The cabin for the automatic interlocking controls.
Sinton was founded in 1886, shortly after the San Antonio & Aransas Pass railroad passed through the area as it constructed a line from San Antonio to Aransas Pass. Two decades later, the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico railroad crossed the SA&AP in Sinton as a line was being constructed from Houston to Brownsville. Population growth was slow, but by 1910, the town had a bank, a hotel, a newspaper and several businesses. Local commerce was mostly agricultural until 1935 when oil was discovered in the area. With the oil boom on, the increase in rail traffic eventually justified an automatic interlocker at the crossing of the two railroads. This interlocker was established in 1946.
Union Pacific now owns both of the lines through Sinton. The ex-StLB&M line is a major route to Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley. The ex-SA&AP line is used to the southeast to access petrochemical industries along the north side of Corpus Christi Bay. To the northwest, the SA&AP line was abandoned in stages until the final abandonment from Beeville to Sinton in 1995. The line is intact only a short distance to the ex-SP "old" yard and no longer provides a route to San Antonio. Text by Jim King.
