[Railroading in Texas, part two (excursions)] Page: 2 of 5
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Early on, trains, where available, were the transportation of choice for
people, as well as freight, providing important revenue to rail companies.
In 1872 the first pullman car in Texas ran between Houston and Austin, featuring
two wooden cars just over 50 feet long, open platforms equipped with candles for light
and a hand pump and tank on the floor for washing up on the dusty ride.
Texas' first interstate passenger service began in 1876, running from Houston to
St. Louis, Missouri.
The Railway Express Agency, operated seperately from the myriad rail
lines, was the UPS of railroading's heyday. It offered package and freight service on
virtually all Texas steamers, offering expedited service but at a higher rate than
standard rail freight.
As early as the 1850s, such express companies handled money and other
valuables on stagecoaches connecting to steamships. Later, express companies
added other items and even offered pick-up and delivery service. Railway Express
even expedited carloads of valuable livestock and racehorses.
With the advent of trucking, profits dropped rapidly.
Before displaced by the telephone in the Forties, telegraphy handled all
messages that coordinated the movement of trains across the state.
The first telegraph in Texas, explains S.G. Reed, eminated in the 1850s from
Galveston with a submarine cable under the bay which linked island rail
communications to the mainline. By the 1860s Western Union was the primary
telegraphy service.
A telegrapher and railroad agent for more than 50 years, Clarence Gaston of
Pittsburg wishes he had a nickel for every train order he took via telegraph. "The
dispatcher would telegraph the orders to me, and I'd bind them up with string and loop
them onto a long-handled, Y-shaped hoop. When the train rolled through the station,
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Mallory, Randy. [Railroading in Texas, part two (excursions)], text, 1994-06~; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1924246/m1/2/: accessed July 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.