Abandonment Of The Katy, East Of 610

[IronTiger]

OK, so we all know that the MKT between 610 and Katy was sold to TxDOT and the railroad had free run on it until TxDOT dismantled it in 1997, but what of east of 610, where the Katy ran downtown? Obviously, it's been gone for years, but was it under the same circumstances of the Interstate 10 abandonment?

 

I have a few notes regarding that:

 

- The line was apparently not abandoned all at once, it seems that the "loop" that went under the Elysian viaduct and US-59 was last...but I'm just guessing on that one.

- Chron points a playground built in 1996 in the Heights where children could see trains passing by. This particular article was published after the I-10 stretch was sold, and trains were obviously still running in 10/96.

- If TxDOT did buy the line, when did they flip the line ROW to City of Houston? Do they actually own the ROW? Also, if they bought it, it was probably part of a "package deal", but TxDOT couldn't do anything with it. It's certainly not fit for commuter rail...and wouldn't it make sense that if it wasn't going to be used for the Interstate 10 corridor, wouldn't it made more financial sense to just flip it back to whoever owned it, instead of abandoning it and just letting the ROW go to waste for the next 10+ years? What if they did, and UP (who I think had SP at the time) just abandoned it as soon it fell back into their hands?

- If TxDOT didn't buy the line, when did Southern Pacific decide to abandon to it? Does UP still technically own it?

- If the rail lines were not dismantled at the same time, which one was taken apart first and how long did they other part last?

- Regarding the playground, by 1996, it was pretty much decided that the commuter rail would not be happening and the rail line would be abandoned. Were the Heights playground people even aware of that fact, or would they not be if TxDOT didn't buy the line?

 

Any insight on this would be appreciated...

[Purpledevil]

Ok, IronTiger, I'm digging deep here for you. The I-10 portion of the Katy was abandoned first for the highway. The track was cut at tower 13 and turned toward the SP line that heads towards Fox 26. Until that line was rerouted, UP continued to use the approach from downtown toward TC Jester, as they still used the yard quite extensively. Once Tower 13 was rerouted and UP could access the yard from the west, the line was officially abandoned (as was the SP spur that ran next to the MKT, going south on Yale and north up Nicholson). It took a couple of months before the line was removed, and even then, the crossbucks and electric signals remained for several more months after that.

The playground at 7th and Heights was there prior to 1996. It might've been rebuilt then, but it existed prior to.

The portion of the line that crossed Texas Ave., Dowling, and ran parallel to McKinney was the last portion abandoned when Enron Field was built. Until then, the line was still used for small switching jobs near what now is the ballpark. The line then cut across McKinney heading south toward the Gulf Freeway. The last time I was on that side of town, the tracks had been relaid and new signals were up. It looked as if the light rail was coming up that way.

[IronTiger]

I remember from another thread that railroad signals east of 610 were few and far between. The Heights Blvd. crossing was one of the few that had lights AND a gate. 7th and Cortlandt practically crossed through the middle of intersection and that apparently didn't have lights at all. 

 

San Jacinto, IIRC, had the old gate and light set remaining up until the bike lane was built. I could probably bring it up on Google Street View (new one only, but the resolution is horrible, worse than it originally was)

[Purpledevil]

Man, you are about to pull the real geek out in me.

So here goes...from tower 13, facing east, Eureka street had lighted signals, no gates. You can find this intersection in action on YouTube. TC Jester always had the bridge over the yard, at least as far as I go back. Durham also had the bridge. Next is Shepherd, which was four lanes NB only, with lighted gates. These were moved next to the bridge, with shorter gates installed, when the bridge over Shepherd was built in the early 80's. MKT did not replace the Shepherd gates. They were still the originals up until the line was removed. Waverly, Allston, etc. up to Yale were all crossbucks, no lights. YouTube shows the MKT in action switching across Waverly, where you can see the crossbucks only.

