Nostalgia & History > Running out of time - Lone Star in Houston

Sept 79
It's September and the Lone Star discontinuance date of Oct 1 is rapidly approaching.
Although the train would operate for a few days after Oct 1, I tried to ride and see it as much as I could.

(1-3)
Here it is getting ready for its early morning departure from Houston.
A mail truck (sometimes multiple ones) would load mail to the baggage car.
This was a regular practice right up to the end.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/20 05:48 by gcm.

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(4)
SP GP9 3407 was working the SP downtown yard (now abandoned) in the background that day.
The sleeper on the right was interesting.
It was ex-Santa Fe Indian Squaw (never get by the censors these days).
Built by Pullman-Standard in 1947 with 24 duplex roomettes.
Rebuilt to 11 double bedrooms for the Super Chief in 1964.

(5)
This train usually had an ex-Santa Fe diner but towards the end other diners would show up like this one.
8061 was an ex-SP diner built by Budd in 1950 for the Sunset Limited.
It had passed through this area of Houston many times on the SP.

Gary

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I love the obscure shots of an obscure train at a relatively obscure photo location. Thanks!

gcm Wrote:
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> Sept 79
> It's September and the Lone Star discontinuance
> date of Oct 1 is rapidly approaching.
> Although the train would operate for a few days
> after Oct 1, I tried to ride and see it as much as
> I could.
>
> (1-3)
> Here it is getting ready for its early morning
> departure from Houston.
> A mail truck (sometimes multiple ones) would load
> mail to the baggage car.
> This was a regular practice right up to the end.

Great photos as always Gary!

Posted from iPhone

A wonderful slide show of a fine train that would have been a successful train to this very day if it had not been discontinued in 1979 by crafty politics . --Kelly

Interesting choice of words below.  I don't dispute or argue at all.  But when I hired out there in July of 1974 we new hires all received a safety lecture and motivational speech from the Amtrak Transportation Manager, RR Mitchel.  I remember vividly how he exclaimed that the Lone Star came from a fine pedigree of trains and was one of Amtrak's premiere passenger trains.  Afterwards we assembled on the platform near the depot to watch the inaugural arrival of the Lone Star at its new obscure terminal station.  As an aside, I recall hearing lots of complaints about how hard the SP depot was to find.  As #15 rolled on to track #1 it went past the depot and kept rolling, and rolling, and rolling till it stopped about 4 car lengths beyond the depot, way under the freeway and behind the post office.  It had to stop there in order for the water hoses to reach it.  Amtrak never figured out how ill suited the obscure little SP depot was for its premier passenger train.  Symbolically, from that day in 1974 to the day Gary took these pictures, the train just kept getting more and more obscure until it just vanished.

brc600 Wrote:
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> I love the obscure shots of an obscure train at a
> relatively obscure photo location. Thanks!
 

Yikes!  That might have been the last photo of 8061 in service.  It was involved in the Lawrence wreck, along with Indian Squaw.

mp51w Wrote:
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> Yikes!  That might have been the last photo of
> 8061 in service.  It was involved in the Lawrence
> wreck, along with Indian Squaw.
And I see Hi-level 9929, which means that was probably the same whole trainset combined with #4 at Newton.  The Dallas section Regal series sleeper at the end, was the only car that didn't derail.

Thanks for posting those fine shots, Gary!   I must have rode the Texas  Chief/Lone Star at least 50 times from Temple to Newton and back when I was growing up to visit our grandparents.  The Texas Chief was the main reason I became a railfan.  I can't believe they dropped it instead of the Inter American.  Carter was a pretty sorry President on a lot of other matters as well.

RC Lundgren
Elgin, TX







 

texchief1 Wrote:
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> Thanks for posting those fine shots, Gary!   I
> must have rode the Texas  Chief/Lone Star at
> least 50 times from Temple to Newton and back when
> I was growing up to visit our grandparents.  The
> Texas Chief was the main reason I became a
> railfan.  I can't believe they dropped it instead
> of the Inter American.  Carter was a pretty sorry
> President on a lot of other matters as well.
>
> RC Lundgren
> Elgin, TX
>
>
Carter screwed up with his appointment of Brock Adams as Transportation Secretary.  The budget numbers seem trivial by today's standards.  Adams had a reputation as a budget wizard.
Sure, Amtrak was on a budgetary colliision course, but why he enabled Adams, who really didn't have much transportation experience, to partially dismantle the national system, was a travesty!  I partially blame Alan Boyd. The equipment situation was so critical at that time, that reduction of routes made his job much easier.  Congress was somewhat to blame, forcing Amtrak iinto these experimental routes each year as well.  Something had to give.  Some hastily made political decisions on routes, left the Lone Star as the fall guy.  Ridership was up 35% during 1979, and was actually meeting the original cutoff standards outlined in the D.O.T. study.  A "Democratic" administration appointed Supreme Court Judge, Byron White, forced the Denver Appeals court to drop the case.
>
>
>
>  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/20 04:58 by mp51w.

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 The biggest Amtrak cuts were under Democrats--Carter in 1979 and Clinton in 1997. The most favorable administration--two term Obama was absolutely impotent. Even in the Midwest, the cuts were opposed by many East Coasters.
 
> Carter screwed up with his appointment of Brock
> Adams as Transportation Secretary.  The budget
> numbers seem trivial by today's standards.  Adams
> had a reputation as a budget wizard.
> Sure, Amtrak was on a budgetary colliision course,
> but why he enabled Adams, who really didn't have
> much transportation experience, to partially
> dismantle the national system, was a travesty!  I
> partially blame Alan Boyd. The equipment situation
> was so critical at that time, that reduction of
> routes made his job much easier.  Congress was
> somewhat to blame, forcing Amtrak iinto these
> experimental routes each year as well.  Something
> had to give.  Some hastily made political
> decisions on routes, left the Lone Star as the
> fall guy.  Ridership was up 35% during 1979, and
> was actually meeting the original cutoff standards
> outlined in the D.O.T. study.  A "Democratic"
> administration appointed Supreme Court Judge,
> Byron White, forced the Denver Appeals court to
> drop the case.
> >
> >
> >
> >  

The ground was already broken prior to the Cliinton adminstration.  Congress was fed up with the extra emergency appropriations to keep Amtrak afloat!

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The Lone Star was up for grabs on day 1 of Amtrak.  I have a copy of the first timetable that shows the route going through Dallas to get to Houston.  The second version of that timetable showed a more accurate line.  But Dallas wanted a train and was going to get it and keep it as long as politics were alive.

As noted above, this train carried a LOT of passengers.  We would leave Chicago with 300 in coach on a good day, plus two sleepers full.  By the next morning south of Oklahoma City we were emptying out, so that by Ft Worth, about 12:30 p.m., the train had plenty of seats available.  Northbound was the exact reverse.  We would go into Chicago at 10:30 a.m. with a packed train.  The loss of this train was stupid and unnecessary.  It needs to come back as a section of #3-4 at Newton, KS.