Texas Railroad History - Tower 207

Texas Railroad History - Tower 207 - Houston (Maury St.)

Hardy St. Yard, Texas & New Orleans (T&NO) Railroad

The precise interlocking design for Tower 207 remains undetermined. It was located along Maury St. at the east end of the T&NO Hardy St. yard, and it appears to have had a responsibility associated with managing train movements to and from the yard. The adjacent T&NO tracks were (and remain today) a major east/west line across north Houston, so it is likely that Tower 207 controlled access between this main line and the east end of the yard. The Tower 207 designation was assigned to an electric interlocker at this location in 1958. The elevated tower in the photos below implies that, at least initially, the tower operator needed a good view of the yard tracks and both directions of the main line.

Historic Photo - Tower 207

Above: A high resolution scan of this photo yields the close up of Tower 207 above it. The image was scanned from a slide obtained by Carl Codney. The slide is captioned "Houston, Texas SP fan trip, 8/31/57". Note the white building immediately behind the tower structure survived and is visible in more recent photos below.

Modern Photo - Tower 207

Above: This photo was taken in June, 2001 facing due southwest from the southern tip of Chase St. near Tower 26. The Houston skyline is visible in the distance and the white building beneath the overpass is labeled Tower 207. (Jim King photo)

Above: The wooden structure from the top images is gone, but the building behind it appears to have survived and was labeled "Tower 207" (magnification). Tower 207 no longer served an interlocking function, and the building appears to be used for storage purposes. There was an open field between Tower 207 and Tower 26, roughly 1500 ft. apart. (Jim King photo)

Tower 207 Removed
Below: The building labeled "Tower 207" was removed between June, 2014 (left) and September, 2015 (right) as shown in these Google Street View images. (hat tip, Jimmy Barlow)