Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway
Encyclopedia
The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway was a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
in eastern Texas
and to Purcell, Oklahoma
.
s, which were often imposed on Galveston traffic by Houston. These quarantines occurred almost annually and were based on yellow fever
outbreaks and epidemics. So, the citizens of Galveston decided to build their own railroad line that would reach across Texas, into the Panhandle, and across the state line to Santa Fe
, New Mexico
. The idea was to bypass Houston completely. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad Company (GCSF) was chartered, and the state agreed to grant 16 sections of land per mile of track laid.
While the charter
passed in 1873, the actual construction of the line did not begin until two years later. The plans to initiate construction were formulated by the railroad's first engineer, General Braxton Bragg
, former commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee. At a meeting of the board of directors on February 8, 1875, the board resolved to negotiate for land for both a depot and the location of the line from Galveston to an intersection of the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio line. At other meetings in the early part of 1875, the board of directors asked for proposals for contracting the building of the bridge across Galveston Bay
and for the laying of track to Arcola, Texas. On April 30, 1875, Henry Rosenberg, president of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway Company, signed a contract with Burnett and Kilpatrick that included the construction of a bridge across the bay, complete with a lifting draw
, for $69,000. The depot grounds were located between 37th and 38th Streets and Mechanic and Strand. The railroad line was to follow Mechanic Street to 60th, where it would be routed to the bridge.
On May 1, 1875, the first shovel of dirt was turned to begin construction of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad. As soon as the ground was broken, work commenced. By May 28, the line was permanently located as far as Arcola, with surveys made as far as the Brazos River
.
In September 1876, the Galveston, Houston, and Henderson Railroad completed a new passenger depot, located on the corner of Avenue A and Tremont Street. The GCSF would share this depot for their passenger line once the trains began running continuously.
By March 1877, the track from Galveston to Arcola was complete and arrangements were being made to put regular trains on the line. The company planned to cross the Brazos River and proceed to Richmond, where it would connect with the San Antonio line. This would make one continuous route to Galveston 11 miles shorter than any other road. By the next year, the company also completed an iron bridge 480 feet long over the Brazos River, and by October a regular train was being run over the road.
In December 1878, the company began to experience financial difficulties. So, the directors voted to advertise for a loan of $250,000 for 90 days, which would enable them to pay off the debts and finish the road as far as Richmond. The only offer for the loan was made by a group of Galveston citizens headed by Galveston businessman George Sealy. The loan was secured by a deed of trust
on the entire properties of the railway company. When the 90-day note matured, the company did not have the funds to pay for it. Therefore, on April 15, 1879, the entire properties of the line were sold at a public sale in front of the courthouse. The highest bid was for $200,000 made by George Sealy. The new company was organized, and directors were elected. By May, the new directors had organized a corps of engineers to locate the line to Brenham.
Chief engineer, Bernard Moore Temple, sent surveyors into the interior of Texas, and as the line was located, Temple followed with construction crews. The new directors also obtained rights to build a spur into Houston. By this time, the real importance of a line into Houston had been realized, and the success of the road depended on it. In 1880, the GCSF won fame by establishing the first daily newspaper train in the United States. Because of another quarantine placed on Galveston by Houston, the Galveston News arranged for a special train to carry the newspaper from Galveston to Rosenberg. There, the newspaper was transferred to the Houston and Texas Central Railway, which distributed the News across Texas.
The road reached a distance of 226 miles upon reaching Belton in March 1881. The company had also constructed a telegraph line along the line of the railroad, and they began seeing a return on that investment that year, as well. In 1882, the main line reached Lampasas, and another branch opened from Alvin to Houston.
The company received support from many counties and communities along the line. Donations ranged in size from $70 given by Nickleville to $85,000 contributed by Fort Worth
. Other small towns, such as Weatherford, Paris
, Ladonia, Honey Grove, and Farmersville, also provided funds. Along the way, the railroad developed towns such as Rosenberg, Sealy, Somerville, Killeen, Moody, Wallis, Ballinger, and Temple, which became a division point.
In the mid-1880s, Chief Engineer Temple was succeeded by a Yankee engineer named Walter Justin Sherman. Sherman encountered quite a few labor problems along the line. Especially in the hot summer months, members of the construction crews would desert, and replacements were hard to find. So, the GCSF authorized a daily whiskey ration, and Sherman dispensed a dipper of liquor at the end of the day to each member of the crew in an effort to keep morale high.
