Westmoreland Railroad Company

[Highrise Tower]

This week I studied more about the 1900s railroad to Bellaire.

Westmoreland Railroad Company

July 22, 1909.

A charter for the street railway which is to be operated between the town site to be established on the Rice ranch property and the city of Houston was granted yesterday by the secretary of state to the Westmoreland Railroad Company.

The company is capitalized at $40,000, and among the incorporators are the following: W.W. Baldwin, Max Eggert, A.J. Condit and R.B. Henderson.

The terms of the charter permit the company to construct and operate an electric, gas, gasoline motor railway from Houston to the proposed town of Bellaire, to be established about seven miles west of Houston. The line will make a connection with the lines of the Houston Electric Company a a point south of the city.

The roadways will be paved with shell from point on the Main Street Road between the Rice Institute site and Brays Bayou to the west boundary of the land upon which the Westmoreland Farm site and town of Bellaire are located.

The street railway line will run down the center of a fifty-foot open way to be located between the two shell roadways.

Also known as the Toonerville Trolley and the Bellaire Street Car Line.

Map showing the railway from Houston to Bellaire.

 

End of line at the Bellaire pavilion station.

Rail car number 124.

Edit: A point of view panorama of the train tracks. Very cool history here! Look at those Bellaire mansions!

[SpaceGhost]

The Bellaire Line was one of the first parts of the trolley system abandoned. It didn't even make it to 1930 before it was replaced by a bus due to deteriorating tracks and a refusal by the Westmoreland RR to fix them. My understanding is that the Toonerville nickname was adopted after the trolley was abandoned in favor of bus service. The rails sat rusting until they were pulled up so the roads could be paved.