Texas Railroad History - Tower 152

Texas Railroad History - Tower 152 - Wharton

A Crossing of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway and the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway

Above: The Tower 152 cabin had steps, a roofline and concrete construction virtually identical to other cabins built by Santa Fe at Tower 127 and Tower 129. The cabin faces Santa Fe's tracks and the gate is across SP's tracks toward Rosenberg, a segment out of service at the time; it has since reopened. Whether this photo (Jim King, c.1996) shows the original (1929) cabin or a replacement is undetermined.

Left: On July 5, 1929, the Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT) authorized the Tower 152 interlocking plant to commence operations. Located at Wharton, it protected a crossing of the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio (GH&SA) Railway owned by Southern Pacific (SP), and the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe (GC&SF) Railway, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway.

Tower 152 was a "mechanical-cabin" type interlocker, typically used where a light traffic line (here, the Santa Fe) crossed a busier line (the GH&SA.) Every Santa Fe train stopped at the Tower 152 crossing so that a crewmember could disembark to enter the cabin and reposition the controls. After a suitable delay, the interlocker would set Santa Fe's home signal to PROCEED and SP's distant and home signals to STOP, warning any oncoming SP trains that the diamond was occupied. It would also clear Santa Fe's derails and activate SP's derails. When the crossing was complete, the crewmember returned the controls to the normal state to grant SP trains unrestricted movement over the diamond, reset Santa Fe's home signals to STOP, and reverse the derails.

Home signals served primarily to hold stopped trains at the diamond until the interlocking plant gave the PROCEED signal, e.g. if an approaching SP train had already passed its distant signal, the interlocker timing would withhold Santa Fe's PROCEED signal until after SP's train had passed. Distant signals alerted oncoming trains about the occupancy of the diamond. In lieu of distant signals, Santa Fe used fixed warning signs because its trains always stopped.

The delay incurred by Santa Fe trains for a crewmember to operate the controls was a worthwhile tradeoff against the expense of staffing a manned tower. Labor and material expenses for maintenance of the interlocking plant and cabin were shared by the two railroads, but there was no staffing expense to share for operations since Santa Fe train crews did the work. Tower 152's interlocker began with six functions, increasing to ten in 1930. How these functions were allocated among signals, switches and derails is undetermined.

The town of Wharton dates to 1846, the county seat of Wharton County named for John and William Wharton, two brothers who were major participants in Texas' fight for independence from Mexico. The area's plantation economy raised cattle, sugarcane, cotton and various cash crops. The first railroad to reach Wharton was the New York, Texas and Mexican (NYT&M) Railway in 1881. It had been chartered in Texas as part of a grand plan to build a railroad from New York City to Mexico City, an enterprise organized by Italian financier Count Joseph Telferner. Work began with construction of a 91-mile line from Rosenberg through Wharton to Victoria, completed in 1882 and mostly built by Italian laborers (and thus nicknamed the Macaroni Line.) The grand plan was abandoned when the NYT&M was acquired by SP in 1885, but SP allowed it to continue to operate under its own name.

In 1883, SP completed its southern transcontinental line between Los Angeles and New Orleans, passing near Wharton at both Eagle Lake and Rosenberg. With SP financing, the final segment between El Paso and San Antonio was built by the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio (GH&SA) Railway, which was subsequently leased by SP and then acquired a few years later. East of Rosenberg, the GH&SA tracks terminated at Harrisburg on Buffalo Bayou south of Houston. The NYT&M laid twelve miles of track out of Wharton in 1900, the start of a 68-mile branch line to Palacios to serve agricultural and mineral interests in the lower Colorado River valley. The tracks passed above the Boling Dome, one of the largest sulphur deposits in the world. The town of Newgulf would be founded there in 1928 to serve the employees of a new sulphur mining operation, Texas Gulf Sulphur.