As early as 1881, the GCSF attracted the attention of several large railroad magnates. Jay Gould
, who held a monopoly
in northern Texas, presented quite a threat to the other Texas lines, including the Gulf, Colorado line. William Barstow Strong, president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, actively pursued a way to break Gould's stronghold on Texas railroad commerce.
Plagued by more financial problems, Sealy and the other leaders of the Gulf, Colorado line realized their railway would need a connection north out of Texas if it were to survive. William Strong offered a connection between the two lines and a solution to the problem. On March 25, 1886, the stockholders authorized George Sealy to work toward an exchange of stock
between the two companies.
The agreement stated that the GCSF line would be built from Fort Worth to Purcell, in Indian territory
, and would connect there with the southbound Atchison line. Then the Gulf, Colorado road was to build to Paris and connect with the St. Louis and San Francisco, as well as build a branch from Cleburne to Weatherford. On April 26, 1887, Sherman and his crews reached Purcell, four hours ahead of schedule and before the Atchison crews. By June, trains began to run from Kansas City
to Galveston.
With the completion of the line to Purcell, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe was to assume control of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe line. The contract, signed on March 3, 1886 by Sealy and Strong, provided for the transfer of the entire capital stock of the GCSF to the Atchison line in exchange for $8 million dollars in Atchison stock. On March 23, representatives of the ATSF were elected to the board of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe, and the merger was completed.
While the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe line had officially become part of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, it was still an important section of the rail line. The fact that it connected so many major Texas cities with the most important port city in Texas made it a valuable acquisition.
An interesting transaction occurred in 1897, which is proof of the line's continuing growth. The GCSF company and Fred Harvey, a famous railroad restaurateur, made an agreement. Harvey Restaurants and Harvey Houses
, a hotel chain, soon dotted the Santa Fe Railway lines, providing inexpensive, comfortable dining for the patrons of the line. Now folklore, both the restaurants and the railway, have been celebrated in song, literature, and the entertainment media.
from Galveston to the mainland.
Construction of a 98-mile branch line from Lometa
through San Saba
and Brady
to Eden
was commenced in 1910 and completed by the end of the following year.
By 1912, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Company announced its plans to build a new union depot in Galveston that would also house the offices of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe. Their plans were for an eight-story fireproof building made of steel-reinforced concrete and faced with white enameled brick. The waiting room would be 104 feet by 63 feet, and the building would be large enough to contain all of the departments of the GCSF lines.
An addition to the building was made in 1932, which included another eight-story building and an eleven-story tower. The company planned to spend $35,000 on remodeling the old building so that it would match the new structure. The GCSF also boasted of a new electric boiler plant, which would heat the entire building.
In 1937, the Santa Fe purchased the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway
(Fort Worth-Brownwood
-Brady-Menard
from the Frisco Railroad and immediately leased it to the GC&SF, thus gaining a valuable and much shorter route into Fort Worth from the west than the previous routing via Temple
.
After World War II
, the Santa Fe worked to expand its freight lines. The company used special trains to haul specific cargo. One of these trains was the 1949 Cotton Special. It was established to move the West Texas cotton
crop from Lubbock to the Galveston wharves.
By the 1960s the Santa Fe worked with many different corporations on a large scale to expand their line. In one such instance the Santa Fe agreed to work with the Duval Corporation to develop a sulfur
mine at Rustler Springs, Texas. The Santa Fe built a thirty-mile branch line and conceived the ingenious idea of transporting the sulfur
in a molten state from the mine to Galveston, where it would then be shipped by sea. This would make the sulfur much easier to move over such a long distance. The sulfur was heated to 290 degrees and transported by tank car. This worked so well that the company bought three trains of sixty-six cars each, and a train moved continuously over the 930-mile run.
By this time, the identity of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad Company had become permanently intertwined with that of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe line
. Together they became known, and are still known today, as the Santa Fe Railroad. In 1965, the remaining property of the Gulf division was conveyed to the ATSF company.
While the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad Company was engulfed by the larger Santa Fe Company, the legacy it left behind is still etched across the face of Texas. But for the GCSF, many Texas towns and cities may never have been platted. Galveston and Texas commerce were facilitated by the road. It provided Galveston with access to the cotton areas of the upper Brazos and the wheat fields of the Midwest. And while the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad Company is gone, trains still run regularly over the line.
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859...
in eastern Texas
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...
and to Purcell, Oklahoma
Purcell, Oklahoma
Purcell is located in the outer south suburban area of Oklahoma City. It is often called "Quarterhorse Capital of the World" and it is the county seat of McClain County , Oklahoma, United States; it also extends a short distance into Cleveland County. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census...
