Crossing of the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio (GH&SA) Railway and the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico (SLB&M) Railway
 |
Left: This
1907 postal map (courtesy Texas General Land
Office) shows the basic 'X'-pattern of the Galveston, Harrisburg
& San Antonio (GH&SA) Railway at Victoria. The railroad heritage of the
four legs of the 'X' were... Northwest and Southwest Gulf, Western Texas & Pacific Northeast New York, Texas & Mexico Southeast San Antonio & Mexican Gulf The GH&SA was leased by Southern Pacific (SP) in 1883 and acquired several years later. The St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway (a competitor to SP) does not appear on this map because it built to Victoria from Bloomington a few years after the map was drawn. |
Victoria is one of the oldest towns in Texas and one of the earliest to
have rail service. The first to arrive was
the San Antonio and Mexican Gulf (SA&MG) Railroad. Its charter had been issued
ten years before the Civil War when citizens of Port Lavaca decided to grapple
with the difficulty of moving freight between their port and the population
centers farther inland. With an immediate objective of reaching Victoria, the
first five miles out of Port Lavaca was completed in either 1857 or 1858. The
remaining 23 miles to Victoria was completed in 1861. The SA&MG did not survive the
War intact but it was rebuilt by the Federal government afterward. When the
construction debt owed to the government could not be repaid, the line went into
bankruptcy and was sold at auction to Charles Morgan in 1870.
Morgan
(namesake of the town of Morgan) was a shipping
magnate operating primarily in the Gulf of Mexico and he was looking for ways to
improve the movement of inland freight to and from Gulf ports. In 1871, Morgan
renamed the SA&MG to become the Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific (GWT&P)
Railway. The GWT&P then built a line from Victoria to Cuero in 1873
establishing a 56-mile route from Cuero to Port Lavaca.
Morgan died in 1878; the settlement of his vast estate resulted in
Southern Pacific (SP) gaining control of the GWT&P in 1882, operating it as a wholly owned subsidiary. In 1889, SP funded a GWT&P extension from Victoria
southwest to Beeville, a
distance of 55 miles. In 1905, the GWT&P was formally integrated into the
Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio (GH&SA) Railroad, SP's principal operating company in south Texas.
The GH&SA was subsequently leased (1927) and then merged (1934) into SP's primary operating company for Texas
and Louisiana, the Texas & New Orleans (T&NO) Railroad.
In 1881,
the New York, Texas & Mexican (NYT&M) Railway was chartered as part of a grand
plan to build a railroad from New York City to Mexico City. The enterprise was
organized by Italian financier Count Joseph Telferner. Work
began in Texas with construction of a 91-mile line from Rosenberg through
Wharton to Victoria. It was completed in 1882,
mostly built by laborers brought in from Italy (and thus nicknamed the Macaroni
Line.) The NYT&M's plan was curtailed when the railroad was acquired by
SP in 1885, although it continued to operate under its own name. In 1905, SP fully merged
the NYT&M into the GH&SA.
New York to Mexico City? Grand plan?
That wouldn't qualify as a branch line for the next railroad in Victoria! In
1891, Victoria became the home and starting point of the Pan American Railway.
The railroad built south from Victoria, managing to lay ten miles of track to
the Guadalupe River before they ran out of funds. The city of Victoria refused
to pay any of the promised $150,000 bonus unless additional mileage was built.
The tracks were abandoned in 1894, undoubtedly disappointing the citizens of Pan
American's planned endpoint, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
 |
Nearly two decades after the failure of the Pan American Railway.
the next railroad reached Victoria. It was the St. Louis, Brownsville
and Mexico (SLB&M) Railway, the first of the Gulf Coast Lines (GCL), a
marketing name for a syndicate backed financially by the St. Louis Trust
Company. The GCL was
the brainchild of the Chairman of the St. Louis & San Francisco ("Frisco") Railroad, Benjamin Franklin Yoakum, a native Texan and long time railroader with
extensive experience in south Texas. His idea for the GCL was to build
or buy south Texas and Louisiana railroads and weave them into a system to compete directly with SP
between Brownsville and New Orleans, centered
on Houston. The SLB&M's main line, built in the 1904-1906 timeframe, ran from Brownsville to Algoa, where rights on the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway provided a route into Houston. The SLB&M built major stations at Harlingen and Bay City, and service was provided to Corpus Christi using rights on the Texas Mexican Railroad from Robstown. The SLB&M crossed the GH&SA's line to Port Lavaca at Placedo. In 1912, the SLB&M completed a branch line into Victoria from Bloomington. Left: Victoria rail map c.1913, not all railroads shown. By this date, all of these routes except for the SLB&M lines were owned by the GH&SA. |
| The SLB&M branch line to Victoria was preceded
by a 38-mile branch from
Bloomington to Port O'Connor on the Gulf of
Mexico. The concept for a Victoria - Port O'Connor line had been
promoted in the mid 1890s by T. M. O'Connor, a wealthy Victoria cattle
rancher. O'Connor owned 75,000 acres along the coast south of Indianola
and wanted to develop a hunting and fishing resort. Two attempts to
build rails from Victoria to Port O'Connor had failed, but in 1909,
Yoakum accepted an offer of $70,000 for the SLB&M to build it, beginning
with the branch to Port O'Connor in 1910. The thirteen miles from
Bloomington to Victoria was completed in 1912, and the commencement of
service was celebrated with a big excursion from Port O'Connor on April
12th. Right: The Hallettsville New Era of February 9, 1912 quoted the Victoria Advocate noting the imminent start of work on the SLB&M extension from Bloomington to Victoria. The engineer for the project, Louis A. Gueringer, was Yoakum's Chief Engineer for the GCL and he later became Chief Engineer for the Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT). The planned extension to Yoakum mentioned in the article was never built. |
 |
 |
Victoria was an important population center and an endpoint for the SLB&M; its tracks did not proceed beyond the town. Yoakum anticipated significant traffic there, so passenger and freight depots were built downtown, about two miles west of where the SLB&M crossed the GH&SA line to Beeville. The railroads decided to build a manned interlocking tower at this crossing, and it was commissioned as Tower 90 by RCT on January 3, 1913 with a 12-function mechanical plant. This appears to have been a typical minimal interlocker for a crossing that had no connecting tracks. The twelve functions would be a home signal, a distant signal and a derail in each of the four directions (specific documentation of Tower 90's interlocker functions has not been found.) The 1917 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Victoria shows the tower to be a two-story structure, but no photos of this tower have been located.
