Above: Although it is out of service, the spur track from the south still connects to the main line at Chaney Junction.
www.txrrhistory.com - Tower 14 - Houston (Chaney Junction)
A crossing of the Houston & Texas Central and Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio railroads
In 1877, the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio (GH&SA)
Railway entered Houston by trackage rights over the International
& Great Northern Railroad from Pierce Junction, a crossing on the GH&SA main line. Three
years later, the GH&SA constructed its own line into Houston from Stella (near Pierce Junction). The objective of this line was to reach the Texas
& New Orleans Railroad freight yards in north Houston. Doing so required
crossing the San Antonio & Aransas Pass (SA&AP) Railway south of downtown
Houston (Tower 12), and crossing the Houston & Texas Central
(H&TC) Railroad west of downtown at a location that became known as
Chaney Junction. Eventually, Tower 14 was built there, authorized for operation by the
Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT) on July 4, 1903 with a 16-function electrical
interlocker.
The route between Stella and Tower 14 passed through the Montrose
neighborhood near downtown Houston, and by 1915, Montrose was
rapidly expanding as a residential area. Under pressure
from city officials to abandon the line through Montrose, the
GH&SA began using H&TC's alternate route from Tower 14
to West Junction (on the GH&SA main line) via Tower 13 (Eureka
Junction). Except for a short spur, the GH&SA tracks running south from Tower 14 were out of service by October 31,
1915 when Tower 14 was listed as "Abandoned and crossing removed" by RCT. On Christmas Eve, 1917, the GH&SA opened their
own line parallel to the H&TC line between West Junction and
Chaney Junction via Tower 13.
Today, the spur south of Chaney Junction has been taken out of
service although various track segments are still in place. The
former H&TC and GH&SA tracks between Chaney Junction and
Eureka Junction are still in place and see regular Union Pacific traffic.
The original Tower 14 is long gone. Please contact
us if you have additional information about Tower 14.
Historic Map, Tower 14
Above: This image taken from a Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. map of Houston
dated 7/26/1907 shows the Chaney Junction location of the GH&SA and H&TC
diamond in the
upper right corner. The image has been rotated so that north is up (resulting in
the upside down lettering for Washington Av.) Magnification (right)
reveals a
two-story "Signal Tower" located in the southwest quadrant.
Track Charts, Chaney Jct. (courtesy,
T&NO Archives)
Because the T&NO was successor to the GH&SA (above) and H&TC (below), two
separate track charts existed in the T&NO archives.
Satellite Image, Tower 14 Site
General Location Map, Tower 14