.
Nineteenth Century
In 1873, there was strong competition between the cities of Houston and Galveston; and the Galveston, Houston, and Henderson Railroad was the only rail link between the two cities. The competition between Houston and Galveston was fed by the quarantineQuarantine
Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....
s, which were often imposed on Galveston traffic by Houston. These quarantines occurred almost annually and were based on yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
outbreaks and epidemics. So, the citizens of Galveston decided to build their own railroad line that would reach across Texas, into the Panhandle, and across the state line to Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. The idea was to bypass Houston completely. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad Company (GCSF) was chartered, and the state agreed to grant 16 sections of land per mile of track laid.
While the charter
Charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
passed in 1873, the actual construction of the line did not begin until two years later. The plans to initiate construction were formulated by the railroad's first engineer, General Braxton Bragg
Braxton Bragg
Braxton Bragg was a career United States Army officer, and then a general in the Confederate States Army—a principal commander in the Western Theater of the American Civil War and later the military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.Bragg, a native of North Carolina, was...
, former commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee. At a meeting of the board of directors on February 8, 1875, the board resolved to negotiate for land for both a depot and the location of the line from Galveston to an intersection of the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio line. At other meetings in the early part of 1875, the board of directors asked for proposals for contracting the building of the bridge across Galveston Bay
Galveston Bay
Galveston Bay is a large estuary located along the upper coast of Texas in the United States. It is connected to the Gulf of Mexico and is surrounded by sub-tropic marshes and prairies on the mainland. The water in the Bay is a complex mixture of sea water and fresh water which supports a wide...
and for the laying of track to Arcola, Texas. On April 30, 1875, Henry Rosenberg, president of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railway Company, signed a contract with Burnett and Kilpatrick that included the construction of a bridge across the bay, complete with a lifting draw
Drawbridge
A drawbridge is a type of movable bridge typically associated with the entrance of a castle surrounded by a moat. The term is often used to describe all different types of movable bridges, like bascule bridges and lift bridges.-Castle drawbridges:...
, for $69,000. The depot grounds were located between 37th and 38th Streets and Mechanic and Strand. The railroad line was to follow Mechanic Street to 60th, where it would be routed to the bridge.
On May 1, 1875, the first shovel of dirt was turned to begin construction of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad. As soon as the ground was broken, work commenced. By May 28, the line was permanently located as far as Arcola, with surveys made as far as the Brazos River
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 September 1876, the Galveston, Houston, and Henderson Railroad completed a new passenger depot, located on the corner of Avenue A and Tremont Street. The GCSF would share this depot for their passenger line once the trains began running continuously.
By March 1877, the track from Galveston to Arcola was complete and arrangements were being made to put regular trains on the line. The company planned to cross the Brazos River and proceed to Richmond, where it would connect with the San Antonio line. This would make one continuous route to Galveston 11 miles shorter than any other road. By the next year, the company also completed an iron bridge 480 feet long over the Brazos River, and by October a regular train was being run over the road.
In December 1878, the company began to experience financial difficulties. So, the directors voted to advertise for a loan of $250,000 for 90 days, which would enable them to pay off the debts and finish the road as far as Richmond. The only offer for the loan was made by a group of Galveston citizens headed by Galveston businessman George Sealy. The loan was secured by a deed of trust
Trust instrument
A trust instrument is an instrument in writing executed by a settlor used to constitute a trust...
on the entire properties of the railway company. When the 90-day note matured, the company did not have the funds to pay for it. Therefore, on April 15, 1879, the entire properties of the line were sold at a public sale in front of the courthouse. The highest bid was for $200,000 made by George Sealy. The new company was organized, and directors were elected. By May, the new directors had organized a corps of engineers to locate the line to Brenham.
Chief engineer, Bernard Moore Temple, sent surveyors into the interior of Texas, and as the line was located, Temple followed with construction crews. The new directors also obtained rights to build a spur into Houston. By this time, the real importance of a line into Houston had been realized, and the success of the road depended on it. In 1880, the GCSF won fame by establishing the first daily newspaper train in the United States. Because of another quarantine placed on Galveston by Houston, the Galveston News arranged for a special train to carry the newspaper from Galveston to Rosenberg. There, the newspaper was transferred to the Houston and Texas Central Railway, which distributed the News across Texas.
The road reached a distance of 226 miles upon reaching Belton in March 1881. The company had also constructed a telegraph line along the line of the railroad, and they began seeing a return on that investment that year, as well. In 1882, the main line reached Lampasas, and another branch opened from Alvin to Houston.
