| This was the original Texas & Pacific main line to New Orleans, built in the 1880s and mostly abandoned in the 1950s. It split off from the Texas & Pacific's Dallas-bound line at what is now Dean Road and the Inner Loop; on Google Maps you can still trace its route today, heading southward to Mansfield and onwards to Cypress LA, where it meets up with the old T&P "branch" line that eventually replaced it. Most traces of the line south of here are long gone, but in the late 80s the tracks still ran for a few miles south of here, and there were a handful of freight cars stored on them, just north of Bert Kouns at Gilmer Bayou. Further south around Colquitt Road, the line was blocked by a couple of derailed hopper cars that had spilled down an embankment at Boggy Bayou, which seems to be where the track removal started. The rails had just recently been removed when I shot this photo in fall of 1988. The crossing and crossbucks at Bert Kouns remained in place into the 1990s, but the cars and tracks were taken out in mid-1988. The active line curving to the right is heading out toward Reisor Yard on the citys west edge and from there onwards to Dallas. |