I believe the Missouri Pacific ran a passenger train from Houston, Texas to Brownsville, Texas named the Valley Eagle. What can anyone tell me about its schedule, equipment, date of discontinuance, etc.? Also, what other passenger trains, if any, served the Valley, i.e. Brownsville, Harlingen, McAllen, Pharr, MIssion, etc.
In February of 1950, the Valley Eagle carried the following equipment: Grill Coach and coaches, Houston-Brownsville; coaches, St. Louis-Corpus Christi; coaches Brownsville-San Antonio.
There was overnight service, with sleeper and coach, San Antonio-Missionand chair car San Anonio-Corpus Christi. The Pioneer provided overnight service, with sleeper and coach between Houston and Corpus Christi and between Houston and Brownsville. The train from San Antonio to the valley was combined with the Pioneer between Odem and Harlingen.
Odem was a busy place, with four exchanges of cars each day, and Harlingen had two exchanges each day.
Johnny
A good source of information is the Yahoo group Railspot. There have been previous discussions with some good about its operations. I found the following from archived messages.
The Valley Eagle #321-322 Houston-Brownsville was discontinued on 6-30-62 or 7-1-62.
The Pioneer #54-55 Houston-Brownsville was discontinued 3-15-66. I am guessing that this was a mail train that ran at night.
~Randy
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.