Crossing of the International & Great Northern (I-GN) Railroad and the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio (GH&SA) Railway
The International & Great Northern (I-GN) Railroad resulted from the 1873 merger between the International Railroad and the Houston and Great Northern Railroad. By 1881, they had completed a line from Palestine to Laredo via San Antonio. During this same period, the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio (GH&SA) Railway was constructing a major east/west main line from Houston to El Paso. They had entered San Antonio from the east in 1877, and in 1881, they continued this construction west to Uvalde. By 1883, the entire "Sunset Route" across Texas would be complete. The I-GN line to Laredo and the GH&SA line to Uvalde crossed at grade in southwest San Antonio, but it was not until 1916 that an interlocking tower was constructed. From the photo of Tower 105, it is apparent that the tower was a Southern Pacific (SP) design. The GH&SA had become controlled by the SP system many years earlier and it was eventually merged into the Texas & New Orleans (T&NO) Railway, SP's principal operating railroad in Texas.
Henry O'Connor photo [1952] from the collection of Tim O'ConnorPhoto Comments by A. Tyrrell Kott
Tower 105 was painted yellow and brown. This is the T&NO/SP paint scheme. Note that the moveable window sashes are white. The tower has brown screens that obscure this fact, but one window is open and you can see the white sash.
Although Tower 105 was not constructed until 1916, it appears on the 1952 republication of the 1912 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of San Antonio (below). Most likely, this map was updated sometime after 1916, but it is also possible that the tower existed for a few years before it was formally numbered and approved by the Railroad Commission. It is also interesting to note that it was documented on the Sanborn map as a 2-story "Ry Watchman's Tower". Typically, watchman's towers were used for controlling crossing gates at street grade crossings, not for railroad interlocking functions. The location of the tower at the crossing of two railroads, well away from the nearest street grade crossing, makes it likely that the mapmaker incorrectly documented the purpose of the tower, perhaps influenced by the existence of watchman's towers elsewhere in San Antonio. The Watchman's Tower page shows a tower that guarded a street grade crossing near Tower 112.
Above: The 1952 republication of the 1912 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of San
Antonio shows the location of Tower 105 on the south side of the crossing
diamond. Magnification reveals that it was documented as a 2-story "Ry
Watchman's Tower". The map shows that this crossing was adjacent to the Union
Stock Yards stock pens, and that a connecting track was located in the south
quadrant of the crossing. A satellite image of this location (below) shows the
connecting track still intact.
Satellite Image, Location of Tower 105
