BIG RAILROADING IN A SMALL TEXAS TOWN Big Sandy BY STEVE SCHMOLLINGER/PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR L
ITTLE TOWNS often come with big surprises. Driving through the many small towns of east Texas, you wouldn’t expect much excitement, given the leisurely pace of local folks and their unruffled demeanor. But ap- pearances can deceive. Big Sandy, a town of only 1360 souls, is a crossroads for two important main lines on the Union Pacific: the former Cotton Belt, now known as the Pine Bluff Sub, com- ing west out of Texarkana, Ark., and continuing on to central Texas as the Corsicana Sub; and the ex-Texas & Pa- cific (T&P), later part of Missouri Pacif- ic and now called the Mineola Sub, which leads to Shreveport, La., and
Texarkana to the east, and Dallas, Fort Worth and the West Coast in the oppo- site direction.
Just a Small Texas Town
Big Sandy had its beginnings shortly after the Civil War when the T&P ar- rived and called the spot “Big Sandy Switch.” The surrounding town hasn’t grown much since then. However, it has grown in importance as a railroad junction, especially since the St. Louis Southwestern or “Cotton Belt” showed up. The T&P built its line through the area in 1873, and the Cotton Belt (orig- inally incarnated as the narrow gauge Tyler Tap Railroad) built through Big
Sandy around 1880. The Tyler Tap con- verted to standard gauge in 1887. Thus was the genesis of perhaps the most im- portant railroad interlocking in all of east Texas. In 1891 the Tyler Tap was reorganized as the St. Louis South- western and acquired by Southern Pa- cific in 1932. With the merger of the UP and Mopac in 1982, and the later merger with rival Southern Pacific in 1996, the crossing became an all-UP affair. When UP tried to absorb the former SP and change its operations to its own liking too swiftly, a major slowdown occurred, starting at Englewood Yard in Houston and radiating out until it caused the
OPPOSITE: With little warning of its approach, UP 7851 West leans into a tight curve as it races through the forest just west of Big Sandy, Texas, on the Corsicana Sub on December 10, 2011. ABOVE: Looking east down Gilmer Street, a short UP “Z” train out of Pine Bluff, Akansas, departs Big Sandy for Dallas with a BNSF Dash 9 as the only power on November 14, 2011.
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