Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado Railway
Encyclopedia
The Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado Railway (B.B.B.C. or B.B.B. & C.) was the first operating railroad in Texas
.
of Texas, not Colorado state
. In the line's early days, it was often called the Harrisburg Railroad. In 1868, it changed owners and became the Galveston, Harrisburg, & San Antonio Railroad . Today, it is the oldest component of the Southern Pacific system .
General Sidney Sherman
, a hero of the Battle of San Jacinto
, who in 1847 purchased from the Harrisburg Town Company the unused town lots previously allocated to the failed Harrisburg and Brazos Railroad. After finding northern investors, he succeeded in chartering the company by act of the Texas legislature
on February 11, 1850, and organizing it on June 1 of that year. Jonathan F. Barrett was the company's first president, and the company included some of the leading men of the state: General Sherman himself, Hugh McLeod, John G. Tod, John Angier, William Rice
, Ebenezer A. Allen, William A. van Alstyne, James H. Stevens, Benjamin A. Shepherd, and William J. Hutchins
.
Surveying began in 1851 near Buffalo Bayou
. The roadbed was graded by Benjamin F. Terry, who would later lead Terry's Texas Rangers
. The next year, the first locomotive, the General Sherman, was received and the first track laid. By August 1853, twenty miles had been completed to Stafford Point
. The charter called for the line to connect Harrisburg to the state capitol at Austin
. The line reached Richmond
on the Brazos
in 1855, Eagle Lake
in 1859, and Alleyton
in 1860. Although the Civil War stopped construction towards Austin, the citizens of Columbus, Texas
, constructed a two and a half miles branch track on their own, connecting their town to the rail at Alleyton to avoid being passed by.
With the financial collapse of Texas during Reconstruction, the line failed. Fortunate in that it had been constructed using standard gauge
, its track and rolling stock were purchased and reincorporated as the Galveston, Harrisburg, & San Antonio Railroad. The route was directed towards San Antonio
, rather than Austin, using the Columbus branch as part of the new main line
. The new owners also constructed the first telegraphs along the route. After reaching San Antonio, the road was continued to El Paso
, where it met the Southern Pacific and insured that that line's transcontinental route
would use the southern portion of Texas rather than the north.
Because Harrisburg is now part of Houston
, the line is sometimes misrepresented as beginning there. However, in the mid-19th Century, the two cities were several miles apart and in stiff competition with one another. The Harrisburg Railroad brought the city some prosperity, but the Tap connected Houston to the B.B.B.C. lines in 1858 and after Charles Morgan
's Texas and New Orleans Railroad
completed a connection between Houston and New Orleans in 1880, even the Galveston, Harrisburg, & San Antonio line sold their properties within Harrisburg and moved to the new hub.
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
Name
The Colorado in its name is the Colorado RiverColorado River (Texas)
The Colorado River is a river that runs through the U.S. state of Texas; it should not be confused with the much longer Colorado River which flows from Colorado into the Gulf of California....
of Texas, not Colorado state
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
. In the line's early days, it was often called the Harrisburg Railroad. In 1868, it changed owners and became the Galveston, Harrisburg, & San Antonio Railroad . Today, it is the oldest component of the Southern Pacific system .
History
The line was the creation of TexianTexian
Texian is an archaic, mostly defunct 19th century demonym which defined a settler of current-day Texas, one of the southern states of the United States of America which borders the country of Mexico...
General Sidney Sherman
Sidney Sherman
Sidney Sherman was a Texan general and a key leader in the Texas Army during the Texas Revolution and afterwards.-Early life:...
, a hero of the Battle of San Jacinto
Battle of San Jacinto
The Battle of San Jacinto, fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day Harris County, Texas, was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Sam Houston, the Texian Army engaged and defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna's Mexican forces in a fight that lasted just eighteen...
, who in 1847 purchased from the Harrisburg Town Company the unused town lots previously allocated to the failed Harrisburg and Brazos Railroad. After finding northern investors, he succeeded in chartering the company by act of the Texas legislature
Texas Legislature
The Legislature of the state of Texas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The Legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin...
on February 11, 1850, and organizing it on June 1 of that year. Jonathan F. Barrett was the company's first president, and the company included some of the leading men of the state: General Sherman himself, Hugh McLeod, John G. Tod, John Angier, William Rice
William Marsh Rice
William Marsh Rice was an American businessman who bequeathed his fortune to found Rice University in Houston, Texas.-Biography:...
, Ebenezer A. Allen, William A. van Alstyne, James H. Stevens, Benjamin A. Shepherd, and William J. Hutchins
William J. Hutchins
William Hutchins was an English churchman and academic.William Hutchins may also refer to:*William Henry Hutchins , Canadian merchant and political figure...
.
Surveying began in 1851 near Buffalo Bayou
Buffalo Bayou
Buffalo Bayou is a main waterway flowing through Houston, in Harris County, Texas, USA. It begins in Katy, Fort Bend County, Texas and flows approximately east to the Houston Ship Channel and then into Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico...
. The roadbed was graded by Benjamin F. Terry, who would later lead Terry's Texas Rangers
Terry's Texas Rangers
The 8th Texas Cavalry, , popularly known as Terry's Texas Rangers, was a group of Texas volunteers for the Confederate States Army assembled by Colonel Benjamin Franklin Terry in August 1861...
