By B. Smith and C. Hunt In this post we will look at some of the locomotives serving the South Orient line after ATSF pulled out. The South Orient Railroad was established in 1992, when Santa Fe sold 375 miles … Continue reading
By B. Smith I kept a sort of journal back in the old days. These were Nat’l Geographic calendars with a page for each week. When I started working for the railroad I noted what trains I worked and a … Continue reading
By B. Smith (Part II on the South Orient, click here for Part I) The Presidio depot. Our train will be inspected by a car inspector from Mexico, any bad order cars will have to be set out. If our … Continue reading
By B. Smith Starting in 1992, the South Orient Railroad was the southern portion of the old Kansas City, Mexico, and Orient Railroad. It had been Arthur Stilwell’s attempt to link the center of the United States to the closest … Continue reading
¡Bienvenidos Amigos! I’ve gotten a few questions on what’s going on with my RailsWest layout. Well, the short answer is “not much” on the actual layout. However, a lot of thinking has been going on. Over the last year or … Continue reading
On the northern outskirts of Alpine today sits a lonesome, abandoned spur on the currently inactive Texas Pacifico mainline to Presidio. (Note: This is a continuation of the Alpine Series. Click here to see Part I and Part I … Continue reading
I introduced this series January 26 in Part I. Here are some observations by B. Smith of the line’s operations with a particular focus on one shipper. I found this record very informative of traffic patterns from 1982-1990 in Alpine … Continue reading
A friend of mine, shared this story from the old South Orient Railroad. I love it because it harkens back to old school railroading that is very appealing to me–less unit trains, cabooses, 40-foot boxcars, no graffiti and railroads actually … Continue reading
For years, I have noticed companies in the West that receive tank cars of liquid feed for cattle. It is an important source of rail traffic and pretty easy to model. I decided to do a little research on the … Continue reading
This post is about the last ATSF train to Presidio one cold, rainy day in 1991. A friend of mine was there to capture on film. South of Roswell into Texas, the ATSF had long-time operations between San Angelo and … Continue reading
Rails West 