This is the Texas State Railroad, Christmas edition on December 7, 2019. This railroad operates year round with full time employees; except in December where it is the Polar Express using temporary employees (except engineers and brakemen) that know little about the railroad. Since this is geared for children they stop at the North Pole to see Santa and elves singing and dancing. Then Santa enters the train to visit the children and give them the generous gift of a cookie.
Note: The Texas State Railroad started construction in 1883 in Rusk and to Palestine in 1909. The railroad connected the existing Cotton Belt Railroad in Rusk with the IGN Railroad in Palestine. The Texas State Railroad was sold to Iowa Pacific Holdings in 2012, making the railroad private...no longer owned by the State of Texas.
I brought along a young friend and his two year old son for this Christmas train ride (total cost $100 USD). The closed cars with air conditioning cost more, and would have limited my ability to shoot the outside.
We arrived at the Palestine Station and we bordered the train after a brief lunch. The temporary employees had no idea
how to answer my questions about the train, railroad, or if the train would cross the Neches River from Anderson County to Cherokee County...where I wanted to shoot the trestle and the Neches River.
Then the very loud Christmas music hurt my ears for most of the train ride. I estimate the sound levels from the music to be over 100 dba; over double the 90 dba (for employees) allowed by OSHA for a eight hour TWA (time weighted average). I wished I had my hearing protection. Many adults, including me, would cover their ears for much of the train ride.
They had singers and dancers with the loud music. The children loved the entire experience especially their personal visit with Santa. What made this train ride special to me was the enjoyment from the two year old boy. This would be great for families with young children if all would use hearing protection.
When we returned to the Palestine Station I visited the depot office. They had a boatload of free handouts, but I could not find a handout of interest to me. I asked at that office for a map of the Texas State Railroad.
I had to do some polite but strong talk before they would give me a copy of their railroad map designed to give free to the public. Then I asked about the location of the North Pole. Their answer was that is a closely guarded secret. That sounded like a challenge to me; and I back to find the secret North Pole.
I found that the train had a diesel steam engine on both sides of the train cuz there was no place to turn around short of Maydelle, Texas in Cherokee county. The train could have run in reverse, but the engineer could not see if there was hazards or people on the tracks in reverse.
I walked out to get a close look at engine # 30 that drove us back to the Palestine Depot. I also had a look at their small but nice lake.
Last thing before the happy ride back to Nacogdoches, I viewed the Historic Marker for the Texas State Railroad.
Commentary: It is my opinion that the building of the Texas State Railroad and the Rusk Penitentiary (now called the Rusk State Hospital) in 1883 was a
very dark time in Texas History. The Rusk Penitentiary was started to build the Texas State Railroad. The Rusk Penitentiary workers were made up of that were falsely convicted of trivial crimes. They had to work long hard (and dangerous) jobs unpaid for twenty three years to build the Texas State Railroad.
