Texas Railroad History - Tower 115 - Eagle Lake

A Crossing of the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio (GH&SA), the San Antonio & Aransas Pass (SA&AP), and the Cane Belt railroads

Above: A southeast view of Tower 115 taken on September 3, 1967 (H. D. Conner negative, Doug Jackson Collection)

Left
: Tower 115 sits silently abandoned as an eastbound freight rumbles by on the Sunset Route headed for Houston. The tower was razed shortly after this photo was taken. (Jim King, November, 1996)

Right:
 Looking west, the SA&AP right-of-way formerly passed beside the tower. When the line was abandoned west of Tower 115, a connection to the westbound Sunset Route was retained. (Jim King, November, 1996)

Eagle Lake was one of the earliest railroad towns in Texas, eventually served by three different lines. The town was founded in 1859 as a settlement on the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado (BBB&C) Railroad which had built a line west from Harrisburg on Buffalo Bayou to the Colorado River near Columbus. After defaulting on its construction financing due to the Civil War, the BBB&C was taken over in 1870 by an investor group led by Thomas Peirce (with the unusual "ei" spelling.) Peirce rehabilitated the BBB&C and renamed it the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio (GH&SA) Railway. [Like many railroads, the name was aspirational -- only Harrisburg was actually served by the GH&SA at the time.] As the GH&SA resumed building west, reaching San Antonio in 1877, its trajectory resulted in the nickname "the Sunset Route". Within a year, Peirce was developing plans to extend the Sunset Route west to El Paso to connect with the Southern Pacific (SP) coming east from California. In January, 1883, Peirce drove the Silver Spike where the two railroads met near the Pecos River signifying completion of the major portion of the southern transcontinental rail line. SP had obtained an interest in the GH&SA by financing its construction out of San Antonio. In 1885, the GH&SA was leased by SP and subsequently acquired. SP operated the route through Eagle Lake (ultimately known as SP's "Glidden Subdivision") for just over a century before being merged into Union Pacific (UP).

The second railroad through Eagle Lake was the San Antonio & Aransas Pass (SA&AP) Railroad as it constructed a main line to Houston from the south Texas town of Kenedy in 1887. The SA&AP had been founded in 1884 to connect San Antonio with the Gulf of Mexico at Corpus Christi. After this line was completed in 1886, the SA&AP began expanding aggressively in all directions: east to Houston, north to Waco, west to Kerrville, and south to Alice heading toward the Rio Grande Valley. After being reorganized during a brief receivership, the SA&AP was purchased by SP in 1892. The acquisition was voided by a court ruling in 1903, so the SA&AP resumed independent operation until 1925 when it was re-acquired by SP.

The third railroad at Eagle Lake was founded by local investors in 1898. Named the Cane Belt Railroad, their plan was to build from Lakeside, a community one mile south of Eagle Lake, to Bonus, about ten miles farther south. The GH&SA had a spur into Lakeside to serve a sugar cane refinery so the Cane Belt negotiated to acquire this spur from GH&SA and continue the tracks south to Bonus. This was completed in 1899; a further extension to Wharton was built in 1900. Also in 1900, the Cane Belt built 18 miles between Eagle Lake and Sealy, gaining access to two additional railroads at Sealy: the Missouri Kansas Texas ("Katy") and the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe (GC&SF). The Cane Belt came under Santa Fe control in 1905.

To control the junction of the three rail lines in Eagle Lake, Tower 115 was built by SP and commissioned by the Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT). The actual date of commissioning, however, is uncertain. In a list dated December 31, 1923, RCT identifies Tower 115 as a 77-function electrical interlocker at "Houston Yards" commissioned on March 14, 1924 (a date in the future!) serving the Houston Belt & Terminal (HB&T) Railway. Tower 116 is listed with identical information. Apparently, the assignment of 115 to Eagle Lake had either been dropped by mistake or perhaps not yet issued. The following year, RCT's list dated December 31, 1924 was still corrupted, reporting Tower 115 at "Houston Yards" but with a commissioning date of December 4, 1923 and "Eagle Lake" as the name of the railroad(s) involved! Towers 116 and 117 are also listed at the "Houston Yards" location (which they actually were!) A year later, the RCT list dated December 31, 1925 finally shows Tower 115 at Eagle Lake, commissioned on July 24, 1924 with a 47-function electric interlocker serving the GH&SA, GC&SF and SA&AP railroads. The following year, the Tower 115 entry was revised to 54 functions and the commissioning date was moved back two days to July 22, 1924. This information remained unchanged through the final list published by RCT on December 31, 1930.

