I spent Saturday working on a survey crew marking grid lines for ground search crews looking for Shuttle Columbia debris. We were working southwest of Nacogdoches just west of the small town of Chireno. The USGS quad map indicates that we crossed an abandoned railroad grade. The handbook of Texas said that the line originated as a narrow-gauge tram road constructed by the Angelina County Lumber Company in 1895. The line was converted to standard gauge by 1906 and extended into Chireno in 1912. The area near Depot Street in Chireno had no signs of railroad grade, and the line appeared to be long gone (the handbook reports it was pulled in 1963).

What is a narrow-gauge tram road??

Angelina & Neches River Railroad
tnold@northtexastransport.org

> What is a narrow-gauge tram road??

In the US, "tram road" is sort of a loose, catch-all term for a lightly-built industrial railway, often horse-powered, usually used on conjunction with some sort of extractive enterprise, (mining or logging, etc), not part of the common carrier system of transportation.

In the UK it could mean the same thing, or it could also mean a horse- or electric-powered streetcar system.

eledbetter@rypn.org

"Tram Road"is a term used to describe any temporary railroad used for an extractive enterprise. The old Texas RR Commission used the term specifically to denote a logging railroad. The part of Texas where the Shuttle debris is being found was literally covered in both standard and narrow guage tram roads, although most narrow guage operations were over by 1910 or so. Most any East Texas RR logger would have been narrow guage prior to 1900. The road you are talking about was likely three foot trackage of the Angelina River Lumber company or a predecessor.

lorija799@aol.com