 |
Right: An 1870 edition
of the American Railroad Journal published an advertisement for the
public auction of the SA&MG's assets. Note that the sale includes "1 Worthless lot of Blacksmiths Tools". Left: The railroads in Victoria are highlighted on this Sanborn Fire Insurance index map from January, 1928. The map shows that the SLB&M tracks ended less than two miles west of Tower 90. A 1938 T&NO timetable shows Tower 90 staffed from 7:30a to 4:30p daily except Sunday and legal holidays. A 1947 T&NO timetable shows that the hours had shifted slightly to be 8:00a to 5:00p and noted that when the operator was not on duty, the signals would be set to allow movements on the T&NO tracks. A 1949 T&NO timetable lists the Tower 90 interlocker as "automatic". It is unlikely that the tower building survived much beyond the conversion to an automatic interlocker since the interlocking plant could be housed in a trackside cabinet. The other SLB&M / GH&SA crossing (black circle) was not interlocked and was within Yard Limits, handled by special rules. The SLB&M was acquired by Missouri Pacific (MP) in 1925 when MP bought all of the GCL railroads. It ceased to exist when it was merged into MP in 1956. MP was acquired by Union Pacific (UP) in 1982. |
 |
The SLB&M line from Bloomington in 1912 had the distinction of being the
last railroad into Victoria ... until it wasn't! In the early 1990s, SP decided
that it no longer needed the line between Victoria and Rosenberg. Decomposition
of the line began when the tracks between Victoria and Wharton were abandoned in
1993. An additional 23 miles beyond Wharton was formally abandoned in 1995, and
the remainder of the line to Rosenberg was out of service. As a result of SP's
merger with UP in 1996, Kansas City Southern (KCS) Railway was allowed to purchase the
dormant right-of-way (ROW) between Rosenberg and Victoria. KCS executed this
purchase using its subsidiary, the Texas Mexican (TM) Railway. The TM had tracks
from Laredo to Robstown, and KCS had rights on UP's lines between Robstown and
Beaumont, where KCS has a main line that goes north to Kansas City. Although
landowners along the former SP ROW filed suit, KCS eventually won and
was allowed to rebuild the line between Victoria and Rosenberg, thus becoming
yet another railroad to build into Victoria, albeit on an existing, abandoned
ROW. The new line shortened KCS' route between Beaumont and Robstown by 70 miles
and reduced by 160 miles the UP trackage over which KCS needed to operate. KCS
commenced service on their new line in 2009.
In 1979, SP abandoned 38
miles of the Victoria - Beeville line, between Fannin and Beeville. The segment
between Victoria and Fannin remains in service, supporting coal deliveries to
the Coleto Creek Power Plant. The other SP lines out of Victoria,
north to Cuero and south to Port Lavaca, remain in service. The line to Port
Lavaca primarily serves the large Dow Chemical facility near Placedo and Bloomington
but is also used by KCS for its Robstown trains via Placedo. The former SLB&M
line to Bloomington remains intact now owned by UP, but the branch to downtown that crossed at Tower 90 no longer exists.
Below:
The January, 1928 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Victoria
shows Tower 90 ("R R Signal Tower") as a two-story structure located on East
South 3rd St. between S. Navarro St. and S. Depot St. The drawing shows the
tower sitting parallel to the GH&SA tracks with the door on the north corner of
the east side of the tower. (magnification at right)
 |
Left:
This is a view looking east toward the site of Tower 90 along unpaved 3rd St.,
the former SLB&M right-of-way.