Above: Railway Age, June 29, 1900

Construction resumed with 19 miles of track laid to Van Vleck in 1901, continuing 38 miles to Palacios in 1903, perhaps the most round-about rail line in Texas. In 1905, SP fully merged the NYT&M into the GH&SA. In 1927, the Texas & New Orleans (T&NO) Railway was chosen to become SP's primary operating company for Texas and Louisiana. The GH&SA was leased to the T&NO that year and then fully merged in 1934.

The second railroad into Wharton was the Cane Belt Railroad, chartered in 1898 to build lines in south Texas to move the substantial agricultural production that was developing there. Sugarcane had become a major crop in the region, and by 1899, Texas had the third most sugar production in the U.S. The Cane Belt initially focused on serving cane-growing regions south of Eage Lake by acquiring a 1-mile spur the GH&SA had built from Eagle Lake to Lakeside. New construction started at Lakeside and proceeded ten miles south to Bonus in 1899. The line was extended to Wharton in 1900 and Bay City in 1901. Construction resumed in 1903 with tracks from Bay City to Matagorda. That year, the Cane Belt was purchased by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) and then leased (in 1905) to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe (GC&SF) Railway. The Cane Belt continued to operate under its own name, but the GC&SF was officially listed by RCT as the railroad that shared Tower 152.

To facilitate faster service to the Port of Galveston for sulphur and other export commodities, the Cane Belt built 34 miles of track between Cane Junction and Thompsons in 1930, passing through Newgulf and Guy. Thompsons is east of Rosenberg on the GC&SF main line to Galveston near Sugarland Junction. At the community of Guy, the new line crossed tracks laid by the GH&SA in 1918 between Rosenberg and Damon. Thus, it became feasible for SP trains coming east from Victoria to turn south at Wharton, proceed to Newgulf, turn east on the Cane Belt to Guy, and turn back north to Rosenberg. In both directions, this was valuable to SP whenever tracks between Rosenberg and Wharton were congested or blocked (e.g. as in 1950, when a bridge burned.) The route was referenced in a 1936 agreement between SP and the Order of Railway Conductors which stated "Movement over the Wharton Branch, Damon Branch, and over the Santa Fe will be made only as the exigencies of the service require."

Right: Wharton area rail map -- in addition to the aforementioned railroads, the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico (SLB&M) Railway operated through Bay City and Blessing on its main line between Algoa and the Lower Rio Grande Valley. (Not all railroads are depicted; interlocking numbers are shown in red.)

SP and Santa Fe continued operating through Wharton during the ensuing decades. The Cane Belt was formally merged into the GC&SF in 1948, and the GC&SF was absorbed into its parent ATSF in 1965. In 1985, SP began making significant changes to its south Texas operations starting with abandonment of the 31 miles of track between Bay City and Palacios. That same year, SP ran its last scheduled freight train through Wharton, leading to a slow deterioration of the track between Victoria and Rosenberg. SP abandoned the line between Newgulf and Bay City in 1987 leaving the Palacios Segment between Wharton and Newgulf as the only remnant of the original branch line. SP formally abandoned the 62 miles between Wharton and Victoria in 1993, leaving the Rosenberg Segment (Wharton - Rosenberg) tracks intact along with the remaining Palacios Segment. It was clear, however, that the Rosenberg Segment would be abandoned next as additional movements over the line failed to materialize. The Gulf Coast Rural Rail Transportation District (GCRT) was established in this timeframe to protest (albeit unsuccessfully) the Victoria - Wharton abandonment along with the impending Rosenberg Segment abandonment. Both the Rosenberg Segment and the Palacios Segment were formally abandoned in 1995, but these actions were overshadowed by the proposed merger of SP with Union Pacific (UP), which was approved in 1996.

