Above: Henry O'Connor photo (1952) from the collection of Tim O'Connor
Below: Tower 112 in 1986, from the collection of Greg Johnson
A Crossing of the San Antonio Belt & Terminal Railway and the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway
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 primary customers for the SAB&T's services was the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio (GH&SA) Railway, a property of the Southern Pacific (SP) system that was eventually merged into the Texas & New Orleans (T&NO) railroad, SP's principal operating company in Texas. Tower 112 was established in 1919 at a crossing of the SAB&T and GH&SA railroads in southeast San Antonio. The GH&SA line was (and remains) the famous "Sunset Route".
Observations of A. Tyrrell Kott
This photo is looking northeast toward Tower 112. The MKT
line is in the foreground; the T&NO "Sunset Route" is in the background.
Note the searchlight signal and the black and white crossing gates for "old
Roosevelt Ave." which was the original alignment of Roosevelt Ave. before the
underpasses were built to the west of the photo. Tower 112 and
Tower 109 were
absolutely identical concrete structures. These are Katy designed towers. There was a similar smaller concrete
tower in Denison (Tower 93) just
south of the passenger depot. There was a second crossing of the T&NO and
MKT near Tower 112 at an industry siding of the T&NO. This crossing was
located about one block east of S. Presa St., three
blocks east of Tower 112 itself. The T&NO siding ran due south
from the curve of the double track T&NO
and curved across the Katy; the crossing was controlled by the tower operator
(inside the interlocking limits of Tower 112). Today, this is just east of the alignment
of I-37 on the map. The industry was located one block north of Page Junior High
School along Berkshire Street (in the large open space on the map four blocks
south of the Katy and one block east of I-37). My mother used to teach at Page
Jr. High which was torn down in the early 1950's. I saw T&NO 0-6-0's switch the siding
in the early 1950's and Tom Balzen of Austin, who attended Page
Jr. High in the 1950's, did too. I spent a LOT of time there in the
early 1950's.
There were also Watchman Towers used to guard automobile crossings near Tower 112.
Aerial Image, Tower 112 Location
Above: Microsoft Visual Earth image of the site of Tower 112. The tower was
located between the GH&SA and Katy tracks where
the bright white equipment cabinet now sits, adjacent to the Roosevelt Ave.
grade crossing of the Sunset Route. The bridges for both
railroads over St. Mary
St. are visible at left.
