Nostalgia & History > WAG Wednesday: Bill visits the Georgetown RR

A couple of WAG Wednesdays ago Art & I posted 2 ex-MKT business car photos Bill Gibson took while on a visit to the Georgetown Railroad in the Texas city with the same name. I have to confess the only thing I know about the Georgetown RR is that I’ve heard of it. But with modern on-line research capabilities I’ve found a little bit of GRR history. Here are some paraphrased excerpts taken from Wikipedia [the brackets are my own additions]:

“The original Georgetown Railroad Company was chartered on May 31, 1878, with a commitment to build a railroad the approximately 10 mile distance between Georgetown and Round Rock [TX]. The headquarters was in Georgetown. Soon, the railroad found itself in difficult financial straits and was sold in foreclosure on August 5, 1879. The International-Great Northern purchased the Georgetown and operations merged with that company in 1882. The branch was operated by the I-GN and its successors until 1959, when it was sold to the new Georgetown Railroad Company. This [new] company was incorporated on July 25, 1958, and it acquired eight miles of the Georgetown branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad which was a successor to the I-GN. On June 3, 1991, the Georgetown Railroad acquired that portion of the Belton Railroad east of Interstate 35 at Belton and began operating this line as its Belton Subdivision.”

Being the consummate roster shooter Bill photographed everything in sight, with an interesting character bringing up the rear. As always, anyone with additions or corrections please feel free to add on…

1. GRR 1006

2. GRR 1005

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3. GRR 1004

4. GRR 1002

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A couple more here: I have no information whatsoever about this ‘thing’. The only description I can come up with is “battle-scarred critter condemned to involuntary servitude”. Bit ain’t she cute...

5. & 6. TCS(?) 100 (I’m betting Bill was not exactly thrilled with that boulder posing with the 100 … ;^)
Six photos taken on April 14, 1971 in Georgetown, TX by William A. Gibson (WAG) Sr.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Art Gibson (wag216)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/22 03:08 by santafe199.

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Georgetown also has the old Katy Austin line from Granger,TX through the big town of Weir, to Georgetown and the quarry. South of there, the line has been removed. It' mainly used for car storage now.

GRR still spits out rock trains, I've seen several wth the old Ortner cars and some gondolas recently.

Bradley Linda

...no information whatsoever about this ‘thing’

This is an Atlas 50 ton locomotive built in 1939.
Originally US Navy, then Texas Crushed Stone at
Georgetown, TX.

Atlas Car & Manufacturing built a large variety
of industrial and steel mill equipment including
some locomotives. They were located in Cleveland,
Ohio.

Don