In the early 1900s, sand and gravel operations began to establish mines along the Colorado River near Eagle Lake, many of them served directly by rail. Seven miles west of Eagle Lake near the community of Altair on the former SA&AP line, a spur was built north to Helms by the Colorado River Western Railroad in 1955 to serve a large sand and gravel mine. This spur was purchased three years later by SP and operated until it was abandoned in 1975. At some point, a spur existed off of the SA&AP near downtown Eagle Lake that ran west and then south, passing along the west side of the lake but remaining east of the Colorado River. A nearby "Parker Rd." suggests that this line served a sand and gravel operation owned by the Parker Brothers of Houston who had mining interests in Eagle Lake. As SP began to abandon various SA&AP tracks, service to Altair from Eagle Lake was preserved to support these sand and gravel operations. Past Altair, 11 miles of the former SA&AP tracks were abandoned to Sheridan in 1964. At that time, the former SA&AP main line west from Eagle Lake essentially became a lengthy gravel spur starting at Tower 115. Sometime prior to 1969, a 2.7-mile track to Skull Creek south of Altair was built to serve another sand and gravel operation. Later, this track was extended five miles farther south to yet another sand and gravel operation. To reach these mines more efficiently, SP built a new connection from the Sunset Route to the former SA&AP line on the north side of Eagle Lake. This allowed the SA&AP tracks through downtown to be removed. This entire branch remains in service, now known as the Arenal Industrial Lead, departing the Sunset Route about one mile north of Tower 115.


Above: The tower sat immediately south of the SA&AP tracks between the GH&SA Sunset Route main line and a Cane Belt spur to the downtown Santa Fe depot. The solid yellow line to the east is the Chesterville Industrial Lead. Those tracks remained in place as of February 2017, but the connection to the Sunset Route was severed when the spur was officially abandoned in 2008.

With respect to the establishment of the Arenal Industrial Lead, Matthew Dittert provides the following information:

In regards to the line built in the 1970's to reach new rock pits (including Arenal) south of the SA&AP west of the Colorado River, here are some clues as to when the line was built. "Arenal" does not appear in SP San Antonio and Houston Division ETT #2 which went into effect June 13, 1971 but does appear in SP Houston Division ETT #201 which went into effect June 11, 1972. Arenal appears as a station at MP 67.9 on the Bellaire Branch 2.3 miles west of Stallings. There is an asterisk next to "Arenal" directing attention to a note that reads "Arenal is on spur track 6.16 miles from Lead Switch." The latest ETT that I have listing Arenal in similar fashion is SP/SSW Eastern Region ETT #2 which went into effect November 20, 1985. I do not have the three ETT's that followed #2, but I have #6 (effective date: May 15, 1988), which no longer has the Bellaire Branch extending west of Eagle Lake. Instead, ETT #6 has the Arenal Industrial Lead with "River Junction" at MP 0, located 2.2 miles west of MP 65.6, the location of Stallings. Arenal is shown to be at MP 5.0.

To the east, the SA&AP "Bellaire Line" to Houston was officially abandoned in 1993 so that it could be conveyed to an entity that was not a common carrier, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County ("Metro"). However, SP retained an operating easement on the line to continue to fulfill its common carrier obligations. Acquiring SP in 1996, UP inherited this obligation and planned to continue service until 2001. Meanwhile, a request to "railbank" the right-of-way was made by Metro. The Surface Transportation Board granted a Certificate of Interim Trail Use in November, 2000 covering the right-of-way from Milepost 3.48 near Bellaire Junction to Milepost 52.9 located 8.3 miles east of Eagle Lake. The remaining 8.3 miles of track east of Tower 115 became the Chesterville Industrial Lead. In 2001, Metro and UP agreed to railbank the right-of-way; Metro would have the right to reopen service except for the Chesterville Industrial Lead. In 2008, UP sought to abandon the Chesterville Industrial Lead, and again, UP and Metro agreed to a transfer of rights to restore service on this final segment into Eagle Lake. It was then formally abandoned; the connection to the UP main line was cut but the Chesterville Industrial Lead tracks were not removed. In 2014, Metro officially acquired restoration rights on this final segment of right-of-way from UP.

