In General
Getting Here
Map
Sights
Pictures
Signals
UP's 2020 Construction Project
Floobydust
USGS Maps

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In General

Location / Name:
NW Houston TX, Harris County

What's Here:
Location of the former Tower 13 interlocking tower
Former MKT/Katy Eureka Yard
Diamond crossing
Interchange
Maybe still some searchlight signals remaining

Data:
GPS Coordinates: 29.783937, -95.436503
Phone A/C: 713
ZIP: 77008

Access by train/transit:
It's directly on bus route #071, however, the bus does not originate downtown.

The Scoop:

Early on, the railroads coming through here were the Missouri, Kansas & Texas and the Houston & Texas Central.
Then the H&TC became the Texas & New Orleans (it may have been in 1934 when 12 other RR became the T&NO), and the MK&T became simply the MKT.
In 1961, the T&NO was acquired by the Southern Pacific, and at the time, the T&NO was the largest Texas railroad with ~3700 miles of track.
Finally, the Espee became part of the UP in 1996.
The Union Pacific acquired the MKT in 1988 (and I'm glad I came thru Dallas, Ft Worth, Waco, Austin, and Houston in 1985!).

In the early part of the 1900's, this was known as Eureka Junction.

Today, the MKT track has been abandoned and torn up except for Eureka Yard. 
The SP track heads up to Dallas via Herne.  This area on the map is highlighted by route 15.

Starting in 2019 or 2020, the Union Pacific embarked on a project to reconfigure Tower 13/Eureka Junction and the approach to Eureka Yard.  There are a few pictures at the bottom of the page taken in December 2020 by Abel G.



Acknowledgements:
Steve Sandifer
Abel G.
txrrhistory.com
Denver Todd
Google Maps

Websites and other additional information sources of interest for the area:
http://txrrhistory.com/towers/013/013.htm  Page on Tower 13.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNwg9yepr8E&feature=youtu.be Alex's drone view of the Junction construction from December 2020


Getting Here

Looks like the easiest thing is to take I-610 to I-10 east, and get off at the first exit, exit 764, for Wescott St/Washington Ave (and Katy Rd), and head north.



If you're coming out of the city in I-10, take the same exit, 764, after you pass under the humongous overpass built for the railroad!



  looking east on I-10



Map



Sights


  Tower 13

Tower 13 was authorized by the Texas Railroad Commission on July 4th, 1903.  Tower 13 assumed control of the interlockings at West Junction in 1931, Boulevard Junction in 1940, and Bellaire Junction in 1945.  The tower was closed in 1966 and operations were transferred to Tower 26.  Eureka Junction had been a major junction since 1893.  For a great deal of information on Tower 13, click here

There is one bridge in the pictures which railroad wise can not be accounted for, and tracks over it do not show up on any of the USGS maps (as the tower itself does not either).

It doesn't appear that much in the way of infrastructure has changed since the tower came down.







Looking west on the MKT




  Eureka Yard

I have provided two versions of the picture, one sized to fit a standard computer monitor, and the other is natural size" so that you can see the detail.  It is interesting to note, that on Bing, it appears the left section of the aerial picture is newer, as it shows two of the tracks removed, or so it appears.  If you have any interest in wooden trestles, you should probably make an effort to go get pictures of the one to the east of the yard before it crumbles or is taken down.






Signals



Most of the signal pictures below came from Google Maps Streetside view, and came from either Eureka St or Kansas St - as they are the only streets with a clear view of any of the signals.















UP's Construction Project of 2020/2021



Thanks to Abel, we can see Union Pacific's progress in reconfiguring Tower 13/Eureka Junction....
Please check out his drone video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNwg9yepr8E&feature=youtu.be



















Historical USGS Maps


Courtesy of the University of Texas Library, click here for their index page.







Disclaimers:

I love trains, and I love signals.  I am not an expert.  My webpages reflect what I find on the topic of the page.  This is something I have fun with while trying to help others.

Please Note:  Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them.  For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, myindexa page has a list of almost everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.

If this is a railfan page, every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct.  Once in a while, an error may creep in :-)

My philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a thousand words, especially for railfanning.  Text descriptions only get you so far, especially if you get lost or disoriented.  Take along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still better if you get lost!  I belong to AAA, which allows you to get local maps for free when you visit the local branches.  ADC puts out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their state maps do not have the railroads on them.  If you can find em, I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and concise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads.  Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.

Aerial shots were taken from either Google or Bing Maps as noted.  Screen captures are made with Snagit, a Techsmith product... a great tool if you have never used it! 

By the way, floobydust is a term I picked up 30-40 years ago from a National Semiconductor data book, and means miscellaneous and/or other stuff.

Pictures and additional information is always needed if anyone feels inclined to take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have something to add or correct.... credit is always given!  Please be NICE!!!  Contact info is here


Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as being possibly being inaccurate, wrong, or not true.

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NEW 10/10/2017, OCT11/2017, FEB21/2021
Last Modified 21-Feb-2021