Houston to Katy

Link: http://a-r.us/y8o

Quick Info:
States: Texas
Railroads: MKT, SP, UP

Topo

Reset

Terrain

Roadmap

Satellite

Interlocking Tower

Point of Interest

This line was first built by the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad in 1893 as they built west into Houston. From the town of Katy (named for the railroad), the MKT headed due east to a crossing with the Houston & Texas Central Railroad at Tower 13 in northwest Houston. Just on the other side of the crossing, the MKT built their Eureka Yard.

The portion of the line between Katy, TX and Tower 13 was abandoned in 1997, after the Union Pacific Railroad merged with the Southern Pacific Railroad (then owner of the MKT). The Katy Freeway (Interstate 10) has since been widened onto the adjacent right-of-way for most of its length, completely obliterating any traces of it.

Today, Eureka Yard is still in use by Union Pacific; the tracks within Katy and to the west are still in use as well.

Interlocking Towers

Nbr	Location	Railroads	Type	Authorized
13	Houston (Eureka)	MKT, H&TC	Electrical	7/4/1903
Consolidated into Tower 26 in 1966

Add your comments for this page here. All fields are required.
What is your name?
Where are you from?	,
Comments:
While required, your email address will NOT be displayed as part of your comment. Its only purpose is to allow you to optionally receive emails notifying you of updates to these comments, or allow me to contact you for further correspondence, if necessary.
Email address?	Subscribe to this abandonment
If you subscribe to this abandonment, you will receive an email whenever somebody else posts to this comment chain. You can unsubscribe later, if desired.

Whoa now Former Railfan. First off, the map neglects the area to the east (converted to a bike path) that led into downtown Houston. It had several dangerous crossings and sharp turns. Secondly, Interstate 10 was extremely busy and the train caused huge backups. Any attempt to save the line west of 610 would have resulted in more business frontage lost (dozens of active businesses and homes came down regardless), and a moving of the tracks (almost certainly).

There are YouTube videos of Katy trains in action on this line before it was abandoned....

Houston to Katy

Interlocking Towers

Comments