Nostalgia & History > Texas Tuesday: The Texas Southeastern

A shortline crawl through the piney woods in the summer of 1985 brought me to Diboll, home of the Texas Southeastern.  Temperatures were well over 100 by late morning, when I found a 70-tonner switching chlorine tankers around the yard. There was an attractive steamer on display near the main offices.

 Later that afternoon, the big power, in the form of a Baldwin switcher, took the road train out, caboose and all.  There was a visitor on board, described to me as a columnist from one of the Houston newspapers.  That's him on the left, riding the platform of the switcher as it approached a grade crossing.

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Here's the road train

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Caboose looks to be x-Santa Fe.

You guys are just making this stuff up! Actually, weeds or not, the track doesn't look too bad, and
damn interesting roster.

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That #13 ten wheeler and the caboose are now under a shed at a museum in Diaboll.
They have the whistle hooked up to an air compressor and tank.  One can climb on the lokie and
blow the whistle, and the sound will about knock you off the deck.

I hope those tank cars were not carrying chlorine. They look like general service tank cars.

No.13, the Ten Wheeler, is lettered Southern Pine Lumber Company.
It is kind of hard to read.
Am I correct?

James R.(Jim) Baker
Whittier, CA

Texas South-Eastern RR and Southern Pine Lumber Company were both owned by Temple Lumber Co. and locomotives appear to have been shuffled back and forth, between those two entities and Temple Lumber Co. sort of as needed.

The 70 tonner in the first picture is now in the back of the Palestine enginehouse on the Texas State Railroad.  It was actually used on the TSR in the 1950's when it was operated by the T S-E.

I remember when the T S-E bought the Baldwn in 1962.  At that time I was going through missle training at Fort Bliss,Texas and happened to wander down to the SP roundhouse in El Paso one Sunday.  What I should find there was a Baldwin S-8? lettered for Wyerhaeuser Timber Co.!  Upon inquiring  what that thing was doing there, I found out that it was enroute from Oregon to the T S-E.

Pete Replinger

The TSE Baldwin ended up looking better than it's brothers (Sycan OR)

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