Russell: Did you get involved in construction at this time
Honath: When we were over here in Amarillo. One of the things that came up. We ran locations. We were loaned over to the Gulf Lines. We ran three different locations from the vicinity of Sanger to Dallas for what is the Dallas District now. One of the locations took off at Sanger and ran quite a bit North of the existing line. Then we had two others. One of them went through Denton that was the line that was finally used.
Russell: Zacha to Dalton Junction
Honath: Thatās correct.
Russell: How was the survey done in that day?
Honath: We had some aerial photograph, it was not the quality of today. We ran a transit party, that located the line. The main deference between today and then you had to go back and redo areas and change the alignment because you did not have as good information as you can now get. We used to run a transit party and then a level party behind it from that a profile and alignment map and land ties were taken. With that information the alignment was developed the grades set the curvature determined and the land to be taken determined.
Russell: What happened if a farmer would not let you cross his field?
Honath: Well I can think of one occasion. In fact we triangulated across an old fellow, I still remember his name but I wound not say it, wound not let use cross. He thought we were doing something supernatural and was very up set about it. We were passing pretty close to the family cemetery that was not to his liking. When we finally did cross his land he was out their with a shot gun not let use across but the right of way agent finally persuade him to let use cross as the railroad as today had eminent domain.
Russell: Did you take soil samples?
Honath: Yes we took samples with a core boring machines were we were going to have structures or were we were going to have a cut in rock, basically for the structures. I recall one place over near church road near Dallas we changed the alignment after we took samples. Billy Bob Johnson and I dug down about 26 feet through lenses of limestone that some times were a foot thick. I recall that quite vividly because the hand auger slipped and I got hit in the head with the handle ands knocked down.
Russell: It was a hand auger with a long handle?
Honath: It was quite comical really. Because we got out there and started digging and I was digging first. So told Bisburn lets both get on it's getting pretty hard. Well I guess I will Mr. Ware told me to help you.
Russell: What were the merits of the two lines why was the current line selected as the present line.
Honath: Well the original line that we ran was by far the best line it cut across up there north came pretty close to Pilot Point. It went through sander land. It would have been a much better line the Santa Fe would have been much more satisfied. The line was selected by Mr. Gurley , from my understanding. It was a compromise to go through Denton get the support of some of the people and politicians. There was even some consideration of using the MKT line Denton to Dallas. Those days the cooperation between railroads was very very minimal.
Russell: I understand the Southern Pacific gave some opposition to the project as well were you involved in that.
Honath: No I was not involved but all the railroads that served Dallas were opposed to it. Basically the line was a passenger line with 15 and 16 ran through to Galveston and E15 and E16 were the trains to serve Dallas. We built a passenger station at Denton and a passenger platform at White Rock. The first passenger trains did a pretty good business and the freight initially were about 20 car trains. They were not great trains.
Russell: So it was part of an effort of the Santa Fe in this era to go after the Passenger business
Honath: At that time the Santa Fe was still pursuing the passenger business and of course with the passenger business the front end business.
Russell: Were you involved in any other construction projects in this era.
Honath: Not as large as that. Latter on while at Amarillo I was involved in many construction projects. Line to serve utility plants TOTC Auto facilities and the like. In fact at the time we thought that that was going to be the last major railroad construction to take place in the United States. So you can see in that regard we did not know what we were doing.
Transcribed in altered from for the Web By Russell Crump
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