www.txrrhistory.com - Tower 65
- Algoa
Crossing of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway and the
St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railroad
The Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe (GC&SF) Railway began building its main line
out of Galveston in 1877, passing through the area south of Houston where the
town of Algoa
was founded shortly thereafter. Algoa never amounted to much - a few hundred people at best - but it became a railroad junction in 1906
when the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico (SLB&M) Railroad reached Algoa from the
south as it completed its main line from Brownsville to Houston.
Tower 65, a 25-function mechanical interlocker, was immediately
established to control the crossing which was likely to see heavy traffic.
Although the SLB&M crossed the GC&SF line with the intent of building into
Houston, they were able to negotiate a trackage rights agreement with Santa Fe
to use GC&SF tracks from Algoa as a means to get to Houston. The final Santa Fe agreement, dated April 1, 1908, worked well enough that SLB&M canceled their
plan to build into Houston, eliminating the need for Tower 65. Beginning with
the 1913 Annual Report, the Railroad Commission of Texas official list of
interlockers records Tower 65 as "Abandoned and crossing removed".
David Currey comments:
"I used to be a brakeman on the Missouri Pacific's Kingsville
Division. To me, the way the Missouri Pacific got onto the Santa
Fe at Algoa sure looked like maybe there used to be an interlocking
there. But my official guide from 1930 doesn't show such a thing.
Then in my Wells Fargo bank, there was a map of their routes around
the turn of the century, and there was a line drawn from Algoa
to Houston separate from the Santa Fe. All the other lines on
the map appeared to be accurate representations of rail routes,
so why should the StLB&M route be drawn any less accurate? I went to Algoa and poked around, including asking some of
the locals, and none could help me much, except one said there
used to be a turntable there, which I find hard to believe. The
only evidence I could find was a road which on the map lined up
with where the track would have been had it continued on past
Algoa. This road also made sort of a jog as you might expect if
it had crossed over the tracks to continue on the other side.
Also, two private driveways were directly opposite each other
in the jog, which seemed pretty odd and too coincidental."
Track Chart, Algoa (from
Santa Fe Railway
Historical Society)
Above: This image of a portion of a Santa Fe track chart of the main line through
Algoa shows the SLB&M junction. South is 'up' and Galveston is to the
left. The 'Joint Line B' agreement (indicated by the shaded area on the map)
covered main tracks and sidings from "Algoa to T&NO Jct. (beginning lease to
HB&T Co.)". SLB&M's route into Houston was from Algoa to Alvin on the original
GC&SF main line and then from Alvin to T&NO Jct. (Tower
81) on a
line that Santa Fe built in 1883 to reach Houston. North of Tower 81, the Santa
Fe tracks were leased to Houston Belt & Terminal (HB&T) leading into
New South Yard. HB&T was jointly owned by the major
railroads serving Houston, and much of their property was original Santa Fe
construction.
Below: This image from Ken Stavinoha's collection (provided to us via Don
Harper) shows the joint Santa Fe depot at Algoa. Magnification (further below)
shows the SLB&M sign on the side of the depot and the GC&SF lettering on the
front of the depot. What is particularly interesting about this photo is that it
clearly shows the name "Gulf Coast & Santa Fe" while the correct, legal
name of the railroad was the "Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe". Perhaps this
was a
mistake on the part of the construction company, confusion with the "Gulf Coast
Lines", or maybe by the time this depot
was constructed, the local citizens
had used the name in error for so long
that management opted to stick with the common, but incorrect, name. Neither the
Handbook of Texas nor
S. G. Reed's
definitive work A History of the Texas Railroads has any reference
to "Gulf, Coast & Santa Fe", but the name nonetheless pops up in odd places,
such as the
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Navasota. Whatever
the case, given the location and size of the sign on the building, the word
"Colorado" would not have fit!
It is apparent from the above photo that for some period of time, the SLB&M tracks
crossed the Santa Fe toward Houston. It is unlikely that the line ever went very
far, perhaps only a few hundred yards, and since this was the "end of the line"
for SLB&M's tracks from Brownsville, a roundhouse and other facilities would
have made sense here. Both lines are in active use today. The GC&SF line is now
operated by Santa Fe successor Burlington Northern Santa Fe and remains the
principal route onto Galveston Island and the port facilities located there. The
SLB&M became a Missouri Pacific property and is now operated by successor Union
Pacific. The SLB&M line from Algoa to Brownsville sees heavy use as the only
rail line into the lower Rio Grande Valley.
Tower 65 Location, Satellite Image
