www.txrrhistory.com - Tower 2 - San Antonio

Crossing of the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio (GH&SA) Railway and the San Antonio & Aransas Pass (SA&AP) Railway

The location of Tower 2 is easily identified in the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of San Antonio from 1904 (below) as the crossing of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway (SA&AP) and the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio (GH&SA) Railway. At the time the interlocking was planned, both railroads were owned by Southern Pacific (SP), but SP was forced to divest its ownership of the SA&AP in 1903 due to a court case where SP's ownership was found to be anti-competitive. It was not until 1925 that SP regained control of the SA&AP and merged it into the GH&SA.

Detailed Sanborn maps from 1912 show that the SA&AP had a yard and roundhouse immediately south of this junction. The crossing was revised significantly in the 1920s by removal of the SA&AP track that crossed the SP. In its place, a curved connection from the SA&AP yard to the SP main line was built, a track that remains in place today, visible in the lower left quadrant of the satellite photo (second below). Removing the crossing would have severed the northern extension of the SA&AP track into downtown and beyond but a new connection to these tracks had been built by the San Antonio Belt and Terminal (SAB&T) Railway from a junction with the SP main at Tower 112, immediately east of Tower 2 (see Location Map below).

A. Tyrrell Kott adds...
"As for Tower 2, it was identical to Tower 3 in Flatonia. Both were built by the San Antonio & Aransas Pass at the same time. I have a poor photo of it somewhere. It was incorporated into Tower 112 when the SA&AP was absorbed into the T&NO (or in 1917 when the M-K-T built the SAB&T to the depot - can't remember which)... The structure of Tower 2 was removed in the late 1920's when the crossing was removed. The old SA&AP depot at the corner of S. Flores and S. Alamo was not removed until 1939."

Index to the 1904 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of San Antonio showing the crossing of the SP and SA&AP railroads
in south San Antonio, site of Tower 2

Google Earth satellite map of the area formerly occupied by Tower 2. The long diagonal line of railcars
is on the SAB&T right of way. The smaller strand of railcars in the upper left quadrant of the photo
running almost due north/south is probably on the original SAAP right of way. This ROW connected
with the curved track in the lower quadrant. Tower 2 was located where this ROW crossed the east/west
SP main line which is visible across and just below the center of the photo.

Location Map, San Antonio, Texas Towers


 

Last Revised: 11/19/2006 JGK  Contact the Texas Interlocking Towers Page.