Houston Diesel Train Short Clip

[devonhart]

Folks checking out a new fangled diesel electric train.

 

http://youtu.be/xVrhDZm_E8M

[Purpledevil]

Wonder how many scoffed at it, thinking this'll never replace good ol' fashioned steam?

[GEM]

Sheldon would love this vid.......................

[Specwriter]

Sheldon would love this vid.......................

 

Specwriter loves this vid too.

 

[blue92]

Off topic, but this vid reminded of the railroad my grandfather worked for so does anyone know anything about the Texas Pacific Railroad? It's history it's demise?

[Purpledevil]

It was affiliated with the Mo-Pac and ran on its lines around Houston, as I recall. It was completely absorbed into Missouri Pacific sometime in the mid 70's, afterwards being acquired by UP in 1982. The T&P office tower and station is still standing in Fort Worth. Likely any information you'd want on the line, would be found in research of the buildings.

[Tower26]

If you go to downtown to Texas Ave ., the street lamps are lamps you would see at a rail station . The reason of those lamps are on that particular avenue because there is a legend behind it . The street is a state marker from it being apart of the T&P . If you go east behind the George R. Brown Convention Center under I-59/69 Elevated to the eastern portion of Texas Ave., you will see that the ave ends at Dowling St. near BBVA Stadium to the north and begins the T&P railtrail eastward towards Congress Yard then southward to Braeswood Bayou . At the eastern portion of the railtrail is a old US&S signal at one time was once lit on the "All Clear " aspect that guarded a turnout to HB&T tracks to South Yard and the row was doubletracked because there was a remnant segment of track that remained intact and assembled and a long abandoned part of roadbed where a second main had been . behind the furniture warehouse one of the mains curves to the northwest to where Ballpark Lofts sits . Another major landmark that sits near the still active portion east of Congress Yard is the Maxwell House Factory Tower which is now another food company then you have the UP Signalhouse and the HB&T Enginehouse nearby . Cullen , Milby , and Howard streets run in that area . Metro Rt. 40 Pecore/Telephone&Howard  or Metro Rt. 50 Harrisburg/Navigation are the major routes for that area . Lightrail will be running along Congress Yard but will stop in front of BBVA Stadium to the north before going to downtown to the west or leaving downtown eastward . The T&P once connect union station (HB&T) what is now Minute Maid Park to the north . 

    

T&P Eastern Portion 

The eastern portion was a jointline entering New Orleans under the CNO&TP(Cincinnatti, New Orleans/Texas Pacific). Norfolk wanted a line to reach the midwest to Cincinnatti, Ohio then to New Orleans to the south . New Orleans was a gateway to the gulf as well as Florida because it sat on the banks of the Mississippi River to the west and Lake Ponchatrain to the north . It was home to a major rail line and soon to be a branch to others . This rail line from Norfolk was under the name of the Norfolk & Western (N&W) because of its connection to the midwest and the other was under the name of the Southern Railroad Co.(Southern)because it was homebased in the south and its connection to all points north and east of the Mississippi River. 

Later the two companies would be parents along with other companies to form Norfolk Southern (NS) in 1982 . T&P was founded by Jay Gould as a southern corridor to the gulf and Texas via New Orleans from the north and east of the Mississippi . Cincinnatti & New Orleans Railroad would connect toT&P tracks east of New Orleans forming the CNO&TP. 

 

T&P Western Portion 

The T&P expanded west of the Mississippi River to Texas and to Red River country to the northwest . So it built many lines westward primarily to Shreveport and Marshall . Shreveport would be a gateway to Texas as well as Marshall . Shreveport would connect to DFW nearly 200 miles to the west . With it situated on the Red River and a border city being 60 miles southeast of Texarkana , Oklahoma , and Arkansas , it would be a major T&P diamond . There is a abandoned administration/station building still standing in Downtown Shreveport northeast from the Greyhound Bus Station . In Dallas , Dallas Union Station now serves Dart/Amtrak/TRE Routes and Ft. Worth, the famous Tower55 still stands but is slated to be removed due to the TIGERII Tower55 Project .The new Ft.Worth Intermodal Center now serves TRE . The old Santa Fe Station serves the Texas Eagle . Mopac took over the Shreveport/DFW Lines to Houston , San Antonio ,Waco , Marshall , and Austin until the UP merger . 

[Tower26]

The train you see in the video is a prototype diesel electric that was built for UP when they were experimenting with electric turbines . This was when steam was retired and diesels were taking place . It was at the time when the interstate act was passed and trucking became competition as well as autos . This would begin the decline in rail passenger service. The railroads had to compete for passenger revenue so they update their equipment . UP did experiments with turbine electrics for some period of time left and later returned to the program until it retired its turbines. Some of the UP turbine equipment is used in their excursion program with X3985, X844 , and X4014 in the future .

[mollusk]

Tickling of the Googles reveals that the Illinois Central trainset in the video is very similar in appearance to the UP experimental units (whose cabs were a bit more upright).  Both IC and UP had carbodies built about the same time by Pullman-Standard.

[Absinthe_1900]

The train was called the "Green Diamond," it was part of a group of early articulated diesel streamliners, like the Pioneer Zephyr, and M-10,000.

 

Beautiful machines.

[WillowBend56]

Yep, that's Illinois Central's "Green Diamond" train set on tour before it went into regular service between Chicago-Springfield-St. Louis in the 1930s.

 

P.S.  T&P and CNO&TP are two different railroads, neither of which served Houston.  The latter was not even in Texas despite the name!

[august948]

Off topic, but this vid reminded of the railroad my grandfather worked for so does anyone know anything about the Texas Pacific Railroad? It's history it's demise?

 

If you are really, really interested, try visiting Papa Ben's Train Place.  Model railroad hobbyists spend years doing detailed research on just about every railroad that ever existed.  Likely they'll have a book or two or at least some folks who know quite a bit about it since it was a local flag.