An East Texas junction worth visiting

BIG SANDY, Texas – One of my favorite things to do when I am traveling is to explore places that I’ve read or heard about all my life, but I also love to visit little-known gems. This is about one of those unremarked hot spots.

A friend of mine suggested that while I was in Tyler, Texas, for business last month that I take the time to drive about 25 miles north to a place called Big Sandy. What would I find there, I asked? When Patrick Flynn wrote about it in the March 1994 issue of Trains, it was a busy crossing of the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific. Today, thanks to mergers, it is all Union Pacific.

Business seems to be brisk. I watched several moves and all within a few hours on a Sunday morning. There’s the crossing, a passing track that appears to get good use, and even a crew change base here. Best of all, there are tracks going in all four directions. I love to study junctions, and this one is well worth seeing in person to understand how the north-south former SP line parallels the east-west former Texas & Pacific line briefly before darting across the T&P line to reach the crew trailer.

A quick bit of history: The line south of here to Tyler was originally a 3-foot gauge pike built to keep Tyler connected to the railroad world at Big Sandy; it went by the lovely name of the Tyler Tap Railroad. Later it became an integral part of the Cotton Belt.  

Best of all, city streets parallel the junction and Tyler Street actually crosses through the middle of the whole junction. Sun is good just about all day this time of year from what I could tell, and there are hints as to the past lives of the railroad and its relationship to the community in T&P Avenue and Cotton Street, that are visible from the area near the diamond.

If you’re lucky like me, friendly residents will stop to say hello or toss up a wave of the hand, and a couple of “yap, yap” dogs may come out to greet you. Of course, make sure you are stay off railroad property and out of front lawns to keep the peace with our friends at UP and with local residents, respectively. Otherwise, you’ve got the place to yourself.