are present. This contrasts with the obvious shadows produced by the Katy's earthen fills (yellow and orange arrows) leading to its bridge over the TE. Comparing the Katy fills, the westerly fill (orange arrow) has a shadow that tapers off over a longer distance than the easterly fill (yellow arrow) which appears shorter and more pronounced. This is consistent with Frank Rogers' photo showing the larger east (right) and smaller west (left) fills.

 
Above Left: This annotated 1938 aerial image ((c)historicaerials.com) shows the tracks near Tower 44 (yellow circle.) Note the footpath (blue arrow) used by operators to access the tower from N. Covington St. The Cotton Belt (orange arrows) entered Hillsboro on a southwest heading, crossing the TE at grade on Waco St. (purple circle), a location that was not interlocked because the TE tracks were on a vehicular roadway. Automated grade crossing signals with lights and bells had been developed (and used in Texas by 1933) to warn vehicles of approaching trains, and this was deemed an acceptable safety system for the TE where its tracks were on a roadway. Whether grade crossing signals were implemented here is undetermined. TE trains were always moving slowly here anyway since the interurban station was only a quarter mile south, hence the TE may simply have stopped before crossing the Cotton Belt tracks. Near the Katy tracks, the Cotton Belt had a bridge (orange oval) above a roadway that appears to be an extension of N. Covington St. north of its intersection with Chenault St. (an extension that no longer exists.) This aerial image was captured after the T&BV (B-RI) was abandoned through Hillsboro in 1935, hence its former right-of-way beside the tower is difficult to discern.

Above Right: This 2022 Google Earth satellite view of the immediate vicinity of the site of Tower 44 shows there is now only a single track rail line. This is in stark contrast to the Katy double tracks visible in Barriger's photos. It appears that the abutments for the SSW bridge (orange arrows, corresponding to the orange oval at left) may have survived, buried in the dense foliage that now occupies this area. Another bridge abutment (red arrow) was captured amidst the foliage by Google Street View near where N. Covington now makes a right-hand turn into Chenault St. The purpose of this abutment and whether it was railroad-related is undetermined; field investigation would be valuable. Below: Did Google Street View (March, 2023) capture the foundation of Tower 44?
          

 
Last Revised: 7/14/2026 - Contact the Texas Interlocking Towers Page.