Railroads did more than any other material development to create the world we live in today. They shaped our cultural landscape and brought revolutionary change unlike anything the world has known before. For centuries the fastest that any person, thought, or idea traveled was only as fast as a horse could run or a ship could sail. The railroad annihilated space and time and birthed the telecommunications industry along its rights-of-way. Even adoption of standard time, spread across four time zones, was a direct result of these unprecedented advances in travel and communication.
In East Texas, as elsewhere across America during the nineteenth century, railroads connected existing communities and created new ones almost overnight. In Angelina County, the cities of Lufkin, Diboll, and Huntington simply did not exist before the railroad's arrival.
This exhibit features only a portion of the Center's growing collection of photographs showing the railroad in East Texas life. Of course railroads and the forest products industry enjoyed a synergistic relationship from the beginning, and this fact is not overlooked in our selection of images.
Photographs in the exhibit include Angelina County Lumber Company Engine No. 110; Temple Lumber Company Engines 6 and 17; Southern Pine Lumber Company Engines 11, 13, 20, 28, and 1007; Texas Southeastern Railroad Engines 3, 4, 5, 10, 14, 22, and 1007; Texas State Railroad Engine 300; Moscow, Camden & San Augustine Engine 6; Southern Pacific Engine 630; the Houston East & West Texas Railway depots at Burke, Diboll, and Lufkin; a Texas State Railroad seasonal convict work train; river trestles; and many others. Also included are a couple sound recordings of East Texas steam locomotives.
This photograph, made by Latane Temple in about 1959, shows the Southern Pacific passenger depot at Lufkin, view looking northward. Most (the north end) of this brick structure was built in the summer of 1914, replacing an earlier wooden depot which was destroyed by a dynamite explosion set off intentionally by George Frank Parsons, a railroad employee (a ticket agent at the depot) on the night of March 2, 1913. In the aftermath, Lufkin boosters feared their city might lose the railroad company's subdivisional headquarters to Nacogdoches, so they campaigned fiercely for an improved replacement depot, at least similar to Nacogdoches' brick depot built a few years earlier. (Both cities were about halfway between the railroad terminals at Houston, Texas and Shreveport, Louisiana). After railroad officials discontinued passenger service on the line in the 1950's (day trains were discontinued in August 1954 and night trains were discontinued in September 1955), a new generation of Lufkinites saw their depot as an antiquated eyesore that impeded modern progress. The depot was demolished in 1960, leaving yet a later generation of citizens to lament the decision. The Nacogdoches depot survived and was restored and revitalized in the 2000's, serving as a community museum and meeting place.
Houston East & West Texas Railway depot at Burke
This vintage photograph comes from our Scrapbook of Ina McCall, Burke postmistress from 1914 to 1955 and daughter of longtime Burke railroad station agent Daniel Bynum McCall. The building is identified as the Burke railroad depot, probably about 1900. The depot's construction apparently dates from Houston East & West Texas Railway designs, before Southern Pacific gained control of the line in late 1899.
Cotton Belt (St. Louis Southwestern Railway) Engine 150 and a three-car train at the Lufkin depot, facing in the direction of Tyler in about 1921. The camera view is facing in the direction of the railroad's terminus at White City to the east. At times, three other railroad companies used this depot: the Groveton, Lufkin and Northern Railway (prior to 1932); the Eastern Texas Railroad (prior to 1922); and the Texas Southeastern Railroad (prior to 1943). Photo from Harold K. Vollrath Collection.
We know little about Temple Lumber Company's Engine 6, shown here in fresh livery sporting a spark-arresting cabbage smokestack on a logging line near Pineland sometime between about 1910 and the 1920s. Texas South-Eastern Railroad purchased the locomotive new from Baldwin Locomotive Works in December 1905. It was a lightweight 2-6-0 Mogul type weighing approximately 38 tons and was used initially in Diboll's logging operations (an American Lumberman cameraman photographed it near Diboll in November 1907), but managers transferred it to Pineland possibly about 1910. We know even less of its ultimate fate.
