Above: undated photo of New South Yard and Tower 117 (R. H. Carlson photo, courtesy Jernigan Library, South Texas Archives, Texas A&M University - Kingsville)
Above: undated photo of New
South Yard and Tower 117 (R. H. Carlson photo, courtesy Jernigan Library, South
Texas Archives, Texas A&M University - Kingsville)
By magnifying and rescanning his original slide (above
left) of Santa Fe F7 254C at New South Yard in Houston, Ralph
Back was able to establish conclusively that when he took the photo on September 29, 1973, the
concrete yard tower (above
right) at New South Yard was officially Tower 117. Thanks, Ralph! Below
Left: While Ralph's photo above is facing northwest, this
January, 2020 Google Street View of the Tower 117 site is facing northeast from an
adjacent street. It confirms the concrete tower is no longer standing. Note that
in Ralph's
photo, the power line towers that are immediately behind Tower 117 continue
north in the distance and connect to other similar power line towers along the
west side of HB&T's tracks. Long before 2020 (but apparently after 1973), the
power lines north of Tower 117 were rerouted to connect to new
power line towers on the east side of the tracks.
Below Right: The approximate site of Tower 117 in
Ralph's photo is marked in this Google Earth satellite image. This location
appears to be approximately 100 ft. north of where the original Tower 117 sat.
The Houston Belt & Terminal (HB&T) Railway was founded
in 1905 as a switching railroad by four companies serving Houston, specifically
the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe (GC&SF) Railway and three railroads controlled by
native Texan B. F. Yoakum (the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico, the Beaumont,
Sour Lake & Western, and the Trinity & Brazos Valley.) HB&T's charter included
constructing a "Union Station" downtown to support passenger service for the
founding railroads, and building a "belt line" around the city to facilitate
freight exchange among multiple yards. As part of this effort, HB&T built a new
freight yard, "New South Yard", immediately south of Santa Fe's original "South
Yard" which HB&T had begun to operate. In between the two yards, immediately
north of a rail bridge over Brays Bayou, HB&T began its East Belt line in
1908 which branched
off to the northeast toward major freight yards north of Buffalo Bayou.
According to archives of the Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT) at DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, HB&T
built a tower between the two yards, south of the Brays Bayou bridge, that was formally
numbered and approved as Tower 117. There is a document in the DeGolyer Library files
from HB&T to RCT requesting a number for the tower that was built to house "...an
interlocking plant controlling operations between New and Old South Yards."
The document is dated March 14, 1924, which happens to be the exact same
approval date that RCT's 1924 Annual Report assigned to Tower 117. Apparently
Tower 117 was approved without inspection.
RCT's published approval date for
Tower 117 is very strange, and not merely because it appears there was no
inspection required. The 1924 date was at least 13 years after New
South Yard had become operational. Tower 85, about two miles away on the East Belt, was
(along with Tower 84,
Tower 86 and Tower 87) among four consecutive HB&T towers commissioned by RCT generally in
the 1911 timeframe. Another HB&T tower, Tower 80 on the north side of Houston,
appears to have been assigned a number in 1910. Tower
81 was approved in May, 1910 to control the Santa Fe/Southern Pacific
crossing at the south end of New South Yard. It seems unusual that the numbering
and approval of the New South Yard tower was delayed to 1924 when, at least by
1911, numbers had been assigned to all other HB&T towers.
All except one.
HB&T's Tower 116
was officially commissioned at Houston Union Station on precisely the same day,
March 14, 1924, as Tower 117. It is very likely that the delay in commissioning
these two towers was simply due to HB&T electing not to request tower numbers
and interlocker approvals from RCT. Presumably,
HB&T believed that both towers were exempt from RCT oversight because, in both
cases, all of the tracks involved belonged to HB&T. RCT's rules required
approvals for interlockers controlling crossings of two
railroad companies at grade. For the passenger and freight yards at Towers 116 and
117, respectively, the tracks belonged to only one
railroad, HB&T.
Despite specific state law language granting
RCT rulemaking authority for grade crossings of two railroads, RCT eventually
decided they had the power to approve all interlockers, regardless of the number of
railroads involved. The extent to which HB&T had to be coerced into agreeing
with this policy is unknown. Whatever the case, as
explained in more detail for Tower 116, the policy came into force in the
1920s. It was followed for SP's yard tower at San Antonio in 1925, Santa Fe's
yard interlockers at Canyon and Pampa in 1927, and all future similar situations
(including several that were merely rural crossings of tracks of the same
railroad, e.g. Tower 200, Tower 215, as examples.)
Tower 117 was located at the north end of New South Yard where the
yard tracks merged to cross Brays Bayou. Track
drawings in the Tower 117 file at DeGolyer Library place the tower structure
1,913 ft. south of the north edge of the Brays Bayou bridge. The original tower,
presumably built sometime around 1910, would likely have been constructed of
wood and probably resembled Tower 116, but no photos of it have been located.
The date of construction of the newer, concrete Tower 117 in these photos is
unknown, but the Tower 117 file at DeGolyer Library has references to tower
changes occurring April 19, 1956, which would appear to be a reasonable
estimate. The fate of the original tower is unknown.
Below Left:
a Tom Kline photo of Tower 117 from 1986
Below Right: a February, 2020 Google Street View of the
Tower 117 site from across the tracks
Overview Map
Above: historic interlocking
towers south and east of downtown Houston
