Odd, I never thought of myself as part of "a segment of rail fans focussing on towers and crossings." It was just a kick I got on for a while when I was kicking around ideas some 25 years ago for "the big dream layout," the one I now doubt I will ever build...
I was concerned with modeling interchanges and crossings between different railroads and how they work in real life. Also how in flatland south Texas there are so few grade separated rail crossings-- 2 in Houston, 1 in San Antonio, 1 near Plantersville.... Another time I was producing a one-hour video on "Traffic Simulation for a Texas Model Railroad" and I shot pictures of a bunch of businesses with industry spurs in Corpus Christi and elsewhere. Most of the small industry and warehouse spurs have been pulled up and I recently donated my local pictures to a university history archive.
Anyway, here are a couple more diamond crossings CLOSE to 60 degrees.
The first crossing and junction in Texas, Pierce Junction on the south side of Houston about three miles east of the Astrodome, near Holmes Road and Alameda. The arrow points to the diamond.
The first railroad in Texas, the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado, built in the 1850s, became associated with the Galveston Houston and San Antonio which became part of the SP-owned Texas and New Orleans, then Southern Pacific proper and now Union Pacific. It is the track that runs right bottom corner to left middle across the picture. That road bypassed Houston proper, but the Houston Tap built to connect to it and to cross and head for Brazoria. Houston Tap and Brazoria became part of Houston and Great Northern, then International and Great Northern, then Missouri Pacific. But Houston Belt and Terminal took over the MoPac trackage within Houston and this crossing was a divide between HB&T and MoPac operation. And then with the recent mergers, surviving MoPac-owned track became UP. This is a 1986 view of a 56 degree crossing, as measured on the city street map and on GoogleEarth. I don't know if the crossing is still there...
This next one is called RABBIT CROSSING. Southern Pacific came to own a Houston to Lufkin to Shreveport line through east Texas formally named the "Houston East and West Texas." Critics claimed the initials H.E.W.T. stood for "Hell Either Way Taken." But the line was also called the Rabbit for the way it ran up and down the little hills of east Texas. The "Rabbit" is the hard-to-see line running crssways across this picture, in the shadow of the expressway.
The "Rabbit" came first, running a dozen or so degrees east of due north. Then the Houston Belt and Terminal was created in the early years of the 20th century. This was (in 1986) HB&T's East Belt Sub double track running almost east and west to cross "the Rabbit" with a 70 degree diamond.
Then in the 1950s they built the "Eastex Freeway," the portion of US 59 on the north side of Houston running into the piney woods. The overpass easily clears the HB&T tracks at an easy angle close to 90 degrees. But the "Rabbit" is almost parallel, at a sharp shallow angle. The overpass supports needed to be staggered on both sides of the rail line as it crosses both west to east and south to north at the same time.
