Nostalgia & History > T&P humor, or where is #31?

The T&P had two lines from Texarkana to Ft Worth. One was the main thru Marshall and Dallas and the other was the TC or Transcontinental division thru Bonham, Sherman, Whitesboro, Denton and Ft Worth. It was a non signaled branch with about 4 trains a day. It had one passenger each way, #31 west and #32 east who's consist was usually a D9-1/2 ten wheeler, and 3 cars which at Christmas could swell to 7 cars. They had a very good on time record. Their only claim to fame was they actually outran the Sunshine Special (their route was a little shorter) even tho they stopped at ever cross road.

One spring day #31 was O S'd our of DeKalb on time and was not heard from again for about an hour. The dispatcher by this time was not in a good mood and left a message for #31 at the next station which tersly said "explain reason for delay" A couple of stations later the crew dropped a reply with a station agent.

Most crews could get fairly "wordy" in explaining delays, and this crew was no exception. The message started off-----
Well sir, it is springtime in Texas and you know what that means. The grass grows lush and thick along the right of way. As we came out of a left hand curve my fireman thought he saw something in the track ahead and leaned out of the window just as far as he could. He saw somthing all right, a rather large steer right in the middle of the track. We came upon it so fast, we hit it and knocked it up in the air and it came down and exploded on the boiler getting the residual of all that green grass all over the fireman who did not have time to duck back in the cab. We had to stop and wire the pilot back on and put the fireman under the tender drain to wash him off. We are sorry for the delay and will try not to let it happen again. But, gosh that fireman sure did stink.

What a great sory! I love it!

I rode this train in probably 1947. We lived In Ector Texas
and the train stopped there.. WE went to FT;. Worth to visit my Aunt. My grand father was a conductor and lived in Bonham. He worked the east local to Texarkana mostly. i would go with him to the depot and sunday morning and listen to bull sessions and listen onthe operators telephone line. The telegraph was a mystery to me. I did learn the morse in later years. I remember the day that the locals lost the steam power and went to diesel. I lived near the track and heard the horn on the deisel and was surprised.



Bonham...

claude Jenkins