Western Railroad Discussion > New refinery in East Texas, nice for new short line?

Story below. Rusk County is in East Texas, east of Tyler, south of Longview. The town of Rusk is in Cherokee, County, not Rusk County. Henderson is the county seat of Rusk County. Henderson is not in Henderson County, but Rusk County. Tyler is in Smith County, not Tyler County. Woodville is the County seat of Tyler County, not Wood County. But I digress.....


The Rusk County Rural Rail District was formed a couple years ago to save the Overton-Henderson branch of the UP (ex MOP) from complete abandonment. The dead end branch ties into the UP at Overton and dead ends at Henderson, about 20 miles away. New London is about halfway in between. In UP's defense, the line was extremely dilapidated and little used, so the cost of upgrading it vs. abandoning it was the proper thing to do for the Company. The District was formed, and purchased the line for very little and hired Blacklands RR to operate it. Photo of Blacklands geep attached. A lumber customer and a rock outfit is all that remains at the end of track in Henderson, as I recall. At one time, Henderson Clay Products has a large brick mill in Henderson and received a lot of raw materials in by rail and shipped outbound boxcar loads of brick. I interviewed with them upon exiting college in nearby Nacogdoches. They probably were smart by rejecting this potential new hire. My wife and I have a lake house about 10 miles from Overton (Lake Tyler) and we know people around theses parts and are told this is a real project moving forward as we speak, not building yet, but in the planning stages.

I suppose that the finished product, whatever that is I am not sure but it typically petrol, diesel , benzene, kerosene, would be moved by pipeline but since the site is on this Overton-Henderson branch there may be some value of the railroad to the project. I'll have to do some snooping on that.

Speaking of New London, Tx that town has a rather chilling past ... read here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London_School_explosion

So, with all that, here is the story of the refinery ......





Rusk County soon may be home to a new refinery that County Judge Joel Hale said would have a “heck of an economic impact.”

Kenneth D. Williams, a Rusk County native who works for Gregg County Refinery, spoke to the commissioners court earlier this week about his hopes to begin construction on a refinery within the next 120 days. The proposed refinery site is a 165-acre tract of land on the north side of Texas 323 near New London, Hale said. “We’re definitely hoping this becomes a reality,” Hale said. “It would have a very large and very positive economic impact on Rusk County.” The company is trying to secure financing for the project and will have to go through the state permitting process, he said. “While it’s not a done deal yet, by any means, it’s something that looks likely to happen within the year,” Hale said.

The refinery would provide employment for up to 400 people while it is being constructed and would have about 85 permanent, full-time employees once it was up and running, he said. Cost for the project is estimated at $266 million and should pump about $8 billion into the county’s economy during the next next decade, Hale said.

“A project as large as this would have a ripple effect,” he said. “The new employees, and even the temporary employees who participated in the construction, would use various services and products provided by business in our county.”
The location for the facility is in West Rusk Independent School District, which recently passed a bond.
“Having a new business of that size constructed in the school district would almost certainly be an asset to the students there,” Hale said. “The company seems interesting in being a good corporate citizen.”

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And Athens is the county seat of Henderson County, but Kaufman Texas is the county seat of Kaufman County. Now Texas has 254 counties and this could get too involvced quickly, Bellville is the county seat of Austin County, but Belton is the county seat of Bell County, then Austin is the county seat of Travis County. Is there a Travis Texas?

Is the fire protection business getting slow? ow there is other potential new developements in the northeast Texas railroad scene but maybe Uncle Pete wants to stay low key here so I won't mention yet what I just heard a week or so ago, but stay tuned.

You forgot to mention in your thread that just nawth of the bushes that are at the side of the geep is a funeral home, hence the sign in your image.

Con

Isn't that sign so true for most units lettered for LTEX?