In August, 2000, Kansas City Southern (KCS) Railway through its subsidiary Texas Mexican ("Tex Mex") Railway filed a petition with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) seeking approval to acquire the abandoned Victoria - Rosenberg line from UP. KCS had obtained trackage rights on UP between Beaumont and Robstown via Houston as part of the UP / SP merger. KCS' main line from Kansas City reached Beaumont (and continued to Port Arthur) while TexMex operated between Corpus Christi and Laredo via Robstown. KCS trains exercising trackage rights passed through both Rosenberg and Victoria, but by an indirect path through Flatonia. The Victoria - Rosenberg right-of-way would substantially shorten the total distance and remove KCS trains from a busy segment of UP's Sunset Route main line between Rosenberg and Flatonia. Through stock ownership, KCS was affiliated with a major Mexican railroad conglomerate and was seeking to capitalize on the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) via the international bridge at Laredo.

The proceedings before the STB were complicated by litigation in both state and Federal courts pertaining to the early efforts by GCRT to preserve Victoria - Rosenberg rail service. Both Tex Mex and GCRT disputed whether the line had actually been abandoned (because preservation / acquisition rules differ for abandoned rail lines versus out-of-service rail lines.) Further complexity stemmed from the STB's need to delve into previous rulings by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) which the newly-created STB had replaced in 1996. The STB's ruling in December, 2000 explained...

A notice of exemption to abandon the 36.8-mile Wharton Branch, which included the Rosenberg Segment and the 13.5-mile Palacios Segment, was served in 1995... The exemption authority to abandon the Wharton Branch became effective on April 7, 1995, subject to a historic preservation condition and a 90-day salvage condition. On January 20, 1998, UP filed a letter with the Board stating that it had consummated the abandonment of the Palacios Segment. Referring to the Rosenberg Segment, the letter stated that "[t]he remaining portions of trackage authorized for abandonment have not been abandoned by Southern Pacific."

The decision also addressed the Victoria - Wharton segment...

A notice of exemption to abandon the Victoria Segment was served in 1993... That exemption became effective on December 1, 1993, subject to a 180-day public use condition, which expired on May 30, 1994. In a decision served on May 12, 1995, our predecessor, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), reopened that proceeding at the request of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, determined that it retained jurisdiction over the right-of-way, and imposed a trail use condition, which was extended by decisions served on November 17, 1995, and May 29, 1996, and expired on November 30, 1996.

On August 5, 1994, GCRT brought an eminent domain action against SP in the Texas state courts to acquire a 16-mile portion of the Victoria Segment between milepost 25.8 at Wharton and milepost 42 at El Campo, TX. GCRT also sought and was granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) to prevent SP from removing track materials. SP filed an emergency motion to quash the TRO in the United States District Court. GCRT responded by filing a motion for a temporary injunction to prevent the removal of track material. The court granted the temporary injunction, conditioned on GCRT posting additional bond, and denied SP's motion to quash based on the court's finding that SP had consummated the abandonment of the Victoria Segment... GCRT failed to pay the additional bond, the temporary injunction did not go into effect, and GCRT subsequently filed a motion requesting that the court abstain from exercising further jurisdiction over the matter. The motion was granted, and the matter was remanded to the Texas state courts on July 26, 1995, where it remained inactive.

Both Tex Mex and GCRT claimed that no part of the line had actually been abandoned.

Tex Mex contends that the Rosenberg Line has not been abandoned. The petitioner asserts that neither SP nor UP ever stated, or indicated to the ICC or the Board, that either had consummated, or intended to consummate, the abandonments; that numerous statements were made to the contrary; and that UP and SP offered to sell the line for continued rail use or rail banking/trail use at all times after the notices of exemption were served and were actively engaged in such negotiations for much of the time. Additionally, Tex Mex states that no part of the right-of-way was transferred, that the integrity of the rail corridor has been maintained, and that the Line's bridges, culverts, ballast, grading, and most of its track and ties remain in place. Tex Mex also observes that rail service has continued over part of the Rosenberg Line, that the Rosenberg Segment remains on UP's System Diagram Map required by 49 CFR 1152.10, and on UP's applicable timetable, and that the segment continues to be listed in the Official Railroad Station List.