Southern Pine Lumber Company Engine 20
Southern Pine Lumber Company Engine 20 rolls and smokes for photographer A. E. Brown (1914-1981) near Pineland, Texas, in about 1957. A 96-ton 1930 Baldwin 2-8-2 Mikado, Engine 20 was purchased new by Temple Lumber Company, which merged with Southern Pine Lumber Company on February 1, 1956 under the Southern Pine Lumber Company name. Both companies were founded by Thomas Lewis Latane Temple (1859-1935) of Texarkana. Engine 20 was placed on static display in Pineland's Katherine Sage Temple Park in August 1985. For more information and photos concerning Engine 20, see the Pine Bough Magazine issues of September 2001 (p. 26) and September 2002 (p. 26) in our Publications section accessible from our Home Page. This photo is from our A. E. Brown collection of photographs donated by Louis Saillard.
Southern Pine Lumber Company Engine 13
With a side door caboose and steam log loader in tow, Southern Pine Lumber Company Engine 13 pulls eleven loaded log cars toward the Diboll sawmill in about 1962. Photo donated by Joe Dale Morris.
Sound File, Engine 13, ca. 1963: Hear Engine 13 whistle and chuff.
Download this Pine Bough issue for history and photos of Engine 13.
Log Loading
Texas South-Eastern Railroad Engine 3 and TS-E Log Loader 1 and crews pose for a photographer in about 1915. From our Brett Stanaker Collection.
All Aboard!
All Aboard! Southern Pacific crewmen assist Diboll second graders aboard train number 26 to Lufkin on May 11, 1949. The train ride was part of a field trip to see a movie at the Pines Theater and visit Kurth Memorial Library. For more about this excursion, see "The Railroad Depots of Diboll and Burke and the Last Days of Passenger Train Travel" on pages 2 thorugh 9 in the 2001 issue of The Pine Bough magazine, available in PDF format through the Publications section of our Home page.
Strolling Along the Tracks
Young Franklin Farrington (1903-1956) and his friend Julia Ashford (1906-2002) walk along Texas Southeastern Railroad tracks at the Diboll mill ponds in about 1912. Franklin's father was Diboll's postmaster, his mother worked in the commissary, and Julia's father was a mill manager.
Taking On Water
Texas Southeastern Railroad Engine 4 leads a double-headed log train taking on water at an unknown location, possibly Gilbert (Angelina County) on the Neches River, in about 1915. The second locomotive is possibly Engine 5. Photo from our Brett Stanaker Collection.
Angelina County Lumber Company Engine 110
Engineer William J. Morrison, fireman Willard Cherry, and conductor June Terry pose for Shreveport, Louisiana photographer A. E. Brown (1914-1981) at New Camp, Nacogdoches County, Texas in about 1959. Engine 110, a 77-ton Baldwin 2-8-2, was built in 1924 for Angelina County Lumber Company and was donated in 1970 to the City of Lufkin by Owens-Illinois, Inc. Forest Products Division, in cooperation with Lufkin Industries, Inc., Angelina & Neches River Railroad, and the Lufkin Junior Chamber of Commerce. It has been on static display at Lufkin's Ellen Trout Zoo since July 1970. Photo from our William J. Morrison Collection.
Steam Whistle, fast running: Click the link below to hear Engine 110, with W.J. Morrison at the throttle, pull a heavy log train nearing Keltys in about 1959. (From A Symphony in Steam, by L.J. Carlson and H.K. Vollrath, 1959).
Neches River Bridge, Houston East & West Texas Railway
A group of finely dressed Diboll youth pose on the Houston East & West Texas Railway bridge over the Neches River in about 1910. Bertha Mann, daughter of the town doctor, stands between the rails holding flowers, perhaps on her birthday.
Trinity River Logging Railroad Bridge
Dred Devereaux, Texas South-Eastern Railroad roadmaster, stands with a construction crew atop a newly completed steel logging railroad bridge across the Trinity River near Swartout, Polk County, in about 1928. Constructed for Southern Pine Lumber Company sawmills at Diboll, Angelina County, the bridge provided access to timber acquisitions in San Jacinto County. The bridge was reportedly dismantled in the late 1930s and sold for scrap.
