Nostalgia & History > Satsuma Texas

A few days ago, gcm posted an image of a pair of semaphores that were on the SP/T&NO mainline between Houston and Hempstead, and just a little ways west of Satsuma. On that thread I made a few comments, including a couple of comments about Satsuma, that's pronounced "Satsoomie" in the local vernacular. Here is a picture of that section foreman's house that was at Satsuma. It was abandoned when I took its picture, but it was still in decent shape and in its original location at the time. I'd imagine that it had been repainted at least once since it was owned by the railroad, as their colors were a depot buff with brown trim, standard railroad colors for the SP, and the D&RGW, plus others as well, I imagine.

Con

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After I took the picture of the Section Foreman's house, I turned 90 degrees and took this view to the west along the mainline. On the right margin of this picture is US290 highway, really an Interstate style freeway now, and that's the community of Jersey Village in the background. US290 is an old highway, even though it's been rebuilt several times to keep up with traffic demands for changing times over the years. That old truckdriver that told me about when he'd worked on the signal gang at and around Satsuma back in the mid 1920's, also told me about when he'd first started out on his trucking career. He started out driving chain driven Bulldog Mack's with hard rubber tires. The only pavement was just a little bit of asphalt in the city limits of Houston, which back then were several miles east of Satsuma. After the asphalt quit, it was graded and graveled for a while, and then it was just a rutted track the rest of the way to the west Texas oilfields. Even on a good run, it took several days to haul a load of oilfield pipe to Midland. Back then, truckdrivers were (and they had to be) TOUGH! When I hauled pipe to west Texas 20-25 years ago, it took me anywhere from 10 to 12 hours from the Satsuma area depending on how big of a hurry I was in, and on how thick the cops were.

Con

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Interesting Texas memories there, Con. In 1991 my wife and I followed the Espee from Santa Cruz, CA. to Pine Bluff (via the Dalsa Line), then returned via the Rabbit Line, through Houston, etc. We stopped at Sanderson, TX and watched the busy train action there at the old depot. In 1999 we drove to San Antonio to see our daughter and was saddened to see an abandoned Sanderson depot. Changes are more noticeable after 8 years. - Tony J.