The company received support from many counties and communities along the line. Donations ranged in size from $70 given by Nickleville to $85,000 contributed by Fort Worth
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
. Other small towns, such as Weatherford, Paris
Paris, Texas
Paris, Texas is a city located northeast of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex in Lamar County, Texas, in the United States. It is situated in Northeast Texas at the western edge of the Piney Woods. Physiographically, these regions are part of the West Gulf Coastal Plain. In 1900, 9,358 people lived...
, Ladonia, Honey Grove, and Farmersville, also provided funds. Along the way, the railroad developed towns such as Rosenberg, Sealy, Somerville, Killeen, Moody, Wallis, Ballinger, and Temple, which became a division point.
In the mid-1880s, Chief Engineer Temple was succeeded by a Yankee engineer named Walter Justin Sherman. Sherman encountered quite a few labor problems along the line. Especially in the hot summer months, members of the construction crews would desert, and replacements were hard to find. So, the GCSF authorized a daily whiskey ration, and Sherman dispensed a dipper of liquor at the end of the day to each member of the crew in an effort to keep morale high.
As early as 1881, the GCSF attracted the attention of several large railroad magnates. Jay Gould
Jay Gould
Jason "Jay" Gould was a leading American railroad developer and speculator. He has long been vilified as an archetypal robber baron, whose successes made him the ninth richest American in history. Condé Nast Portfolio ranked Gould as the 8th worst American CEO of all time...
, who held a monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
in northern Texas, presented quite a threat to the other Texas lines, including the Gulf, Colorado line. William Barstow Strong, president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, actively pursued a way to break Gould's stronghold on Texas railroad commerce.
Plagued by more financial problems, Sealy and the other leaders of the Gulf, Colorado line realized their railway would need a connection north out of Texas if it were to survive. William Strong offered a connection between the two lines and a solution to the problem. On March 25, 1886, the stockholders authorized George Sealy to work toward an exchange of stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
between the two companies.
The agreement stated that the GCSF line would be built from Fort Worth to Purcell, in Indian territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
, and would connect there with the southbound Atchison line. Then the Gulf, Colorado road was to build to Paris and connect with the St. Louis and San Francisco, as well as build a branch from Cleburne to Weatherford. On April 26, 1887, Sherman and his crews reached Purcell, four hours ahead of schedule and before the Atchison crews. By June, trains began to run from Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
to Galveston.
With the completion of the line to Purcell, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe was to assume control of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe line. The contract, signed on March 3, 1886 by Sealy and Strong, provided for the transfer of the entire capital stock of the GCSF to the Atchison line in exchange for $8 million dollars in Atchison stock. On March 23, representatives of the ATSF were elected to the board of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe, and the merger was completed.
While the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe line had officially become part of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, it was still an important section of the rail line. The fact that it connected so many major Texas cities with the most important port city in Texas made it a valuable acquisition.
An interesting transaction occurred in 1897, which is proof of the line's continuing growth. The GCSF company and Fred Harvey, a famous railroad restaurateur, made an agreement. Harvey Restaurants and Harvey Houses
Fred Harvey Company
The origin of the Fred Harvey Company can be traced to the 1875 opening of two railroad eating houses located at Wallace, Kansas and Hugo, Colorado on the Kansas Pacific Railway. These cafés were opened by Fred Harvey, then a freight agent for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad...
, a hotel chain, soon dotted the Santa Fe Railway lines, providing inexpensive, comfortable dining for the patrons of the line. Now folklore, both the restaurants and the railway, have been celebrated in song, literature, and the entertainment media.
Twentieth Century
The GCSF also participated in Galveston's efforts to raise the city after the 1900 Galveston hurricane. In 1904, the board granted Goedhart and Bates a five-year lease to a strip of land on the east end of the Gulf Company in Galveston, which would be used for canal purposes in connection with the grade-raising of the city. In 1908, the GCSF, along with other railroads, worked to build a new causewayCauseway
In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.- Etymology :When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by...
from Galveston to the mainland.
Construction of a 98-mile branch line from Lometa
Lometa, Texas
Lometa is a city in Lampasas County, Texas, United States. The population was 782 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Lometa is located at ....
through San Saba
San Saba, Texas
San Saba is a town located in Central Texas. It was settled in 1854 and named for its location on the San Saba River. The population was at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of San Saba County...
and Brady
Brady, Texas
Brady is a city in McCulloch County, Texas, United States. Brady refers to itself as "The Heart of Texas", as it is the closest city to the geographical center of the state. The population was 5,523 at the 2000 census...
to Eden
Eden, Texas
Eden is a city in Concho County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,561 at the 2000 census. Approximately one-half of the population consists of inmates housed at the Eden Detention Center, a for-profit prison operated by Corrections Corporation of America under contract with the Federal...
was commenced in 1910 and completed by the end of the following year.