For more information on Dred Devereaux and the Trinity County bridge, see pages 4 through 6 of the December 1999 issue of The Pine Bough, available as a PDF file in the Publications sections on our Home Page.
Hardwood Log Train
A Texas Southeastern Railroad crew poses with Engine 5 and a hardwood log train at the Diboll sawmills in about 1910.
Temple Lumber Company Engine 17
Engine 17 and crew pause with a loaded log train for a photographer at Pineland in about 1930. The 72-ton 2-8-2 Mikado type engine with 44-inch drivers was built by Baldwin in February 1915, and it was scrapped about 1963. It was photographed in 1962 at Temco by R. W. Keeling of Houston. Temco was a railroad siding on the Santa Fe lines at Evadale, Texas, and was also the connection with the Temple Lumber Company logging railroad. For more photos of Engine 17, see page 39 of our 2011 issue of the Pine Bough Magazine.
Texas State Railroad Engine 300
Texas State Railroad's Engine 300, formerly Southern Pine Lumber Company's Engine 28 (see next photo), takes a spin on the Maydelle turntable in March 2003. Photo by Jonathan Gerland.
In November 1972 Temple Industries donated Engine 28 to Texas Parks & Wildlife Department's new Texas State Railroad State Historical Park. After fifty years of leasing the Rusk to Palestine line to private railroad companies, including Temple's Texas Southeastern Railroad, the State decided in 1972 to rebuild most of the 32-mile railroad and turn it into an operating steam tourist attraction. Upon donating the 83-ton Baldwin 2-8-0 type steam locomotive, Temple Industries Chairman Arthur Temple said: "It is particularly fitting that Engine 28 become a part of East Texas' future again. She performed yeoman service in the earlier days of railroad logging, and now will become a source of nostalgic enjoyment for thousands of tourists and visitors. We are proud to help make this new recreation concept a part of the East Texas scene."
The new state park opened in 1976, but with other steam power. The State did not restore the locomotive until 1995, renumbering it 300 and painting it red and black. The shiny new engine kicked off the 1996 steam excursion season and continues to operate regularly out of the Rusk station. The locomotive was built originally for the U.S. Army in 1917, serving in and around Fort Polk, Louisiana. The Tremont & Gulf Railroad purchased the General Pershing class engine from the Army in the 1940s, selling it in 1955 to Temple Lumber Company, which used it to serve their Pineland mill until the early 1960's.
Southern Pine Lumber Company Engine 28
Engine 28 in Southern Pine Lumber Company livery at the Pineland shops in February 1957. Temple Lumber Company had merged with Southern Pine Lumber Company a year earlier. Photo by Joe R. Thompson (1932-2002).
In November 1972 Temple Industries donated Engine 28 to Texas Parks & Wildlife Department's new Texas State Railroad State Historical Park. After fifty years of leasing the Rusk to Palestine line to private railroad companies, including Temple's Texas Southeastern Railroad, the State decided in 1972 to rebuild most of the 32-mile railroad and turn it into an operating steam tourist attraction. Upon donating the 83-ton Baldwin 2-8-0 type steam locomotive, Temple Industries Chairman Arthur Temple said: "It is particularly fitting that Engine 28 become a part of East Texas' future again. She performed yeoman service in the earlier days of railroad logging, and now will become a source of nostalgic enjoyment for thousands of tourists and visitors. We are proud to help make this new recreation concept a part of the East Texas scene."
The new state park opened in 1976, but with other steam power. The State did not restore the locomotive until 1995, renumbering it 300 and painting it red and black (see previous photo). The shiny new engine kicked off the 1996 steam excursion season and continues to operate regularly out of the Rusk station. The locomotive was built originally for the U.S. Army in 1917, serving in and around Fort Polk, Louisiana. The Tremont & Gulf Railroad purchased the General Pershing class engine from the Army in the 1940s, selling it in 1955 to Temple Lumber Company, which used it to serve their Pineland mill until the early 1960s.
