2816 At Wharton - a photo on Flickriver

2816 At Wharton

For Steam Sunday here's the first stop on my epic all day chase across south Texas from Kendleton to Laredo, the Southern Pacific depot in Wharton, TX.

The depot was built in 1914 by Southern Pacific subsidiary Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway which later became part of the T&NO that controlled all of SP's Eastern Lines in Texas and Louisiana. The last trains to call on Wharton were T&NO Trains No. 303 and 304, the Border Limited between Houston-Victoria-McAllen with the last runs taking place on December 28, 1952. After that the railroad served as an office for the SP butt eventually fell into disrepair. The following is from SAH Archepedia:

The station was rehabilitated for the City of Wharton as a railroad museum and regional transit center in 2006. It lies at the west end of the central business district, adjacent to the west-side African American neighborhood stretching between the bank of the Colorado River and Spanish Camp Road.

The restoration is stunning, especially the adjacent railroad park and its giant Sunset Logo. To learn much more about the depot and see some historic photos check out these links.

www.cityofwharton.com/page/railroad#:~:text=1915%20Southe...

sternbucek.com/preservation/southern-pacific-passenger-de...

Wharton was once an important railroad crossroads with this SP line crossing a Santa Fe branch (originally the Cane Belt Railroad just north of the station) as well as SP having a 60 mile branch to Palacios splitting off just north of the GC&SF crossing. Per a 1942 Employee Timetable this was MP 65.5 on the SP (T&NO) Rosenburg Subdivision of the Victoria Division. By 1985 just before SP abandoned it this was MP 25.6 on the Victoria Subdivision of the Houston Division. Colloquially known as the 'Macaroni Line' it was purchased by KCS thru its Tex-Mex subsidiary in 1996 and then a dozen years later rebuilt. The route bewteen Rosenburg and Victoria reopened in 2009 and today this depot sits beside MP 917.9 on the busy CPKC Wharton Sub.

To read some more history of the junction a half mile north of here and railroad operations in town check out this link:

txrrhistory.com/towers/152/152.htm

As for the train, this is CPKC train B40B, the tri-national Final Spike special operating over CPKC's ex Kansas City Southern territory. Leading is famed CP 2816, the 'Empress', an H1b class 4-6-4 Hudson built by Montreal Locomotive Works in 1930. Orignally retired in 1960 after there decades of pulling CP passenger trains the locomotive was purchased by F. Nelson Blount for preservation as part of his Steamtown collection in Vermont. It later moved with the rest of the collection to Scranton until CP purchased it back from the National Park Service in 1998. Returned to service in 2001 she operated until 2012 when E. Hunter Harrison took the reigns at CP. Eight years later Keith Creel (EHH's successor) reversed course and she was fired up for a test run and then a second restoration began which was completed in 2023.

As a way of celebrating the approval and consummation of the Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern Railway merger on April 14, 2023 CPKC is running a tri-nation tour across the length of their newly combined network. The trip began in Calgary on April 24th and will conclude in Mexico City on June 7th before returning home for a total of three months on the road and 9000 miles round trip! To learn much more check out CPKC's official page for the tour here:

www.cpkcr.com/en/community/final-spike-steam-train

Wharton, Texas
Monday May 27, 2024

Taken in: United States / Texas / Wharton (show map)

Taken on: May 27, 2024

Tags:

Wharton

Texas

United States

Sets appears in: • Canadian Pacific • Steam more » • Depots and Structures • Texas « less

Groups appears in: • Railfan Atlas

Camera: Canon EOS R6m2, f/5.6, 1/640 sec, 100mm, ISO 800 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS R6m2
Lens:	RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
Aperture:	f/5.6
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/640)
Focal Length:	100mm
ISO:	800
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Snapseed 2.0
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