By 1912, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Company announced its plans to build a new union depot in Galveston that would also house the offices of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe. Their plans were for an eight-story fireproof building made of steel-reinforced concrete and faced with white enameled brick. The waiting room would be 104 feet by 63 feet, and the building would be large enough to contain all of the departments of the GCSF lines.
An addition to the building was made in 1932, which included another eight-story building and an eleven-story tower. The company planned to spend $35,000 on remodeling the old building so that it would match the new structure. The GCSF also boasted of a new electric boiler plant, which would heat the entire building.
In 1937, the Santa Fe purchased the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway
Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway
The Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway, chartered under the laws of Texas on June 1, 1885, was part of a plan conceived by Buckley Burton Paddock and other Fort Worth civic leaders to create a transcontinental route linking New York, Fort Worth, and the Pacific port of Topolobampo, which they...
(Fort Worth-Brownwood
Brownwood, Texas
Brownwood is a city in and the county seat of Brown County, Texas, United States. The population was 18,813 at the 2000 census.-History:The original site of the Brown County seat of Brownwood was on the east of Pecan Bayou. A dispute arose over land and water rights, and the settlers were forced...
-Brady-Menard
Menard, Texas
Menard is a city in and the county seat of Menard County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,653 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
from the Frisco Railroad and immediately leased it to the GC&SF, thus gaining a valuable and much shorter route into Fort Worth from the west than the previous routing via Temple
Temple, Texas
Temple is a city in Bell County, Texas, United States. Located near the county seat of Belton, Temple lies in the region referred to as Central Texas. Located off Interstate 35, Temple is 65 miles north of Austin and 34 miles south of Waco. In the 2010 Census, Temple's population was 66,102, an...
.
After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Santa Fe worked to expand its freight lines. The company used special trains to haul specific cargo. One of these trains was the 1949 Cotton Special. It was established to move the West Texas cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
crop from Lubbock to the Galveston wharves.
By the 1960s the Santa Fe worked with many different corporations on a large scale to expand their line. In one such instance the Santa Fe agreed to work with the Duval Corporation to develop a sulfur
Sulfur
Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element with atomic number 16. In the periodic table it is represented by the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow...
mine at Rustler Springs, Texas. The Santa Fe built a thirty-mile branch line and conceived the ingenious idea of transporting the sulfur
Sulfur
Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element with atomic number 16. In the periodic table it is represented by the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow...
in a molten state from the mine to Galveston, where it would then be shipped by sea. This would make the sulfur much easier to move over such a long distance. The sulfur was heated to 290 degrees and transported by tank car. This worked so well that the company bought three trains of sixty-six cars each, and a train moved continuously over the 930-mile run.
By this time, the identity of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad Company had become permanently intertwined with that of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe line
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859...
. Together they became known, and are still known today, as the Santa Fe Railroad. In 1965, the remaining property of the Gulf division was conveyed to the ATSF company.
While the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad Company was engulfed by the larger Santa Fe Company, the legacy it left behind is still etched across the face of Texas. But for the GCSF, many Texas towns and cities may never have been platted. Galveston and Texas commerce were facilitated by the road. It provided Galveston with access to the cotton areas of the upper Brazos and the wheat fields of the Midwest. And while the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad Company is gone, trains still run regularly over the line.
See also
- Krum, TexasKrum, TexasKrum is a city in Denton County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,979 at the 2000 census. It is estimated that over 3,000 people live in Krum today.-Geography:Krum is located at ....
(town founded by the railway company) - Fort Worth and Rio Grande RailwayFort Worth and Rio Grande RailwayThe Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway, chartered under the laws of Texas on June 1, 1885, was part of a plan conceived by Buckley Burton Paddock and other Fort Worth civic leaders to create a transcontinental route linking New York, Fort Worth, and the Pacific port of Topolobampo, which they...
(subsidiary bought in 1937)
External links
- Galveston County Historical Commission
- Galveston Railroad Museum
- Splinters Online Transcripts
- Handbook of Texas Online
External links
- 1926 map of Santa Fe lines in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, with GCSF routes clearly marked
- Texas Santa Fe History a website devoted to the history of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway in Texas.
