A Texas Steam Railroad Reinvents Itself

This Friday finds me covering the Railroad Passenger Car Alliance convention in Tyler, Texas. This year’s conference has been hosted by the Texas State Railroad, which connects the nearby cities of Palestine and Rusk, Texas.
Texas State Railroad doesn’t tend to be one of the places that springs immediately to mind, but that’s no fault of its history or the location. You’d have to wile away hours on the road, perhaps traverse entire states, before you find a railroad running through scenery that compares to the statuesque pine forests swaddling the 27-mile route between Palestine and Rusk.

The Texas State Railroad also claims a history that deserves to be more notorious. It has its roots in a few miles of track chartered by the State of Texas in 1881 to bring supplies to smelting operation based at a prison near Rusk. Incarcerated men provided convenient base of labor to construct and maintain the tracks. East Texas enjoyed a robust timber and oil industry in those days, and in time the state expanded the tracks in order to serve a number of other industries in the area, and offered limited passenger service.

By 1921 the Texas State Railroad had become unprofitable and the Texas Legislature wished to be rid of the burden of running a railroad. The state retained ownership of the tracks and equipment, and for the next few decades leased the line to a series of operations. In 1972, freight ceased and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department managed the property as both a state park and campground and a tourist railroad. During that time they amassed an impressively varied collection of steam locomotives, including the venerable Texas & Pacific 610.

The Texas State Railroad holds a special place, and not just because it happens to be located close to my native railroad grounds. I am predisposed to admire people and things which attribute their existence to an unshakable will to survive, and this railroad has absolutely refused to let the piney woods in East Texas fall silent.

Despite steady ridership and occasionally serving as the backdrop for films and television shows, the Texas Legislator began to view the Texas State Railroad as a blight on the state budget. In 2007 they removed the railroad from the State Parks roster. American Heritage Railway assumed operations but failed to bring the railroad out of the red. For a time, Texas State Railroad was cited as one of the most endangered historical locations in the state. The future looked bleak until Iowa Pacific purchased the railroad.

Thinking beyond just offering train rides has begun to pay dividends. Ridership has steadily trended upwards, and the railroad’s marketing strategies have built up a base of riders in both Dallas and Houston. For the past several years, their Polar Express events bring in so many people that twelve-coach trains routinely sell out. The staff has also demonstrated a willingness to experiment with steampunk-themed festivals and other events aimed at a market that might not otherwise be interested in a train ride, and has brought in extra income by storing unused tank cars on sidings that would not otherwise have been used.

The best summary I can give of how much things have improved, though, is that more of my trips to the Texas State Railroad have been for business events than for personal pleasure. The RPCA convention is the second major event that the railroad has hosted in less than two years: Fourteen months ago, members of the Association of Tourist Railroads and Museum’s converged in the same location. The two conferences have brought almost every notable name in the world of heritage railroads onto the grounds, and both organizations have mounted significant efforts to bring younger people into the industry.
In five, ten more years, the Texas State Railroad might be completely unrecognizable from its years of state management. That’s a good thing. It’s a relief when a threatened piece of the local culture and economy pulls itself back from the brink of ruin, but watching it surpass survival and reinvent itself as an player in its industry is especially gratifying.