Texas State Railroad History (Convict work gang, ca. 1913)
A seasonal convict work gang clears ditches along the tracks of the Texas State Railroad between Rusk and Palestine in about 1913. (Photo from a vintage post card in our Grady Singletary Collection).
The Texas State Railroad began in 1882 as a decision by Governor Oran M. Roberts to construct 1.3 miles of railroad between the state's new East Texas Penitentiary and the tracks of the Kansas & Gulf Shortline (K&GSL) railroad at Rusk. The spur was necessary to provide significant amounts of fuel to the prison's charcoal-fired iron smelting furnace and also provide an outlet for heavy iron products manufactured at the prison. Although built by the state, the spur was operated by K&GSL until 1886, when the state, under Governor John Ireland's direction, purchased a second-hand locomotive and began independent train operations. In 1893 Governor James Hogg initiated the state's construction of a branch line railroad from the prison to Palestine, completing 9 miles by 1896, but stopping short of the Neches River. Texas abandoned 6 miles of this extension in 1903 and began construction of a new route, reaching the present site of Maydelle in 1904. Between 1907 and 1909, under push from Governor Thomas M. Campbell, the state exercised power of eminent domain and finally completed the Palestine objective initiated 16 years earlier.
Unlike other state-owned and operated railroads in Brazoria, Fort Bend, and Walker counties, the 33 mile Texas State Railroad between Rusk and Palestine organized under special legislation in 1907 as a common carrier of public freight and passengers. As such, civilians composed all operational train and regular maintenance crews. Between 1910 and 1920 the Rusk-Palestine operation regularly employed between 36 and 70 civilians monthly, paying wages comparable to private railroad companies in Texas operating over similar distances. Because of construction cost overruns and almost annual "emergency" operational appropriations, the State Railroad was quickly identified by legislators as "a white elephant on the hands of the state." To mitigate further losses, Texas leased the line to private railroad companies, including Texas & New Orleans, Texas Southeastern, and Missouri Pacific, between 1921 and the early 1970s, then transferred it to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department in 1972. The line reopened to the public as a State Historical Park in 1976, providing steam passenger tourist excursions seasonally. * Based on Jonathan Gerland's STEAM IN THE PINES: A HISTORY OF THE TEXAS STATE RAILROAD (Nacogdoches: East Texas Historical Association, 2004).
Moscow, Camden & San Augustine Engine 6
Engineer William J. Morrison (1912-2007) sits at the throttle of Moscow, Camden & San Augustine Railroad's Engine No. 6 in about 1956, just prior to transferring to the Angelina & Neches River Railroad where he retired in 1976. Mr. Morrison always considered MC&SA No. 6 his favorite locomotive because of its excellent steaming and operating qualities. Engine 6, a 46-ton 1911 Baldwin 2-8-0, is now displayed in San Antonio at the Texas Transportation Museum. Photo by A.E. Brown from our William J. Morrison Collection.
Engine 500 Approaches Mewshaw
Texas State Railroad Engine 500 approaches Mewshaw from the east in August 2002. Photograph by Jonathan Gerland.
Engine 300 Smokes Up the Woods
Westward running Texas State Railroad Engine 300 smokes up a clear spring day as it labors up a deep cut and curve at a place known to train crews as Fairchild Hill, in Cherokee County, on March 15, 2003. Photo by Jonathan Gerland.
Southern Pacific Engine 630
Southern Pacific engineer Joe Hanks waves from the cab of Engine 630 as it leads train number 25 from Shreveport across the railroad overpass of U.S. Highway 59 in north Lufkin, ca. 1950. Engine 630 was a 153-ton 1923 Baldwin 4-6-2 Pacific Class P-9 with 73-inch diameter drive wheels. Photo by A. E. Brown (1914-1981).
Proud Crew of Engine 6
This photo shows Joe Pollard, the proud engineer of Temple Lumber Company Engine 6, who poses at the front of the locomotive (holding the oil can) with his son Glenn and engine crew at Pineland, Texas in about 1909. According to the 1910 Sabine County census, Pollard was a 27 year old locomotive engineer living with his 24 year old wife Flora and 4 children: daughter Lulline, age 9; son Glenn, age 6; daughter Hazel, age 3; and son Joseph, age 2 months. Engine 6, a 38-ton 2-6-0 class, was formerly a Texas South-Eastern Railroad locomotive, built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in December 1905.
