The Katy (Yards and Routes)

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

Does anyone have access to Katy route maps that are more detailed than the generic one on the KRHS web page?

I want to get some interchange information on other lines that crossed the Katy in Texas.

Thanks,
Ed

2

The big interchanges were at Houston and Ft Worth.

The MoP operated over the MKT from Waco to Tower 55 in Ft Worth and then from whitesboro to Durant. They intechanged with the ATSF, BN/FWD, MP and TP at Ft Worth. They interchanged with the ATSF at Temple. They interchanged with the SP, MP at San Antonio. At Houston they interchanges with the MP, SP, ATSF, FWD/BN, PTRA, and HBT. At Waco they interchanged with the MP.At Denison they interchanged with the SLSF. At Smithville they interchanged with the SP and at Sealy they interchange with ATSF. The MKT and MP jointly owned the Galveston Houston and Henderson RR which interchanged with the Texas City Terminal at Texas City and the ATSFand SP at Galveston.

Dave H.

3

Lines that crossed the Katy-- well, literally crossed: in San Antonio, the Southern Pacific Sunset Line east of East Yard crossed, that is flew over the Katy on a grade separation. Don’t know if it still does. I think I have a picture but it would take me some time to find it, upload it to as web site and then link to it here…

Grade separations between railroads in southern half of Texas are rare.

But Katy also crossed under the Southern Pacific at Houston, under SP’s freight main west of their Hardy Street engine terminal, a little north of downtown, in the drainage clearance of White Oak Bayou along the I-45 North Freeway, just northwest of MKT “City Yard”.
Katy Station and tracks ran under one corner of the huge M&M Building, “through the basement” so to speaker, the building that is now University of Houston Downtown Campus. I once designed a corner modulle for this scene, but it focused on the SP passenger line which ran through kind of a gallery under the M&M building with one side open to Buffalo Bayou, similar to the way the Wiener Verkehrs Betreib Schnellbahn runs through a gallery alongside the Danube in Vienna.
In Houston

4

I think I have a 30 year old MKT employee’s timetable that has interchange information, distances between depots, siding lengths, etc.

5

Thanks, guys. That is pretty much what I thought.

Ed