With such a diverse and historically significant collection, we are always striving to tell the stories behind each piece. But, sometimes those stories find us! Such was the case a few weeks ago when three charming women paid a visit to our office.
The staff was working away on administrative tasks when Pat Taylor, Peggy Boote, and Sarah Payton walked in and introduced themselves as former operators of Santa Fe Tower 19. They immediately had our attention. Each of them had been employees of the Santa Fe Railway from 1979 into the late 1980s, having had various tasks at the Railroad. They shared some wonderful stories and anecdotes about their years with the line, and Tower 19 in particular. Tower operators performed an essential and oftentimes critical role in the movement of passenger and freight trains.
Tower 19 is one of two historic structures at the Museum of the American Railroad. Listed on the Historic American Engineering Record at the Library of Congress, the tower controlled the movement of trains at one of the busiest rail intersections in Dallas for nearly 90 years. Displaced as part of DART’s light rail Red Line construction in 1993, ownership of Tower 19 was transferred to the Museum and the structure was moved to Fair Park. In 2012, it was moved again to its present location in Frisco.
As we listened to Pat, Peggy, and Sarah, stories of their years in Tower 19 began to unfold. We hung on every word of their recollections of the daily tasks associated with controlling the movement of trains at the busy rail intersection near Lamar and Corinth streets just east of downtown Dallas. Each of them recounted how train crews and workers with Santa Fe’s signal department looked after their safety in this remote location in Dallas. They also emphasized the importance of avoiding any delays to Amtrak trains #21 and #22, the
Texas Eagle,
as it traversed the Tower 19 interlocking on its way in and out of Dallas.
When railroads began to crisscross Texas at the turn of the century, the orderly movement of trains across rail intersections was a priority in many localities. Failure to do so could result in catastrophe. At the urging of the Texas Legislature, an interlocking (a method of mechanically limiting the movement of a train in an opposing direction) was required at nearly every crossing. Each interlocking was numbered in the order of its construction. There were over 200 interlockings within the state of Texas at the height of railroad construction. The Tower 19 interlocking was among the earliest, originally controlling the intersection of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas line beginning in 1903. It was also among the most comprehensive, having 105 functions including control of the busy Dallas “Belt Line”, along with two rail yards, and centralized traffic control over Santa Fe’s Dallas district. Some interlockings were far less sophisticated, merely having a stop sign or “smash board” that was manually placed and removed according to orders from dispatchers.
We are proud and honored to have met Pat, Peggy, and Sarah during their visit to the museum. Tower 19 stands today in honor of their years with the railroad and the legacy left behind by countless others that worked the now 115-year-old historic structure.
