Marshall TX. Depot

10/04/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1KL9HzGCSb/

The Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 made its way south from Jim Thorpe to King of Prussia, and he followed it all the way. This train was built in 1941 and 85 years later, it is still so mighty. To give us this amazing experience, he used 4 cameras and spent 9 hours of chasing.

09/20/2026

Harrison County, Tx. trivia due to the early railroad days. Early settlement near present Hallsville was Fort Crawford but the railroad ran the tracks a few miles north of the settlement and the town of Hallville was created named after Volney Hall a vice-president of the Southern Railroad company and later the name was changed to Hallsville by the post office. When the Southern railroad extended westward the major population center was Earpville but O. H. Methvin sold the Southern Railroad Company 100 acres for a $1 to go north of Earpville toward Longview. Earpville was located in the eastern part of present day Longview and there is a historical plaque mentioning it. As they went eastward they built a train station in Powell Town and named the station Waskom after a Southern Pacific Railroad executive J. M. Waskom and later the town was called Waskom. Ironically Scottsville was always Scottsville and had nothing to do with the president of the T&P Railway Thomas A. Scott.

09/05/2026

Link to archives.org where they have a song about the T&P Railway

https://archive.org/details/JV-25787-1946-QmZjCj7HxbY6g6zimUZx9jfErsiZCGmgegx5nxMpnjsA1J.mp3

Artist: Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five Title: Texas And Pacific Year: 1946 Date: NY, Oct 10, 1946 Performers: Aaron Izenhall (tp) Louis Jordan (as,vcl) prob James Wright (ts) Wild Bill Davis (p,arr) Carl Hogan (el-g) Jesse Po Simpkins (b) Joe Morris (d) [ Christopher Columbus (d)...

08/24/2026

Playing with Chatgpt - picture of T&P yard in Marshall, TX probably in the 1920's but not sure. Other picture is aerial view from 1950 and if you zoom in the common feature between the pictures is the water tower.

08/18/2026

Additional old T&P Shop pictures Chat enhanced

08/10/2026

40 years later another T&P wreck in Jefferson.

08/09/2026

Here is a wider angle of the same wreck.

08/09/2026

Photograph of train crewmen and curious spectators posed beside crushed locomotives near Jefferson, Texas in 1903. Trains met head-on after a mix-up in orders. Engine crewmen jumped before the trains hit.

03/01/2026

Follow-up to the previous post about railroad hand and pedal cars pertaining to the T&P Railway.

02/26/2026

We all remember from watching movies or cartoons and seeing a railroad handcar with 2 people pumping as hard as they can to out run an oncoming train. As railroad tracks became prominent, people powered carts were developed either to use for railway related work or as a way to get from point A to point B with the associated dangers of a train coming.
A 4 or 3 wheeled hand car was used as early as 1843, it had various names like pump trolley, pump car, rail push trolley, push-trolley, jigger, Kalamazoo, velocipede,
gandy dancer cart, platelayers' cart, draisine or railbike.
Things evolved and people modified bicycle pedal power to propel the vehicle. They could be 4 wheeled and the person sat in the center or 3 wheeled and the person sat over the track. They even had one were a person pedaled on each side.
As the gasoline engine came about, they used a motorcycle to power the vehicle instead of pedal power. Today trucks are modified to run on tracks for the railroad
personnel to use.
But as all things go, we have made a circle and there are numerous abandoned railroad tracks converted for recreational use where people can rent or use their own pedal powered rail car for exercise or see the scenery.
Attached are some pictures by User Oktaeder on de.Wikipedia - Fotograf oder Zeichner: Oktaeder, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=217087