Santa Fe's former Cane Belt line south to Bay City survived into the 1980's and was then abandoned in various phases. Other portions of the Cane Belt, including spur tracks to Eldridge and Garwood that formed part of the 'Bonus Loop', were abandoned in 1940 and 1961. Santa Fe's abandonment of the former Cane Belt line to Sealy in 1990 eliminated the need for Tower 115 which was decommissioned shortly thereafter. The building remained standing through 1996 and was then removed. Of the three original rail lines through Eagle Lake, only the Sunset Route, now operated by UP, continues in full operation.

 
Above Left: Compare this November 1976 view west on the SA&AP line with the 1996 photo above and the 2013 Google Street View further below. (Doug Woods photo, courtesy of David Bernstein) Above Right: This screen capture from a YouTube video taken from the rear of an Amtrak train shows the severed connection to the Chesterville Industrial Lead. The former Santa Fe depot is the brown building to the left which now houses the Eagle Lake Depot Museum.

Historic Map, Tower 115 Location

Above Left: A 1932 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Eagle Lake illustrates Tower 115 (lower left in the image) sitting adjacent to the SA&AP between the main line of the GH&SA and the parallel Cane Belt spur into downtown. Above Right: Under magnification, Tower 115 is shown as a 2-story "R R Signal Tower".

  
Above: Tom Kline comments on these photos he took of the Tower 115 Model Board..."If you look closely on the lower left side of the model board, it looks as if there was some diagram editing done to reflect the removal of tracks to the east (top) of the mainline and the siding on the west side (bottom).  I don't know the history or have the data to prove that, I'm just going off similar changes I've seen to other boards over the years."

Eagle Lake, 1989 (photos by Tom Kline)

Tom explains: "In both photos you are looking south-southwest [along the Cane Belt] with Sealy being behind the camera. The photo above left shows a stack train crossing the Cane Belt in the distance on the SP Glidden Sub as it heads to Houston. The photo above right shows a westbound crossing the Cane Belt on the SP Bellaire Line headed towards Tower 115 right after the eastbound stack cleared the interlocker. This train is arriving from Houston on the Bellaire Line back when it was used as the high speed shortcut to Eagle Lake."

Eagle Lake, 1991 and 2009 (photos by Tom Kline)

Tom returned to Eagle Lake in September, 1991. What he found was the Santa Fe yard being scrapped (above left) and weeds overtaking the Cane Belt route at Rayner Junction (above right.) Tom explains..."Rayner Junction was located about 2 miles S/SW of Eagle Lake on FM 102. Here the line branched off to the west to Matthews and Garwood. To the left in the photo you can see FM 102 and the crossing warning sign for the spur. If you are familiar with the area and the historical roadside marker about the Lakeside Sugar Refinery just south of Eagle Lake, this view is not far from it. Farmers have reclaimed the right of way south of town by fencing over the rails. This view (below left) is north towards Eagle Lake and Egypt. Wharton and Bay City are behind us; Rayner Jct. is ahead of us." Below right: west side of the UP main looking east with the main in the background and the former transfer track curving to the south.

Google Maps Images, January 2013

 Above Left: looking west on the SA&AP toward the Tower 115 junction. Compare this photo with Doug Woods' 1976 photo.
Above Right: Looking south from Highway 102 at the UP main line grade crossing, an industry spur can be seen in the distance curving from the UP main onto the former Cane Belt right of way to the southwest. This serves the A&K Railroad Materials sales yard that now occupies the former Santa Fe yards (see Tom Kline's photo.)

 
Last Revised: 9/26/2020 JGK - Contact the Texas Interlocking Towers Page.