Nostalgia & History > Houston section of Texas Eagle

April 90
This was the usual consist for the Dallas-Houston section of the Texas Eagle.
It ran on the SP.
Here it is 58.4 miles from the Houston station just north of Hempstead.
The SP Dallas-Houston line was the route Amtrak wanted to use in 1971 but the SP wanted to much money for upgrades so Amtrak used the Santa Fe.
This train operated from 1988-95.

Gary

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Well done. If only two cars and one locomotive was common, it is surprising that the train lasted seven years.
Bob

I seem to recall that at one point it carried a superliner lounge.  Operated very much like the Builder does at Spokane, the Houston section was so slow, few wanted to endure it.  There was hope that money would flow and track upgrades would make the train like is predecessor, the Sunbeam was.  But no, the cost was way too much.  Now we must look forward to other ways to travel by rail to Dallas.

Thank you Mr. GCM for preserving an image of a fairly obscure Amtrak train.



refarkas Wrote:
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> Well done. If only two cars and one locomotive was
> common, it is surprising that the train lasted
> seven years.
> Bob

Hou74-76 Wrote:
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> I seem to recall that at one point it carried a
> superliner lounge. 

I believe at the beginning it did but it didn't last long.
I rode the train a few times and enjoyed it - never thought I'd get to ride a regularly scheduled train over this route even though
it took a couple hours longer to reach Dallas than the Sunbeam did so long ago.
Gary

Sad, if it wasn't for the Mercer Cuts it might've had a chance to get better!

I rode this train about a half dozen times. In the pre-cell phone era, I used this train on business trips to Dallas as a way to be deliberately out of touch for 5-6 hours.

CW

Posted from iPhone

I remember when the SP was wanting millions of dollars to up grade the line to handle 70 MPH passenger trains.  Me and a friend chased  freights  on that line and  several were  doing 70 mph and it was not a rarity.  If Amtrak had quietly, without SP knowledge followed some of those freights they would have discovered the same thing.

I had the opportunity to ride the Amtrak inaugural trip of this train and then the first northbound revenue run.
A few more rides after that.

I recall one of the first Amtrak timetables indicated a proposed service over the B-RI--which never happened.
Then later in the 70s a route over the SP was indicated--which also never happened.

One of the TV stations in the Dallas area paced a freight using a helicopter .
It was moving over 70 mph somewhere south of Corsicana.

The Blue Streak Merchandise used to do 70 on this line.   It should not have been a problem.

I rode this train once as a rare mileage train to go to Houston, then board the Sunset Limited headed west.  We just barely made the connection in Houston account there was code lien failure and it made us really late between Dallas and Houston.  A neat train though.  As for the lounge our train was equpped with a lower level lounge in one of the Superliners.  

Nice shot, Gary!

RC Lundgren
Elgin, TX

tomstp Wrote:
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> I remember when the SP was wanting millions of
> dollars to up grade the line to handle 70 MPH
> passenger trains.  Me and a friend chased
>  freights  on that line and  several were
>  doing 70 mph and it was not a rarity.  If
> Amtrak had quietly, without SP knowledge followed
> some of those freights they would have discovered
> the same thing.

Now they did upgrade parts of it, rom Antoine Street in Houston up to Navasota the track was made good for 60 and they made every bit of it.

Thanks for posting this little train traveling the route of the lordly Sunbeam before its Sept. , 1955 discontinuance . Rode the Houston section of Amtrak's Eagle about this same year as your slide.
Nice, smooth ride . The Amtrak service on this route needs to return if the Texas Central fails. 
Thanks for posting this slide, Gary. --Kelly