Outdoor Railroad Exhibit
Introduction
All Aboard!
Railroads profoundly shaped our geographic and cultural landscape, creating and connecting communities like nothing before or since. Our fully accessible railroad display invites you to climb aboard, ring the locomotive's bell and blow the whistle, explore the caboose, and experience the sights and sounds of railroading's exciting past.
Built new for Texas Southeastern Railroad of Diboll, Texas (TSE) in 1920 by Baldwin Locomotive Works, Engine 13 is a 68-ton 4-6-0 or Ten-Wheeler steam locomotive. It was used regularly by TSE and Southern Pine Lumber Company (SPLCo) of Diboll as a mainline logging engine until replaced by TSE diesel-electric locomotive 22 in 1956. It then served extra duty periodically until 1964, when it was retired and placed on display. Temple-Inland donated the Engine to The History Center in 2002.
Download history and photos of Engine 13 from the December 2003 issue of The Pine Bough.
Sound File, Engine 13, ca. 1963. Listen to Engine 13 whistle and chuff.
Southern Pine Lumber Company (SPLCo) acquired this 40 foot log car from the Louisiana & Arkansas Railway of Shreveport, Louisiana, late in the 1940s. It was last used at SPLCo's creosoting plant in Diboll, where it carried poles, and at the Texas Southeastern Railroad shops, where it stored a spare Baldwin diesel-electric engine block. It has a hodgepodge of wheels (some are hollow cast iron) from various manufacturers dating between 1909 and 1928. Temple-Inland donated the car to The History Center in 2002.
Caboose No. 6
Texas Southeastern Railroad (TSE) caboose number 6 was built in 1948 by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway in their car shops as caboose number 2246. TSE acquired the 34 foot steel cupola type caboose in 1972 and last used it in revenue service early in the 1990s. Temple-Inland donated the caboose to The History Center in 2002.
Fairmont Motor Car
In 1976 George Honea, General Manager of Texas Southeastern Railroad, painted this motor car red, white, and blue in celebration of the nation's Bicentennial Anniversary. At the time, many Class 1 Railroads were painting one or more of their locomtives in special Bicentennial designs. Honea later recalled, "TSE was just as patriotic as the next railroad; we just didn't have their budget." This photo was made in August 2014, with staff member Louis Landers proudly displaying the 1976 paint design restoration. The car is a Class M9, Series G, Group 2, Special 4 type, Car Number 200093.
TSE Motor Car
Archival Assistant Louis Landers proudly poses in August 2014 with one of two cosmetically restored Fairmont Motor Cars.
