Western Railroad Discussion > The Lonliest Shortline in Texas, revisited.

I decided to make a visit for this shortline, seen in Trains Magazine awhile ago. Now operated by WATCO, the Pecos Valley Southern operates 5 miles of track in west Texas, with the remaining 24.3 miles to Saragosa, out of service. A single Geep looks enough power to perform last mile duties for switching a handful of shippers in Pecos and a few miles south.

1. LTEX 2570, a GP35m built for the Santa Fe, rests on the main, north of 3rd. Avenue in Pecos, TX. This is the only locomotive I was able to found. No traces of the old GE 70 Tonners No. 7 and 8 or, WAMX 950 (ex PVS 9), an SW900, which I believe must've left the PVS to work on another WATCO property.

2. Reefers for unknown shipper in and old spur, roughly a mile south of Pecos.

3. Larett Energy Tank cars.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/21 15:52 by Geep.

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4. Wildcat Minerals. A Terminal for Frac Sand, built this modern facility, just like Larrett Energy, but for Covered Hoppers. Notice the decent trackwork performed from Pecos to MP 5.

5. CTAP: Metal pipes arrive here on Gondolas and flatcars. This is the Southernmost shipper, since Capitol Aggregates (Trans-Pecos Materials), owner of the railroad, ceased using the railroad. Anyone know why?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/21 16:55 by Geep.

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6. A Red Flag at Milepost 5. No more business south of here... Hopefully, after some aggresive marketing, shippers can be found in the Saragosa area, next to Interstate 10, and maybe the railroad upgraded to handle 286,00Ib cars, which would need some SERIOUS investment.

7. This lone PVS Caboose remains stranded on the isolated former northern leg of the Pecos wye. It seems WATCO has done a good "sale" to get these energy oriented terminals going and performed trackwork for increased capacity on it's current 5 miles of main track in service. The old shop sits empty, but right next to it, two other shippers, also oil terminals with no cars in sight that day, also receive tank cars...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/21 16:53 by Geep.

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Appropriate caption and interesting photo series.
Thanks for the posting.
ALLEN

Nice series, you're probably right about the title though. I drove down that highway last fall on my way to Fort Davis and didn't see much so I didn't take any pics, but there are a few customers. Wish I could answer some of your questions but I had the same ones myself...

JG

Good coverage of an overlooked operation.