GCRT also claims that the Rosenberg Line was not abandoned. GCRT contends that the Line's shippers never ceased in their efforts to preserve rail service, and that: (1) it filed the eminent domain action in 1994 only after all negotiations to acquire the Line for continued rail service failed; (2) rail banking/trail use was requested and agreed to in 1995, after the court's consummation finding was issued; (3) rail banking/trail use and negotiations to acquire the Line continued into 1996, when the UP/SP merger application was filed; and (4) negotiations in connection with the merger eventually led to UP's agreement to sell the Rosenberg Line to Tex Mex. GCRT denies ever claiming that any portion of the Rosenberg Line was abandoned. To the contrary, it states that its eminent domain action was for continued rail use and, as such, was premised on an intact, and not an abandoned, right-of-way. GCRT states that the court's consummation finding should be given little or no weight. In its supplemental comment, GCRT adds that it moved for a non-suit in the underlying eminent domain action, that its motion was granted, and that the proceeding was dismissed on October 12, 2000.

KCS had engaged SP in 1994 about acquiring the line and had continued to do so after the UP merger. Sorting through the legal morass, STB approved the Tex Mex application to acquire the line, but the rehabilitation effort did not commence for several years. KCS finally completed the rebuild of the Victoria - Rosenberg line and opened it for service in June, 2009. Several months earlier, William Loocke had emailed Ken Stavinoha to report...

"...Cane Belt and SP Tower 152 - bit the dust yesterday January 23, 2009. KCS has been clearing ROW thru Wharton for the past two weeks."

Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) was created by ATSF's merger with Burlington Northern in 1996. Well before then, Santa Fe had begun selling off its Cane Belt trackage in the late 1980s, most of it to the Kansas City Terminal Railway which subsequently entered abandonment proceedings for various segments. The tracks from Eagle Lake to Wharton were abandoned in 1991, but south of Wharton, the tracks to Cane Jct. were sold to Southeastern International (SEI) Corporation in 1995. This segment was operated under contract for three years, but SEI petitioned for abandonment which STB approved on April 22, 1999. The only Cane Belt trackage that survives today is between Bay City and Wadsworth where BNSF serves the LyondellBasell Matagorda Polymers Plant. Slightly less than a mile of Cane Belt right-of-way in Wharton has been converted to a paved walking trail.

Above Left: Casting a shadow to the north, the Tower 152 cabin is visible in the northwest quadrant of the crossing in this Google Earth image captured days prior to the cabin's demise in January, 2009. The north / south KCS right-of-way has been regraded but does not yet have ballast and tracks. The east / west Cane Belt right-of-way had been abandoned since 1991. Above Right: The cabin is gone and the KCS grade has tracks and ballast in this Google Earth image from January, 2011.

Left: This 1930 aerial image ((c) historicaerials.com) shows the proximity of the Tower 152 crossing to Wharton Junction, the name of the switch for the branch line to Palacios. A connecting track in the southeast quadrant of the Tower 152 diamond is partially visible.

Below: The T&NO Victoria Division Employee Timetable (ETT) dated May 1, 1955 provided special instructions for Tower 152's operation. The text suggests that a West Storage Track had been built and incorporated into the interlocking along with a dwarf signal governing movements onto the main track.



Below: The Santa Fe ETT dated October 28, 1984 shows that the crossing at milepost 42.8 has a gate with STOP sign and is normally lined for SP with a 10 mph speed limit. The next earlier ETT, October 30, 1983, listed a manually operated cabin interlocking (Tower 152) at this location. The cabin remained standing until 2009 but the interlocking plant was no longer in service.

Above: The east end of the Wharton Santa Fe Trail is at N. Alabama St. (Google Street View, May, 2024) Below: This caboose sits in a sheltered location along the abandoned Cane Belt right-of-way on the west side of Wharton. It is labeled Southern Pacific but its heritage is undetermined. It appears unsheltered and without lettering on the earliest Google Street View dated March, 2008. (Google Street View, March, 2024)

Last Revised: 1/19/2025 JGK - Contact the Texas Interlocking Towers Page.