Situated on U.S. Route 287, the town was built upon a stop of the Fort Worth and Denver Railway, beginning in early 1906. A post office called Southard was opened in March of the same year, and operated until April 6, 1956. In 1916, resident W. A. Poovey attempted to rename the town from Southard to Poovieville, but other residents decided on Ashtola. The town declined after being bypassed by Interstate 40 in the 1950s, and as of 2000, had an estimated 25 residents, a growth from 20 between 1970 and 1990.[2][3]
2002 Clarendon Train Collision
A BNSF SD70MAC with a freight train.BNSF Dash 9-44CW #5518 with another Dash 9-44CW.
On May 28, 2002, at 8:57 A.M., a BNSF coal train collided head-on with a BNSF intermodal train 7.7 miles from Ashtola Siding and Ashtola, Texas from the point where the coal train should have waited for the intermodal train at Ashtola, Texas. The collision itself also happened near Clarendon, Texas. The collision was primarily caused by the engineer of the coal train being distracted by his cell phone. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that the engineer's attention was diverted from a track warrant, leading him to disregard a signal to stop. This caused the head-on collision with the intermodal train.[4]
The collision resulted into the engineer of the intermodal (BNSF #4385) being killed and the rest of the crew members, the conductor from BNSF #4385, and the engineer and conductor of the coal train (BNSF #8876) were injured. [5]
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