. The next year, the first locomotive, the General Sherman, was received and the first track laid. By August 1853, twenty miles had been completed to Stafford Point
Stafford, Texas
Stafford is a city in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. The city is mostly in Fort Bend County with a small portion in Harris County. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, Stafford's population was 15,681....
. The charter called for the line to connect Harrisburg to the state capitol at Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
. The line reached Richmond
Richmond, Texas
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 11,081 people, 3,413 households, and 2,628 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,975.4 people per square mile . There were 3,595 housing units at an average density of 965.3 per square mile...
on the Brazos
Brazos River
The Brazos River, called the Rio de los Brazos de Dios by early Spanish explorers , is the longest river in Texas and the 11th longest river in the United States at from its source at the head of Blackwater Draw, Curry County, New Mexico to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico with a drainage...
in 1855, Eagle Lake
Eagle Lake, Texas
Eagle Lake is a city in southeastern Colorado County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,664 at the 2000 census. It is home to a golf course, the largest private lake in Texas, and the Eagle Lake Regional Airport, which services light aircraft....
in 1859, and Alleyton
Alleyton, Texas
Alleyton is an unincorporated area in central Colorado County, in the U.S. state of Texas, on the Colorado River. It is three miles east of Columbus.In 2000 Alleyton had 165 residents.-External links:...
in 1860. Although the Civil War stopped construction towards Austin, the citizens of Columbus, Texas
Columbus, Texas
Columbus is a city in Colorado County, Texas, United States, west of Houston along Interstate 10, on the Colorado River. In 1890, 2,199 people lived in Columbus, Texas; in 1900, there were 1,824 residents. The population was 3,916 as of the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Colorado County...
, constructed a two and a half miles branch track on their own, connecting their town to the rail at Alleyton to avoid being passed by.
With the financial collapse of Texas during Reconstruction, the line failed. Fortunate in that it had been constructed using standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
, its track and rolling stock were purchased and reincorporated as the Galveston, Harrisburg, & San Antonio Railroad. The route was directed towards San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
, rather than Austin, using the Columbus branch as part of the new main line
Main line (railway)
The Mainline or Main line of a railway is a track that is used for through trains or is the principal artery of the system from which branch lines, yards, sidings and spurs are connected....
. The new owners also constructed the first telegraphs along the route. After reaching San Antonio, the road was continued to El Paso
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
, where it met the Southern Pacific and insured that that line's transcontinental route
Transcontinental railroad
A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies...
would use the southern portion of Texas rather than the north.
Because Harrisburg is now part of Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, the line is sometimes misrepresented as beginning there. However, in the mid-19th Century, the two cities were several miles apart and in stiff competition with one another. The Harrisburg Railroad brought the city some prosperity, but the Tap connected Houston to the B.B.B.C. lines in 1858 and after Charles Morgan
Charles Morgan (businessman)
Charles Morgan was a U.S. railroad and shipping magnate. Morgan played a leading role in the development of transportation and commerce in the Southern United States through the mid-to-late 19th century.-Career:...
's Texas and New Orleans Railroad
Texas and New Orleans Railroad
The Texas and New Orleans Railroad is a former railroad in Texas and Louisiana. At one point the company was the largest railroad in Texas, with of trackage in 1934, but by 1961 there were only remaining when it was merged with parent company Southern Pacific....
completed a connection between Houston and New Orleans in 1880, even the Galveston, Harrisburg, & San Antonio line sold their properties within Harrisburg and moved to the new hub.
Locomotives
| Name | Builder | s/n | Build date | Whyte type Whyte notation The Whyte notation for classifying steam locomotives by wheel arrangement was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte and came into use in the early twentieth century encouraged by an editorial in American Engineer and Railroad Journal... |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Sherman | Baldwin Baldwin Locomotive Works The Baldwin Locomotive Works was an American builder of railroad locomotives. It was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, originally, and later in nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Although the company was very successful as a producer of steam locomotives, its transition to the production of... |
4-2-0 4-2-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-2-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, two powered and coupled driving wheels on one axle, and no trailing wheels... |
Purchased on October 12, 1852; named for Sidney Sherman Sidney Sherman Sidney Sherman was a Texan general and a key leader in the Texas Army during the Texas Revolution and afterwards.-Early life:... ; sold July 1870 to GH&SA; quickly off roster. |
||
| Texas | |||||
| Austin | Lowell | 139 | 1854 | 4-4-0 4-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-4-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels... |
Sold July 1870 to GH&SA; off roster by 1884. |
| Columbus | Hinkley Hinkley Locomotive Works Hinkley Locomotive Works was one of a number of railroad steam locomotive manufacturers of the United States in the 19th century.-History:The company that was to become known as Hinkley Locomotive Works got its start in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1831. Holmes Hinkley and his partner Daniel F... |
1857 | 4-4-0 | Sold July 1870 to GH&SA; off roster by 1882. | |
| Richmond | Norris | August 1859 | 4-4-0 | Sold July 1870 to GH&SA; off roster by 1882. | |
| Harrisburg | Hinkley | 660 | |||
| Harrisburg | Norris | August 1859 | 4-4-0 | Sold July 1870 to GH&SA; off roster by 1882. | |
| Ames | Purchased in October 1868 | ||||
| Barrett | Purchased in October 1868; sold July 1870 to GH&SA; pulled the first train into San Antonio in February 1877 |