Western Railroad Discussion > Ribbons of Fire- Sunset on the Cotton Belt

My drive home from work often takes me over the tracks of the old Cotton Belt Gatesville Branch in West Waco or Woodway, TX I had my camera and stopped at the Jewel Dr. crossing this evening, to take photos of these ribbons of fire, which once carried SSW DT6-6-2000 #260, and long combine cabooses....and my great-grandfather, who was an SSW brakeman on the Gatesville Line.


Bradley Linda
Waco, TX

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Does that still go to Gatesville, or was most torn out?

It goes as far as the Lehigh Cement plant in Woodway. It was abandoned from Lime City to Gatesville in 74 (last train in 11/72) then from McGregor to Lime City, then from Woodway at the Cement Plant to just east of McGregor in the late '80s. the BNSF serves the Co-op elevator just east of town.

tomstp Wrote:
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> Does that still go to Gatesville, or was most torn
> out?


The Gatesville Depot is sitting in the middle of the parking lot of some big box store now... Kinda outta place.

Gatesville depot is now the Chamber of Commerce, and is in the parking lot of what was WalMart... it moved and it's something else now, I forget what, a Tractor Supply, maybe. 2 Gatesville Branch depots still exist, Mound and Gatesville. Oglesby was around until about 6 years ago when it fell to arson.

Is that the caboose thats alongside the highway north of Texarkana? Sorry, I can't remember the highway number.

Rob

tomstp Wrote:
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> Does that still go to Gatesville, or was most torn
> out?

All of the track south / west of Corsicana is gone (save some obscure piece I can't find). Too bad the Waco to Corsicana portion didn't survive as a regional with reporting marks WACO.

RailNet802, out

That's not entirely true. the track is gone from Corsicana through East Waco, to 32nd Street in Waco. After the UP/SP merger, the UP built a connector track from the siding at Bass over to the adjacent Cotton Belt main, about 200' away. The Cotton Belt main (Now the "Gatesville Industrial Lead" on UP timetables) runs generally west-southwest through western waco and Woodway,TX (A Waco suburb) to the Lehigh Cement plant. There is about a mile and a half of the SSW left east of McGregor, now served by BNSF, that goes to an elevator East of McGregor.