Yale originally had the same set up as Eureka, with no gates, except it had a pair of lights facing away from Yale towards Heights for use by cars going west on 7th, which as it does now, dead ends at Yale. These were changed in the early 80's to include larger lights, and gates. Heights had a set of lights, one one each side of the boulevard, unlike the UP main which has a pair on both sides. The gates on the MKT were from probably the 40's, maybe even the 30's. They were ancient even back in the 80's, with very small red lights and a triangle gate arm. Harvard, Cortlandt, Arlington, and Columbia were all unlit crossbucks. White Oak had the non gated lights until the late 80's when it and Houston Ave were refitted with new signals. White Oak thus had a gated crossing now, as did Houston Ave. Neither had gates prior. Oxford was a crossbuck, bridge over Studemont, which brings us to Sawyer. Sawyer was lit, but the lights were elevated on the top, above the vertical poles holding the signals in the ground, as well as on the pole itself. No gates, just two sets of lights facing the direction of oncoming traffic for that signal. Crossbuck was mounted on the pole. Silver, and all streets between Sawyer and Houston Ave were all crossbucks, not lit.

Houston Ave was a very weird one to me. Originally it had the signals like Sawyer that were elevated, only the crossbucks and the one set of lights were on the top of the metal arm at the top, and nothing on the vertical pole. These two signals, had much shorter horizontal metal arms on the top than Sawyer did. Much like Heights, they were extremely old even back then. When Houston Ave was refitted with new lights in the late 80's, two elevated structures were constructed on each side of the track. One set of lights were put on each vertical portion of the structure, 4 pairs were installed across the top of each structure, horizontally, facing each direction. That's 8 pairs of lights strung across the top, plus one pair on the vertical portion facing each way as you're accustomed to seeing at a crossing. The gates were separate from the two huge structures, standing by themselves, with only lights on the gates.

I could probably do the area near Texas and Dowling as well, but I don't know all the street names over there. I do know if it is still standing, the signal on Live Oak is exactly like the ones Katy used on Sawyer St, and all of those signals paralleling McKinney are the same type that were in use through the Heights. Dowling, Texas, and St. Charles were the only 3 streets that had gates then. All others were lit, just no gates.

Edited June 17, 2014 by Purpledevil

[Purpledevil]

Btw, funny you mentioned 7th and Cortlandt. You are correct that neither had a lit crossing, what you might not realize is that when you crossed it there, there was a strong curve in the track. You could not see the train coming, until it was right there. Of course, it certainly helped that the Katy never went faster than probably 5 miles an hour down the line. Slowest. Train. Ever.

Another fun fact, and this one should be in the news archives somewhere, but in 1989, just one year after the UP bought the line, two of their trains went head on with one another at the intersection of 7th and Cortlandt, resulting in a derailment that put a grain car on its side, leaning against the house at the start of the curve. If you find that news clip (ch.11, btw), you'll also find a couple of young men meandering around the scene, apparently with nothing better to do than hang around a train derailment. The portly Anglo, was me, lol.

Edited June 17, 2014 by Purpledevil

[Purpledevil]

This is crossing Waverly. Right below it is the video of the Katy crossing Eureka at the SP main at Tower 13.

Sorry, I keep adding on, but you are correct. The line was ripped out starting at the yard, and working towards downtown. Now, keep in mind, the original Katy was cut in two after McKee St. The line towards the Heights was spurred into the UP main just south of Canal. The other "half" was abandoned just after Texas Avenue, with only the spur servicing the old warehouse where Minute Maid now stands being the only reason that section wasn't abandoned as well. It also was cut at McKinney, before it crossed, which was abandoned before that small section that runs parallel with McKinney. The straight line past the curve at McKinney, was Houston Belt & Terminal trackage, IIRC, including the locomotive shop and turntable at Sampson/York.

Lord, IronTiger, you've got me started. I used to ride my bike to the old SP yard on Harvard, every Tuesday and Friday nights to watch them switch up the stock and prepare lines for departure, much to the chagrin of my mother. I mean, I was around 7-8 years old! So...she started taking me in the car, which was great. She'd sit there reading her book while I'd watch them switch. The crews got to where they recognized me, and invited me to take a ride with them on a couple of occasions. Now that was cool to ride from Harvard clear up to Post Oak, getting to blast the air horns on those little box switchers every time we came to a crossing. Quite a treat for a little kid!

