Locomotive No. 5

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Locomotive No. 5, out of Polk County. Now settle in, because this old iron horse has got some miles on her. We're talkin' about a locomotive built in 1911, rolled out of Philadelphia by the Baldwin Locomotive Works.

That's Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, putting together a machine that would eventually find its way deep into the piney woods of East Texas. But not right away. First, the No. 5 had business in Florida, haulin' timber down there before anybody in Texas had given her a second thought.

Then came the 1920s, and that's when things got interesting. The Carter-Kelley Lumber Company, based out of Angelina County, came along and purchased her. Brought her up to Texas for the logging industry, and that's when Locomotive No. 5 really got to work.

She ran the Houston, East and West Texas Railway tracks, threading her way between mill towns in Angelina and Polk County, collecting logs and finished lumber. And here's the detail I want you to sit with for a moment. A good portion of that timber hadn't even arrived at the tracks by rail or wagon.

Oxen had hauled it out of the local cutting areas first, slow and steady, before the No. 5 ever got her hands on it. So you've got one of the great mechanical workhorses of the early twentieth century, picking up where actual workhorses left off. She kept at it, year after year, contributing to the development of the timber industry in this corner of Texas, all the way until 1952.

Built in 1911, still pulling in 1952. Some machines, it turns out, earn every mile.

What the marker says

Built in 1911 by Philadelphia's Baldwin Locomotive Works, this locomotive was first used to transport timber in Florida. In the 1920s, it was purchased for use in Texas' logging industry by the Angelina County-based Carter-Kelley Lumber Company. The locomotive traveled between Angelina and Polk County mill towns on Houston, East and West Texas Railway tracks, picking up logs and finished lumber that frequently had been hauled from local cutting areas by oxen. In use until 1952, the No. 5 contributed to the development of the area's timber industry.