1968 Texas South-Eastern Passenger Train
Although Texas South-Eastern Railroad discontinued regular passenger service in 1942, management decided to run weekend excursion trains during the falls of 1966 and 1968 as part of Diboll Day community fundraising efforts. TS-E Baldwin diesel-electric locomotives pulled former Frisco coaches and former Kansas City Southern observation car No. 99 in round trip excursions between Diboll and Lufkin from early September to early October of each year. Here, TS-E Engine 1007, a former Cotton Belt 1944 Baldwin VO-1000, stages its train in Diboll in 1968. (Photo by Joe R. Thompson). TS-E Engine 1008, a sister to 1007, pulled the tourist trains in 1966.
Southern Pine Lumber Company Engine 1007
Photographer Fred Springer made this photo in July 1963 at Pineland, Texas. Texas South-Eastern Railroad purchased Engine 1007 from the St. Louis Southwestern Railway (Cotton Belt) in March earlier that year for $10,000, repainting it white, light yellow, and forest green and in Southern Pine Lumber Company livery. The 120-ton 1944 Baldwin VO-1000 locomotive first served Southern Pine Lumber Company's Pineland mills, then returned to Diboll a few years later where it regularly operated until early 2006, when it was replaced by Texas South-Eastern Railroad's 2005-acquired 1966 EMD SW-1500 Engine 937.
1966 Texas South-Eastern Railroad passenger train
Although Texas South-Eastern Railroad discontinued regular passenger service in 1942, management decided to run weekend excursion trains during the falls of 1966 and 1968 as part of Diboll Day community fundraising efforts. TS-E Baldwin diesel-electric locomotives pulled former Frisco coaches and former Kansas City Southern observation car No. 99 in round trip excursions between Diboll and Lufkin from early September to early October of each year. Here, TS-E Engine 1008, a former Cotton Belt 1944 Baldwin VO-1000, stages its train at TS-E's Diboll depot and offices in 1966. TS-E Engine 1007, a sister to 1008, pulled the tourist trains in 1968 (see previous photo).
Texas South-Eastern Railroad Engine 22
TS-E Engine 22 pulls newly painted TS-E boxcars at Diboll in about 1979. TS-E purchased the 70-ton General Electric locomotive new in 1956, and initially used it by day to pull the Diboll log train and by night to operate the Lufkin train. TS-E then placed Engine 22 in service over the rails of the Texas State Railroad, during TS-E's lease of the 33-mile line between Rusk and Palestine between November 1, 1962 and December 31, 1969. More than a quarter of a century later, TS-E donated Engine 22 to the Texas State Railroad State Historical Park in September 1996; it was the third locomotive TS-E and its Temple interests donated to the State Railroad, the others being State Nos. 300 (an 83-ton 1917 Baldwin 2-8-0) and 1 (a 45-ton 1947 General Electric diesel), both in 1972. Engine 22 was the only diesel-electric locomotive TS-E purchased new.
Log Camp Moving Day
Perhaps the origin of the modern mobile home industry, East Texas logging camps of the early twentieth century often consisted of simple rectangular-shaped houses that could be easily transported by steam railroad logging equipment. The same loader and flat cars that lifted and carried logs to the sawmills, transported employees' homes between camps. The date of this photo is about 1915. Southern Pine Lumber Company logging camps active at the time included Camps 1 and 2 in Trinity County, Alcedo in Angelina County, Walkerton and Bluff City in Houston County, and White City in San Augustine County.
Texas South-Eastern Railroad Engines 14, 10, and 11
Crewmen of Texas South-Eastern Railroad and Southern Pine Lumber Company pose with locomotives 10, 11, and 14 at Diboll in about 1946. The Southern Pine Lumber Company fuel house and smokestack are in the right background. All three engines were Baldwins that were later scrapped. Engine 10 was a 67-ton Ten-Wheeler built in 1911 and Engines 11 and 14 were both Prairies; 11 was 60 tons, built in 1912, and 14 was 53 tons, built in 1919.
