Here is some information on this famous Texas railroad. Well, fairly famous. :teeth: Texas Handbook on Line More. Stephenville, Texas Tarleton State University
It has been exactly 100 years since the SN&ST was built. It lasted a scant few years as an independent operation before being leased to the St. Louis Southwestern Railway of Texas for operation. The Stephenville founders of the line had doubts about continued operation of the line after the April 1908 floods took out part of the track at the Leon River crossing. This led to a partial sale of the line to St. Louis banking interests and likely got the interest of the at the time expansionistic Cotton Belt. Cotton Belt extended the line from Hamilton to Gatesville and pushed a line west from Edson (just north of Hamilton) to Commanche. The planned extension to Thurber, TEXAS and its coal mines was never completed. This line represented the furthest westward expansion of the Cotton Belt. The original line from Stephenville to Hamilton and the line from Edson to Comanche was abandoned in 1934. The remaining line from Hamilton to Gatesville was gone by 1941 as Cotton Belt retrenched. Photos of the construction of the original line and of the 1910-1911 expansion exist. Some day they will hopefully see the light of day. Until then this little railroad will be but a footnote in the history of TEXAS railroading and the Cotton Belt.
Here is a photo from last year of the Ireland, TEXAS station. It is now a private residence, but originally served the SN&ST and later the Cotton Belt. The station was a bit overbuilt for a rail junction and a town that never developed.
Interesting stuff! Never heard of this little railroad, but it would make a great "ghost shortline" as another thread puts it. Haven't looked at a map but it seems it might have matched up well with the FWWR as a possible branch for grain, etc. had it survived.
You can find out more about the SN&ST here: http://www.geocities.com/lokomac8/snst.htm and here: http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/8199/index.html?200731 click on the history link.
At Stephenville the SN&ST connected with the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railway Company a subsidiary of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad Company. The FW&RG was sold to the GC&SF in 1937. This was after the Cotton Belt gave up on its line between Stephenville and Hamilton in 1934.
Well its midsummer with the second half to go. One hundred years ago the Stephenville, North and South Texas Railway was building south from Stephenville to Hamilton. The subject of my book was living in Hamilton at that time. It would have been a walk of about four miles from Hamilton to the bridge site on the Leon River. CHAPTER -1 Early life in Hamilton, TEXAS 1898-1917 Cecil Willard Standefer walked with his grandfather William Rufus Standefer through the woods and across the fields that Sunday. Little red-headed Cecil was 8 years old that summer 1907 day. He was going to see the tracks of the new railroad being built by the Stephenville North & South Texas Railway. Cecil lived in Hamilton, TEXAS. He watched the construction train coming to deliver the materials needed to build the line on toward Hamilton. An SN&ST Ten Wheeler would have been on the point of this train, either the #50 or the #51. This was the first railroad, first steam locomotive, and first train that Cecil ever saw.
just to let you know, i went across the leon on fri. and since the rains it is waaay up. i was used to seeing a small creek with a very wide bottom land on each side. now all that bottom land is covered by water. i'll try to get back by there with my camera soon.
The newly-built tracks of the Stephenville North & South Texas Railway were just North of Hamilton on Sunday December 22, 1907 as a crew of men was laying the rail on the freshly positioned ties. Track laying up to the new station in Hamilton was accomplished by December 24, 1907. Cecil Standefer would have seen these events, he was nine years old at the time. Ed Cooper SN&ST Preservation Society #3
The first passenger train to Hamilton from Stephenville arrived on Christmas Day 1907 behind Ten Wheeler #51. The whole town showed up to celebrate the arrival on the new railroad and the promise of prosperity that it made. Hamilton, TEXAS was finally on the railroad map and it happened 100 years ago today.