Edited June 17, 2014 by Purpledevil

[IronTiger]

So was the Houston Ave. crossing something more like this? 

 

I can't find the YouTube video you mentioned...the only "Katy in Houston" videos I could find are heading west out of town on Interstate 10 near Park 10 (which looks completely different due to development of the Energy Corridor, not to mention the Katy Freeway redevelopment)

[Purpledevil]

No. Houston avenue was even bigger. Ok, see how the pole sticks in the ground on the right? Add another pole on the same fixture on the left, connecting it completely across the road, and add two more pairs of light across the top and you've got it. Also, no signals in the median. One crossing gate for each side, which was a very long gate as it had a little metal "foot" that unfolded on each arm keeping both of them from scrapping the ground.

Ok, above I linked the Waverly crossing. Here is the crossing at Eureka:

I typed in "Katy Geeps" in Yahoo's search engine and found all kinds of MKT goodies from around the country. You have such a fascination with the MKT, I have to ask, have you ever gone to the museum in Denton? I highly, highly recommend it.

Edited June 17, 2014 by Purpledevil

[IronTiger]

No. Houston avenue was even bigger. Ok, see how the pole sticks in the ground on the right? Add another pole on the same fixture on the left, connecting it completely across the road, and add two more pairs of light across the top and you've got it. Also, no signals in the median. One crossing gate for each side, which was a very long gate as it had a little metal "foot" that unfolded on each arm keeping both of them from scrapping the ground.

Ok, above I linked the Waverly crossing. Here is the crossing at Eureka: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2gNM6ozGsBc

I typed in "Katy Geeps" in Yahoo's search engine and found all kinds of MKT goodies from around the country. You have such a fascination with the MKT, I have to ask, have you ever gone to the museum in Denton? I highly, highly recommend it.

I don't think that's Eureka, I think it's Kansas, you can see the telegraph poles in the background from this shot (the 1980s one, wherein the railroad crossing is on the other side). Eureka's crossing appears to be just a spur. What is the crossing seen in the last few seconds of the video linked? If I had to take a guess it'd be Silber Road, but there would have been remains of the steel mill there (unless I just saw that)

My fascination with MKT in Houston began back in 2008 when I was playing around with Google Earth looking at the Memorial City Mall (which I had just been to) and realizing that "wow, there was a railroad paralleling Interstate 10!" which led to me looking into it.

[Purpledevil]

Kansas, yes. For some reason I was thinking Eureka. Maybe that's the name of the yard. I know something over there in Cottage Grove has the name Eureka on it, lol. My fascination with the MKT came from the 1970's when the old red Katy locomotives started getting replaced by the green with yellow stripes. I don't know why that paint scheme drew me in, but I really fell for it as a kid. Another cool aspect of the MKT was the sheer age of both the locomotives and the rolling stock. Some of their locomotives were built back in the 40's and 50's and while railroads like the Mo-Pac and SP were scrapping the old workhorses, there was the MKT, pulling a couple of old bullet nose locomotives and a switcher that probably helped build the track, down the line well into the 80's. It wasn't until UP acquired the line in 88 that the old girls were put to rest. As for the rolling stock, I'm pretty certain the Katy rolled the last wooden box car down a rail line.

[Purpledevil]

Checking the maps, I see Eureka. Now, that street had two spurs that ran across it. The one closest to Hempstead Hwy curved toward Hempstead and paralleled the road in front of my old friend Mara's house, then curved slighly behind the bar, crossed 11th, then 12th, and died off somewhere behind the warehouses. The second one on Eureka simply crossed the road and serviced the plant that was there.

Which video are you speaking of? The first one I posted is at Waverly St. and if that's what your talking about it is the SP spur that came off the mainline just west of Yale and traversed north, until 6th St where it turned west, paralleling the MKT until it cut across the MKT just west of Waverly, forming a diamond, and proceeding north up Nicholson all the way to 25th in the Heights. It was a spur technically, but a very long one in the heart of the city.