Another weekend is here already. Didn't catch anything this week so I'll start off with some from a few weeks back. The better part of the Georgia Northeastern's roster was hanging out by their office in Elizabeth GA on this particular Friday afternoon in late April. Here are a few of the shots I took there.
Love the sound of those old Roots-blown Geeps. I can almost hear it! Some springtime (?!??) railfanning in Minot, ND. Amtrak 7 behind a pair of fresh Chargers: CP 318 eastbound grain train at Soo Tower: CP 148, the eastbound Vancouver-Chicago intermodal at the 1905 Soo Line freight house. Later that afternoon, I got a message from a CP railroader asking if I was downtown that morning grabbing a shot of 148... Guilty!
Going through my old slides, I found these from about 1992, when the Southern Pacific was still running this rodeo. Tower 17 in Rosenberg, Texas. I guess you could call it the "dark ages" judging by my photography abilities.
The Texas Railroad Commission came up with the numbers for all railroads. That comes from this website. http://txrrhistory.com/towers/history/history.htm Which is part of this page that I helped a little in setting up by sending in what historic information and photos that I had about Tower 114. http://txrrhistory.com/towers/
Interesting! I'd have never guessed. Thanks for the links too. I remember learning somewhere that the Texas Railroad Commission was a powerful organization and had its stamp upon just about everything that moved on rails in the state. Do you know if the T.R.C. was the reason for long standing subsidiaries of major trunk roads serving the state, such as the SSW, T & P, FW&D, etc? I may have read this somewhere, but am not all all sure.
The Texas Railroad Commission was responsible for regulation and enforcing the laws passed by the Texas Legislature. After reconstruction following the Civil War, Texas was wary of outside intervention interfering with affairs within the state. It was then deemed necessary that all railroad operating within the state's boarders had to be headquartered in the state. Therefore all the little railroads in the state were usually under control or subsidiaries of larger railroads. At the same time they were fiercely independent and many times did things their own way over the objections of the parent railroads. The ATSF had the Gulf Colorado & Santa Fe, the Southern Pacific had the Texas & New Orleans as well as the San Antonio & Aransas Pass, the CB&Q had the Fort Worth & Denver as well as partial ownership of the Burlington-Rock Island, the Missouri Pacific controlled the International Great Northern and a bunch of other railroads, the MKT had the MKT of Texas....etc...etc. I am not sure how the Cotton Belt was able to operate in the state, they may have handed over control to the T&NO when they came over the boarder. It all came to a halt in the 1950s when a federal judge presiding over the Missouri Pacific bankruptcy ruled that it was all absurd and overturned the Texas laws making the Mop one railroad as well as all the others.
Two of them held panels of relays and switching gear to aid in the interlocker. The little concrete building between the metal building and the tower was just a storage shed for various gear.
Okay, so that's how the Texas subsidiaries began .... and came to an end. VERY informative Russell -- thanks! BTW, I never knew the MP was in bankruptcy. I did a little digging and learned they went bust in '33 and lived under a receivership for decades until the time period you mentioned. I think of the MP as a gilt-edged property, but the Great Depression dragged roads of all kinds of roads under.
Not trains... exactly, but railroad bridges. On our trips to our churches' mission in Kentucky, we pass under a couple of interesting bridges in northern West Virginia (outside of Point Pleasant, WV and across from Martins Ferry, OH). The first of these currently belongs to the CSX Ohio River Subdivision but remains painted (barely) as belonging to the former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Not great pictures with my wife's finger in them, but she was nice enough to take photos whilst I drove, so I won't complain too much. Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk
Here are the photos of the same bridge from the other direction. Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk
And less than a mile farther was this beauty from 1909 that currently belongs to the Kanawha River Railroad (KNWA). CSX shares some trackage with KNWA and interchanges near these two bridges. Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk