I grew up in Brownsville and I remember the Valley Eagle coming into town in the late evening... in the last few years, pulled by Geeps... the early 60's. In 1970 we moved to Austin. I remember the last Texas Eagles passing Crockett High School each afternoon.. and then the InterAmerican.
My first train trip was with my aunt who came to El Paso from Memphis when my mother had surgery during the summer of 1959. We took the T&P to Dallas, and then the MoPac to Memphis thru Little Rock. Texas is its own thing, part west and part south. The dividing line is basically along I-35. While Houston and Dallas maybe more south than west, San Antonio, Austin, and Fort Worth is definitely west. More trees east of I-35, fewer smaller trees and shrubs west of I-35. Prickly pear cactus of the ranch country west of I-35, with more farms and fields to the east of I-35...
Sweet job on the new graphics, TH; smooth and clean and eye pleasing. I had a cousin once removed (J. R. Osman, who went by his middle name Russell) who was in MoPac management in the 1960s and 1970s and who, sadly had to be part of the team that crunched the numbers and filed the petitions to remove the trains. Prior to that, he was Chief Mechanical Officer for the Rock Island. Somewhere back our DNA, we got the train bug it seems. Looking forward to your next offering of passenger entrees and desserts. Cheers.
The Alco PA-1 number 50 is the locomotive number. The MoP didn’t put the train # on the engine. That train and the facing sun makes me think it was the afternoon mail train, No. 15. There is a NYC mail storeage car behind the engine typical on No. 15. As to the Dome cars the so-called lounge was a restroom. The Budd domes had a large restroom lounge for Men and Women to freshen up after an all night ride. The P-S domes had two normal size toilets and a sitting area separate from those. No food or alcohol service was served on the Dome cars.
I don't know about the MoPac's train numbering routine, but the UP (the eSPee's Overland partner) also put the train number in the number boards. In fact, if you look at a UP steam locomotive today, it would have an 'X' before their number. Back in their hayday, the X indicates that this train is an extra!
18:40 Austin, TX, where skyscrapers line the former MP and SP track that ran down Fourth Street as late as the 1980s. Amtrak's incarnation of the Texas Eagle began as the Inter-American between Fort Worth and Laredo, which then was extended to St. Louis in order to bring service to Dallas. The Eagle name returned as the San Antonio-Laredo segment was annulled and the train swinged over to the SP depot, replacing a bus ride between the SP and MP depots.
Southwest combines the south and the west... Texas isn't the deep south of Georgia or Alabama in the east, but more than half is as west as New Mexico...
A decade ago I have seen seven car trains, with two sleepers, diner, sightseeing lounge, and three coaches. Usually the two cars shunted in San Antonio to and from the Sunset Limited four times a week could reach to seven cars, but on the days there wasn't a shunt would leave only five cars. Recently Amtrak shunts a coach on and off in St. Louis to and from Chicago reducing the Eagle sometimes to four cars during the pandemic. If Amtrak introduced a sleeper and coach at Longview to and from Houston as in the old days of MoPac, the Eagle could grow to nine cars. Amtrak presently uses a thorough bus coach service to do what should be a train. What Texas is missing most with trains is a direct daily train from Houston to Dallas. During the 1950s there were SEVEN direct daily trains serving the two large cities. The Southern Pacific, Burlington (x2), Rock Island, MKT/Katy, Santa Fe, and MoPac. And yes I would like to see Amtrak serve Texas much, much better with the former Burlington Zephyr, Denver to Houston thru Dallas, and the Lone Star, Kansas City to Houston thru Fort Worth... It is PATHETIC there isn't any daily services from Dallas to Houston presently. A colossal CRIME! Amtrak should score a A+, but presently Amtrak scores a D-...
@@ronclark9724 indeed, my friend told me about this and I haven't seen more than 4 cars since late 2019. I can remember 9 car eagles running here in Texas, hell, I rode on one of em to Texarkana once when I was 11. A train directly from Dallas to Houston used to run. It was the sunbeam but it's been gone for decades, long before my time unfortunately. We need a train that runs between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio with connections to Corpus Christi, Galveston and possibly as far south as Brownsville and as far west as El Pasoand as far north as Lubbock and Amarillo. I think what Texas needs to do now is forge its own privately owned TEXAN owned railroad with trackage and infrastructure bought from Union Pacific. BNSF is headquartered here so they're about as Texan as it gets. UP sure as hell ain't.
I grew up in Brownsville and I remember the Valley Eagle coming into town in the late evening... in the last few years, pulled by Geeps... the early 60's. In 1970 we moved to Austin. I remember the last Texas Eagles passing Crockett High School each afternoon.. and then the InterAmerican.
My first train trip was with my aunt who came to El Paso from Memphis when my mother had surgery during the summer of 1959. We took the T&P to Dallas, and then the MoPac to Memphis thru Little Rock. Texas is its own thing, part west and part south. The dividing line is basically along I-35. While Houston and Dallas maybe more south than west, San Antonio, Austin, and Fort Worth is definitely west. More trees east of I-35, fewer smaller trees and shrubs west of I-35. Prickly pear cactus of the ranch country west of I-35, with more farms and fields to the east of I-35...
Sweet job on the new graphics, TH; smooth and clean and eye pleasing. I had a cousin once removed (J. R. Osman, who went by his middle name Russell) who was in MoPac management in the 1960s and 1970s and who, sadly had to be part of the team that crunched the numbers and filed the petitions to remove the trains. Prior to that, he was Chief Mechanical Officer for the Rock Island. Somewhere back our DNA, we got the train bug it seems. Looking forward to your next offering of passenger entrees and desserts. Cheers.
"Palasteen"
Yes! Palestine, Texas is NOT pronounced with a long "i" as the Palestine in the Middle East is. Do better! 😊
The Alco PA-1 number 50 is the locomotive number. The MoP didn’t put the train # on the engine. That train and the facing sun makes me think it was the afternoon mail train, No. 15. There is a NYC mail storeage car behind the engine typical on No. 15. As to the Dome cars the so-called lounge was a restroom. The Budd domes had a large restroom lounge for Men and Women to freshen up after an all night ride. The P-S domes had two normal size toilets and a sitting area separate from those. No food or alcohol service was served on the Dome cars.
I don't know about the MoPac's train numbering routine, but the UP (the eSPee's Overland partner) also put the train number in the number boards. In fact, if you look at a UP steam locomotive today, it would have an 'X' before their number. Back in their hayday, the X indicates that this train is an extra!
My first train ride was MoPac from St. Louis to Bismarck, MO. Not on the Texas Eagle, but I think #8, about 1965 or 66.
I model the gulf coast lines, Bloomington-placedo, and the poc branch, the Austwell branch and sp’s port lavaca branch.
18:40 Austin, TX, where skyscrapers line the former MP and SP track that ran down Fourth Street as late as the 1980s. Amtrak's incarnation of the Texas Eagle began as the Inter-American between Fort Worth and Laredo, which then was extended to St. Louis in order to bring service to Dallas. The Eagle name returned as the San Antonio-Laredo segment was annulled and the train swinged over to the SP depot, replacing a bus ride between the SP and MP depots.
6:13 is St Louis.
I live in the southwest (southern Utah) and we think of Texas as being in the southwest.
Southwest combines the south and the west... Texas isn't the deep south of Georgia or Alabama in the east, but more than half is as west as New Mexico...
I don't even remember the last time I saw a Texas eagle that was longer than 5 or 6 cars man.
A decade ago I have seen seven car trains, with two sleepers, diner, sightseeing lounge, and three coaches. Usually the two cars shunted in San Antonio to and from the Sunset Limited four times a week could reach to seven cars, but on the days there wasn't a shunt would leave only five cars. Recently Amtrak shunts a coach on and off in St. Louis to and from Chicago reducing the Eagle sometimes to four cars during the pandemic. If Amtrak introduced a sleeper and coach at Longview to and from Houston as in the old days of MoPac, the Eagle could grow to nine cars. Amtrak presently uses a thorough bus coach service to do what should be a train. What Texas is missing most with trains is a direct daily train from Houston to Dallas. During the 1950s there were SEVEN direct daily trains serving the two large cities. The Southern Pacific, Burlington (x2), Rock Island, MKT/Katy, Santa Fe, and MoPac. And yes I would like to see Amtrak serve Texas much, much better with the former Burlington Zephyr, Denver to Houston thru Dallas, and the Lone Star, Kansas City to Houston thru Fort Worth... It is PATHETIC there isn't any daily services from Dallas to Houston presently. A colossal CRIME! Amtrak should score a A+, but presently Amtrak scores a D-...
@@ronclark9724 indeed, my friend told me about this and I haven't seen more than 4 cars since late 2019. I can remember 9 car eagles running here in Texas, hell, I rode on one of em to Texarkana once when I was 11. A train directly from Dallas to Houston used to run. It was the sunbeam but it's been gone for decades, long before my time unfortunately. We need a train that runs between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio with connections to Corpus Christi, Galveston and possibly as far south as Brownsville and as far west as El Pasoand as far north as Lubbock and Amarillo. I think what Texas needs to do now is forge its own privately owned TEXAN owned railroad with trackage and infrastructure bought from Union Pacific. BNSF is headquartered here so they're about as Texan as it gets. UP sure as hell ain't.