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Glenn Armstrong of Lufkin made this photo of a plane crash (no train involved) on the Southern Pacific railroad in south Lufkin in January 1965. According to news reports, the Cessna 182 ran out of gas and crashed while trying to make an emergency landing on the Old Diboll Highway. The plane hit a utility pole, spun, and landed upside down on the tracks, before being pulled off by a wrecker (visible at the far left). The pilot, his wife, and three small children all escaped uninjured. They reportedly were from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and were headed to Center, Texas, their former home. The Diboll Free Press claimed that "hundreds of people" crowded near the Loop 287 overpass to see the spectacle.
Clem Porter (1936-2006) donated this post card view to us. His father, Arthur Porter Sr. (1886-1975), was a long time Texas Southeastern Railroad employee, serving as shop superintendent for many years. Before settling in Diboll, Clem’s father worked briefly for railroad logging operations at Onalaska, Texas, in western Polk County, and also in Arkansas and Oklahoma. The photo shows a log train pulled by Engine 7 at Onalaska, Texas in about 1909. Onalaska was one of Texas’ larger company sawmill towns from about 1905 until the mill closed in 1928. William Carlisle, a lumberman, named the Texas town reportedly after the line, “The wolf’s long howl from Oonalaska’s shore,” from the Scottish poet Thomas Campbell’s “The Pleasures of Hope,” published in 1799. Other lumber towns by the same name in the states of Wisconsin, Arkansas, and Washington also trace their names to the Aleutian island and fishing village Oonalaska, immortalized by Campbell’s poem.
At three river miles downstream from the US Highway 84 bridge, Richard Donovan canoes under the Texas State Railroad Neches River bridge as eastward moving Texas State Railroad Engine 7 and train passes overhead on May 3, 2008. The concrete bridge was built in 1980, replacing a timber trestle first constructed at the site in 1909. Photo by Jonathan Gerland.
Texas State Railroad Engine 300 steams across the Neches River bridge on April 22, 2006, crossing from Anderson County into Cherokee County. Photo by Jonathan Gerland.
A Cotton Belt Railway motor car stops at Wildhurst, Texas, in about 1920. Located about 22 miles northwest of Lufkin, Wildhurst was a Chronister Lumber Company sawmill town in Cherokee County.
Haskell Welch of Beaumont captured this photo of Carl Vinson inside the combined baggage and passenger car during a train ride in 1961.
Carl Vinson sets the handbrake during a train ride between Moscow and Camden in 1961. Photo by Haskell Welch of Beaumont.
Engineer William J. Morrison leans out of the cab of MC&SA Engine 6 at Hanner in April 1952.
Neches valley pine bound for Diboll, 1907. Texas South-Eastern Railroad Engine 7 (a 1906 coal-burning Baldwin 44-ton Ten-wheeler) and crew pose with a pine log train on the mainline just west of Diboll. Engine 7 was one of eight locomotives then used by Texas South-Eastern Railroad in its Diboll operations. The photo is from our American Lumberman Collection.
This photo was made in about 1937, looking north-eastward. Located just north of what is now Sate Highway 94, about two-and-a-half miles west of the Neches River bridge, the logging camp was operated by Southern Pine Lumber Company to supply the Diboll sawmill for a couple years. The area of the camp is now within the South Boggy Slough Conservation Area.
This is a September 1966 photo of a staged "outlaw and bandit hold-up" of a tourist train in Diboll, pulled by Texas Southeastern Railroad's Engine 1008, a 1944 Baldwin VO-1000 diesel electric locomotive. The event was part of a Diboll Days fundraising event, in which tourist passenger trains were run between Diboll and Lufkin in September and October 1966. Similar trains were run during Diboll Days of 1968 also. The photo shows the white, yellow, and forest green tri-color paint scheme of TSE's diesel-electric engines during the early and middle 1960's. Engineer Jim Shurley leans out of the cab, while General Manager George Hone leans on the guard rail.