www.txrrhistory.com - Tower 109 - San Antonio
Crossing of the San Antonio Belt & Terminal Railway and
the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad
In 1917, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT, "Katy") railroad funded the
construction of the San Antonio Belt & Terminal (SAB&T) Railway (and then leased
it for 99 years) to provide switching services among railroads in the San
Antonio area. One of the customers for the SAB&T's services was the San Antonio
& Aransas Pass (SA&AP) Railroad which had a main line from Corpus Christi to
Kerrville via central San Antonio. The SA&AP became controlled by the Southern
Pacific (SP) system and was eventually merged into the Texas & New Orleans
(T&NO) railroad, SP's principal operating company in Texas. Tower 109 was
established in 1918 at a crossing of the SAB&T and SA&AP railroads in south
central San Antonio, and was abandoned in 1959.
Location Map, Tower 109
Below: The 1952 republication of the 1912 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of San
Antonio shows
the tower located immediately west of the crossing. Most likely,
this map was updated sometime
after the construction of Tower 109 in 1918. Other
than a "2" indicating a two story structure,
the writing on the map at the tower
is illegible under high magnification.
Observations of A. Tyrrell Kott
"One of the interesting things about Tower 109 was that the
otherwise double track line from Sloan Yard to the passenger depot
necked down to single track to cross the SA&AP Kerrville branch
right at the tower. An industry siding off the SA&AP also
crossed the MKT single track a few feet north of the main line
SA&AP crossing. I think the abandonment of Tower 109 was occasioned
more by a drop in passenger and freight (to the freight station)
movements on the double-single-double track MKT line than any
traffic on the Kerrville branch. However, in late steam days,
I used to see Mk-5 2-8-2s on the Kerrville branch with long strings of hoppers
and gondolas from the same gravel quarry that it serves to this day. As an interesting note, Union Pacific did not realize that
they still served a customer north of this crossing, and they
took up the diamond in 2000 in error and disposed of it!! The
industry (Judson Candy Co.) still received occasional tank cars
of syrup and a piece of track had to be placed over the ex-SA&AP main with a
crane every time a car had to be set out or retrieved!
I was unable to get photos of the actual operation; does anyone
have some?? This strange operation persisted for about a year. As for Tower 109, I measured it in the 1970s and it had been abandoned for
years then. It was physically torn down in 1978 or so. I rode the Texas Special
once a week to San Antonio from September, 1963 until it was cut off in the summer of
1965 and I remember that Tower 109 was abandoned then, although in much better
condition. It must have been abandoned in 1960 or so."
The Judson Candy Co. mentioned in A. Tyrell
Kott's discussion above, was located on South
Flores St. served by the SAB&T
where it is shown ending (dashed purple line of the Location Map above)
just south of Durango Blvd. The Judson
factory is now being
redeveloped as lofts.
Aerial Images, Tower 109 Vicinity
Above: This Microsoft Visual Earth image of the Tower 109 crossing shows that
the SAB&T tracks have been removed,
but the ex-SA&AP tracks remain in use. The tower was located where debris
now sits between the end of
the parking lot
and the SA&AP tracks.
Below: South of Tower 109, the scars of the former SAB&T wye junction are visible in this
satellite image. This junction
connected
SAB&T lines among Towers 109, 105 and
112. A small segment of the "Sunset Route"
east/west main line
is visible in the lower left corner.
