Letters assigned to junction points and interlockings

[benjamintickell53]

At some point after Arkansas Division timetable 59 (June 7, 1931) and before timetable 65 (January 10, 1932), MP renamed many of the junction points and towers south of Poplar Bluff, from a rather confusing set of names based on telegraph calls to alphabetical names moving north to south down the railroad. Some letters were skipped if it was felt that they might be confused when being read on train orders (such as EE, II and LL). Some of these junction points were later abandoned when double track was expanded, but this list helps explain some of the designations, such as HH tower and later HH crossing in Little Rock, that lasted well into the early Union Pacific era. The junction switches were all automatic switches which were operated from control boards along the way, expediting trains entering or leaving sections of double track. In 1935, AA and BB were controlled by Hoxie, DOD to FF was controlled by Newport, GG was controlled by Bald Knob, MM and PP controlled by Hot Springs Junction, RR and BCD controlled by Gurdon, and as of 1935, the junctions south of BCD had not been converted to remote control. The name/designation in brackets is the earlier designation for the junction points, which in most cases was the telegraph call or abbreviation for that location.

AA Jct [MS Jct] – north end of double track, 1.27 miles north of Walnut Ridge
BB Jct [HX Jct] – south end of double track, 2.24 miles south of Hoxie
DOD Jct – north end of double track, Diaz
CC Jct [SO Jct]- south end of double track, 0.25 mi north of White River bridge
DD Jct [WR Jct]- north end of double track, 0.18 mi south of White River bridge
FF Jct [RC Jct]- south end of double track, 4.27 miles south of Olyphant
GG Jct [JF Jct]- north end of double track, 1.71 miles north of Bald Knob. Double track extended into North Little Rock
HH Tower [UD Tower]- CRI&P crossing, 0.38 mi south of Little Rock Union Depot, Two main tracks extended from North Little Rock to MM Junction
JJ siding [CJ Siding]- 5.99 mi south of HH Tower. In earlier days this had been Cypress Junction, for a time the end of double track extending south from Little Rock.
KK Tower
– 15.82 miles south of HH Tower, located at milepost 361.88, Bryant. This tower controlled a center siding, between the two main tracks, that was installed circa 1930. KK Tower and JJ siding had both disappeared from employee timetables by mid-1932.
Hot Springs Junction – crossing of Hot Springs-Pine Bluff line, 6.41 miles south of KK Tower. This tower housed Little Rock subdivision dispatchers from circa 1933-1941. North end of “Operation by Signal Indication.”
MM Jct [SA Jct] – south end of double track, 1.52 miles south of Benton
PP Switch [NH Switch] – north end of siding, 1.16 miles south of MM Jct
QQ Tower [HS Tower] – crossing of CRI&P Hot Springs line (Haskell) and south end of “Operation by Signal Indication”
RR Jct [RO Jct] – north end of double track, 3.96 mi north of Gurdon
BCD Jct – south end of double track, 3.08 mi south of Gurdon (Bierne)
SS Siding [BO siding] – 3.17 mi south of Prescott
TT Siding [HA siding] – 3.15 mi north of Hope

Bill Pollard

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