Comparing this view to the Sanborn map, Tower 90 should have been located at the
mound of dirt to the left of and just beyond the SP tracks. (Carl Codney photo,
2003) Below: In the center of
this aerial image from 1958 ((c)historicaerials.com), the cabin for the
Tower 90 automatic interlocker appears
as a small white rectangle casting a shadow to the west. |
| Right: The swale of the former SLB&M right-of-way is easily spotted where the branch to downtown intersected the main line to Bloomington southeast of Tower 90. (Jim King photo, Dec. 2006) |
 |
Personal Observations of Roy Ekstrum (8/26/2005)
I've lived in Victoria all my 52 years and my home is about 6 blocks from where
Tower 90 was. My grandfather worked the Victoria to Alice train up til the
day he died in 1943. I've visited the actual location of 90 many times looking
for leftovers but they are pretty slim. Bases of the distance signals are still
in place on the south end on the SP and on the west end on the ROW of the MP.
The MP track was pulled up in the mid 80s I think, I really don't remember when
it was but do remember the track crossing Moody St. by the river bridge, and I
do remember the tracks in the MP yard in the early 70s. I've never seen a photo
of tower 90... I have no idea what it looked like, I think either the
Frisco or the SLB&M built it and maintained it... There was a second interlocker
in Victoria but it was just a blockhouse, was removed several years ago... It
was where the main crossed the line running from Port Lavaca going to Cuero.
Another crossing was about 0.1 mi toward Port Lavaca from the Houston/CC line.
That is where the MP crossed going to the cotton compress. Both of these were
controlled by the station about 6 blocks down the street, I think. That MP
crossing I don't think even had a signal with it. And at one time another
interlocker was planned for the line that ran to Port O Connor and was to cross
near the old compress. That line was to run to Yoakum but was never built out to
Yoakum. The POC to Victoria part was built but was relined to come in to
Victoria and crossed the SP at Tower 90.
Roy's comment regarding which railroad built and maintained the tower raises an interesting question. Since the crossing did not exist prior to 1901 when RCT gained authority to regulate the mode and manner of grade crossing safety, RCT's rule specified that the second railroad at a crossing (i.e. the one that created it) was responsible for the capital outlay for the tower and associated interlocking system. (Capital expenses would be split evenly for crossings that existed before 1901.) Thus, the SLB&M would have paid for design, contruction and installation of Tower 90 and its equipment since the crossing did not exist until c.1913. By rule, the recurring cost for tower operations and maintenance (O&M) was always split between the railroads since both railroads benefitted from a tower's operations. The railroads would agree on which one of them would take the lead for O&M staffing, and that railroad would bill the other on a periodic basis using an agreed sharing ratio (typically the percentage of total interlocking functions assigned to each railroad -- here, it was very likely 50 / 50 -- and the ratio would be updated as interlocking functions changed over time.) In 1916, RCT began identifying the railroad responsible for O&M at each tower, and for Tower 90, it was the GH&SA (and this remained unchanged through 1930; RCT provided no information beyond that year.) The GH&SA taking the lead is surprising because in most cases, the company with O&M responsibility for a tower was usually the one that had designed and built it (but there were exceptions, e.g. Tower 8.) And typically, the company that paid the entire capital outlay for a tower at a post-1901 crossing would take the lead in designing and building it (but there were exceptions, e.g. Tower 6.) For Tower 90, a good guess would be that the SLB&M paid SP (GH&SA) to design and build the tower since GH&SA ended up with the responsbility for O&M staffing.
Personal Observations of Leonard Ruback (8/31/2005)
I did not frequent that part of town in the timeframe given (too young plus the
area is a bit ...uh... rough). The GH&SA line is still there and hosts
coal trains to Fannin (Coleto Creek). The MP line is long
gone. I do remember the MP line crossing the highway just before the
Guadalupe River bridge. I never saw a train on it though. Today the
old MP roadbed is a street. Back when I explored the area, the old grade
was a gravel street. I do not think you could find any evidence of a rail
line ever being there today. The MP also crossed the river down by the power plant. The line served numerous aggregate pits south of town.
Today the area is a city park / lake. There is some evidence of this left
if you know where to look. There used to be a horrendous curve on the MP line
right at the Water St. crossing. The MP also served a large cotton
compress which was located right next to the SP yard and north of North St.
I do remember this line crossing North St and running through people's back
yards. Never
saw a train on it though and it was probably abandoned from north of Port Lavaca
Drive when I was young.
 |
Left: This annotated aerial image of Victoria from January 21, 2017 shows that the SLB&M tracks into downtown ran down what is now E. 3rd St. The block distances to E. 2nd St. and E Water St. suggest that E. 3rd St. had been platted and likely used as a public roadway prior to Victoria's city government granting an easement to the SLB&M. The SLB&M's arrival into Victoria was some thirty years after the other railroads in town, hence urban development made finding a right-of-way into downtown impossible without assistance from the City. Victoria's agreement with the SLB&M required the City to provide a free right-of-way through town and free land for SLB&M's depots. (Google Earth image) |
