Western Railroad Discussion > Texas State Railroad Visit

My wife and some family members got tickets to a Texas State Railroad wine train run last week.  So off to Palestine (TX) we went, enjoying a lunch at a excellent brewery/restaurant and then having time for antiquing.  Since I'm not into wandering through dusty stores, I escaped early and headed out to TSR's Palestine Depot and was lucky enough to catch a little of them making up the train and positioning it at the depot.  Attached are some pictures from Palestine, followed by some at Rusk (east end).  These are the train photos - I also have some depot photos for another thread.  

1)  First sight of TSR's 125 and 126 F units preparing to move the train from the small yard on the north leg of the wye to south leg alongside the depot.  The track in the foreground is the west leg of the wye - the depot sits in the middle.
2)  Closer look at the power building the train and getting ready to position it at the depot.
3)  Head end, east of the depot.

I purposely excluded the passenger cars in these photos - there were no great angles to get images of the train.  So the next reply has a video of TSR pulling the train from the north leg and spotting to the south leg.  The tank car was interesting - it was spotted at Rusk while they wyed the locomotives, so this was officially a Mixed Train.

More to come.

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Continuing at Palestine...

1)  A closer look at the head end, now shoved back into the depot.
2)  Video of the entire train being pulled from the north leg, and then the rear of the train being spotted at the depot.  When they pulled forward, they gave a nice look at the entire train.

Sorry about the Kenny Rogers earworm...it was on the loud speakers and this is what you got!  Hope the nice sounding horn makes up for it, lol.

More to come...

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Now into Rusk, TX, the east end.  The one problem with riding the train is that you don't really get to photograph it, particularly since we were in the dome (ex ATSF) and the windows did not open.  So instead, I jumped off the train at Rusk and while the long line for dinner sorted itself out, I got a chance to shoot a couple of angles of the train before it wyed the power.

1)  While the passengers de-boarded - is that even a word?
2)  Different angle, with the sun getting lower in the sky.

More to come...

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Still at Rusk, but the locos have now run around the wye (and spotted the tank car) and are now on the west end of the train.  I was hoping to catch the locos as they came around the wye, but timing between dinner and train did not work out.  

1) Just west of the depot (photos of that tomorrow)
2) Walking into the forest to get west of the locos; all the signs said "Don't Cross the Tracks"...I didn't.  But I did leave the platform - and I got mostly waves from the staff.  I'm guessing I was not the first...
3) Different angle, about 10 minutes before departing back towards Palestine.  When it gets dark in the forests of East Texas, it gets DARK.

Last one coming up...

 

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And now, back at Palestine - and pretty late, too!  Natural lighting here, with some small help from cars in the parking lot that had turned on their lights as the pulled out of the lot.

1 & 2)  Couple of angles of the train as the passengers left the area.  The sky was really that dark at 11:30 at night.

Just realized my picture 4 in the first reply was not at Palestine; it was at Rusk.  Not going back to change it, so this is your only chance to withdraw any replies telling me that I screwed up!  Thanks for following along.  It was a nice ride with great looking equipment!

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That is very good looking equipment. Thank you for dodging dinner to grab some photos for us. Good stuff. Some years ago a T.O. poster, Con Sweet, gave us some great photos of this operation. Steam at that time. Unfortunatley the tourist operation is targeted at the tourist trade, but that is important to their success, railfans don't generate money, the railfan is left to their own devices. You done good.
Gonut

What is the provenance of those locomotives?

Going by the bell on the roof, they appear to be ex-CN, ex-VIA FP9's.

Here they are in Rusk on Dec 15, 2015, not long after they arrived on the property in Georgia Southwestern paint and numbers. Both are ex Via FP9A's.

125 is ex Via 6533
126 is ex Via 6521

I don't have the info on their ex CN numbers. (same?)

Nice coverage of this nice clean operation. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/26 09:30 by xrds72.

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Everything I can find indicates Texas State Railroad is not a common carrier. 
The tank car is a museum piece??

The common carrier operator is the "Texas and Eastern", so that anyone under covered service is handled separately from the excursion side.   Jaguar Transportation is doing a pretty good transload business there now.

The pair of FP9's was a "rescue" from Larrys Truck and Electric after the georgia operation turned them loose.   Lots of work done on both units.   Paint scheme was inspired by MKT's "Texas Special".

https://katyrailroad.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2024krhsfrt101A_WEB2-1.jpg

Magma Arizona 7, aka 400, aka 30, the 2-8-2, is alive and well and still in service, but extending the service life days and not necessarily in every day operation.  And since the main is being relaid with 115#, and a solid Class II, she can actually run at 30mph where the rebuild is complete, it's quite a show.  The 2-8-0 is still undergoing a heavy rebuild, but will return.

It's now been 20 years since Texas Parks & Wildlife completely gave up on it and turned it over to the Rail Authority, it's not a bad outcome.  
https://www.kltv.com/story/5212515/city-officials-fight-to-keep-texas-state-railroad-running/
 



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/26 12:33 by randgust.

I'll forgive the earworm because this was a nice look at some really good looking F units.

CP8888 Wrote:
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> Everything I can find indicates Texas State
> Railroad is not a common carrier. 
> The tank car is a museum piece??

During the ride home, I got a chance to talk to a train manager with TSR (we shared acquaintance with a number of folks at BNSF where we both worked).  Like Randgust said, he told me that they do a pretty good transload business at Maydelle (mostly covered hoppers from what we could see from the train), and they regularly interchange with UP at Palestine.  The tank was not a museum piece, but it was un-placarded so it wasn't anything hazardous.  

I helped paint the125.

It was indeed ex CN and powered the Super Continental.

 

Nice effort WrongWay, those F units look great and I'm happy they fit into the Texas State Railroad's plan. The work on the mainline Randy mentioned is also pretty exciting and I hope to see ex-Magma Arizona #7 on that 115# rail soon.