Dallas Houston Run Time

[henryj]

Well George, I did use that term meaning 'mixed freight'. We used to call them 'junk trains' as they have a little bit of everything. I have no idea what the 'new' railfans call them.

 

[william]

Henryj......You are correct about the hand throw switches on the few sidings,About 1990 I watched as the Eagle had to go in the siding in Waller for a very long SP freight.The Amtrak conductor had to throw the switches on both ends of the siding.That cost the Eagle a 30 minute delay.That was a problem with one of the two sections waiting in Dallas for the late one.The Houston section consist was only two coaches and something serving as a lounge/food service.Usually an old high-level lounge or diner and sometimes a sightseer or snack coach.Just like today,this train could not get any respect.What almost killed the Texas Eagle was when it was cut to three times a week.Thanks to Senator Hutchinson and the Eagle supporters the train was saved,but without the Houston section.

 

[henryj]

Henryj......You are correct about the hand throw switches on the few sidings,About 1990 I watched as the Eagle had to go in the siding in Waller for a very long SP freight.The Amtrak conductor had to throw the switches on both ends of the siding.That cost the Eagle a 30 minute delay.That was a problem with one of the two sections waiting in Dallas for the late one.The Houston section consist was only two coaches and something serving as a lounge/food service.Usually an old high-level lounge or diner and sometimes a sightseer or snack coach.Just like today,this train could not get any respect.What almost killed the Texas Eagle was when it was cut to three times a week.Thanks to Senator Hutchinson and the Eagle supporters the train was saved,but without the Houston section.

Well William, the bus connection at Longview works just fine for the dozen or so passengers a day that use it and it's much faster. I used it last year and it works just fine. The Houston -Dallas train was a bone they threw us after they took off the Lone Star. They paid the SP a bunch of money to fix up the tracks and College Station and Corsicana put up station shelters for the train, but at 6 hours+ it just wasn't competitive with anything and SP didn't maintain the tracks after they repaired them so the train just got later and later. I caught it one time coming in Hwy 290 hours late just creeping along from slow order to slow order. The fastest and best route is still the BNSF line through Tomball. It doesn't serve College Station or Huntsville, but they could run a bus the 20 miles or so from each city. I just don't see anything happening on this for many years as the state has no interest in passenger trains, Amtrak isn't going to do anything and the HSR project is decades away.