- Several locations participating in the fun
- Original play to be staged on weekends May 9-17
- Read about the rail history of San Angelo
- Tips on places you can still ride a train in Texas
Railroad enthusiasts of all ages are invited to Railway Museum of San Angelo May 9-10 as they celebrate National Train Days with a Model Train Jamboree featuring trains, tracks, treats, talks, tales, vendors, workshops and hourly door prizes.
According to a bulletin from the museum, vendors will display their model trains and railroad items at the Pearl on the Concho Hotel & Conference Center, 333 Rio Concho Drive, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
The Railway Museum will also stage the historical play, “On the Right Track” on Friday, Saturday and Sunday the weekends of May 9-17, transporting attendees into the lives of the Harvey Girls for treats and tea served with a side of true train history.
The Railway Museum will be offering “passports” youngsters can get stamped at participating organizations and businesses around town to help them win prizes.
This is the first time in almost 30 years the Railway Museum is celebrating Train Days, according to the bulletin.
National Train Day was started by Amtrak in 2008 to spread information about the advantages of railway travel and the history of trains in the United States, held each year on the Saturday closest to May 10, marking the completion anniversary of the first transcontinental railroad.
Activities are open to the public and tickets can be purchased at the museum’s website, www.sanangelorailway.org. For more information, call 325-486-2140, 703 S. Chadbourne, San Angelo.
Railway History in San Angelo
Historical news reports tell us San Angelo had only been the county seat for a few years following the Ben Ficklin flood when business leaders started working to get a rail link for the city.
While Abilene had been established as a stop on the Texas and Pacific Railway in 1881, San Angelo had grown up around frontier-era Fort Concho, and only rough trails linked the settlement to neighboring towns. Locals wanted all the the benefits of rails going through the city.
Taylor County News
March 19, 1886:
ABILENE — A railroad meeting will be held here next Tuesday in the interest of the Wichita Falls, Abilene and San Angelo railway. Delegates are expected to be present from Wichita Falls, Albany, Anson, Haskell, Runnels, Buffalo Gap and San Angelo. The matter should be fully talked up at this place and prompt action taken to secure this road, which will prove one of the best paying lines in Northwest Texas.
Not long after that meeting, another railroad opportunity arose for San Angelo when the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway extended its western line between Temple and Coleman southwest another 34 miles, reaching Ballinger on May 21, 1886.
Close enough that San Angelo could almost taste it.
The GC&SF was chartered in 1873 to connect the interior counties of Texas to the port of Galveston, before turning west toward El Paso and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In 1886, the railroad was purchased by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (ATSF) Railway, which kept the Texas company alive for decades as the subsidiary operator of the line, since Article Ten of the Texas Constitution required Lone Star railroads to be headquartered within the state.
Under the new ownership, rail lines were extended from Fort Worth north to Purcell, Oklahoma, and from Dallas northeast to Paris, while the western line was extended from Ballinger to San Angelo.
According to news reports from the time, to make that happen the business community of San Angelo banded together offering the railroad $20,000 if they would extend the line 36.4 miles.
The railway jumped at the offer and grading crews were sent out west of Ballinger in April of 1888.
The project was completed as the fall of 1888 approached, and everyone in the area took part in a two-day celebration Sept. 17-18, as reported in newspapers statewide.
From The Waco News-Tribune
Wed. Sept. 19, 1888
San Angelo Celebration
Sept. 18
The celebration closed today with races and target shooting. None of the horses had any great
record and no great interest was taken. The Corsicana Electric Band gave a concert at the Pick-
wick Hall this evening to a good house. A ball is going on at the courthouse. The entire occasion
has been a grand success with the best of order and good behavior. Few incorporated cities ever
could have entertained such a gathering with such credit and able results.
San Angelo, too, has shown a hospitality to her guests that is worthy of the highest praise.
A Rail Town
The presence of the railroad was a major comfort to the town when it was announced that the Army would abandon Fort Concho the following year, and San Angelo came to occupy place of importance on the Santa Fe line, as the major workshops the company built in town supplied scores of new jobs.
The city became a major junction when the KCM&O Railway was extended south from Sweetwater, with construction commencing in the spring of 1909 and reaching San Angelo in September.
A crossing of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway and the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railroad likely dating to around 1910, taken in the general direction of San Angelo.
The Santa Fe’s last passenger train, No. 78, officially left town on June 1, 1965, taking 700 children to Brownwood.
Known as “The Angelo,” No. 78 served to connect our city with larger hubs like Fort Worth.
By 1968, all passenger operations were gone from the area, transforming the route into a freight-only line.
Ride a Train
Passenger rail service in Texas today consists of a few Amtrak routes like the Texas Eagle, Sunset Limited and Heartland Flyer, and some commuter lines in larger cities, along with two historical railroads.
Texas Eagle: Daily service from Chicago to San Antonio, passing through Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin.
Sunset Limited: Tri-weekly service running east-west through Texas, stopping in Houston, Beaumont, San Antonio and El Paso.
Heartland Flyer: Daily service between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City.
The Texas State Railroad offers the experience of a ride through history, with a 50-mile round trip between Palestine and Rusk using vintage diesel or steam locomotives through the forests of East Texas.
The Grapevine Vintage Railroad operates along the old Cotton Belt Route, where passengers can ride in 1920s-era coaches.
