DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's the authority here, and I'm just the one makin' it sing — so here's what it has to say about the Moscow, Camden and San Augustine Railroad. Now, Texas has no shortage of railroads. Big iron lines stitching together cities, hauling cattle and cotton clear across the state.
But tucked away in Polk County, there is one railroad that has always played by its own rules. It holds a distinction that is somehow both humble and remarkable at the same time — the shortest and one of the oldest mixed-train railroads in all of Texas. Seven miles.
That's the whole system. Seven miles, five days a week, one engine haulin' both passenger and freight cars down the line like it's got all the time in the world and just barely enough track to use it. The man who set this in motion was a lumberman by the name of W.
T. Carter. In 1898, he got it chartered — the Moscow, Camden and San Augustine Railroad — with a straightforward purpose: connect the sawmill town of Camden to the Texas and New Orleans Railway over at Moscow.
Simple idea, and it worked. Now that same year, 1898, a passenger coach climbed aboard for the long haul. It started its career not in Texas, not in the piney woods, but all the way up on the Long Island Railroad.
Original rattan seats and everything. Somehow that coach found its way to this little seven-mile line in Polk County, and it rode out its days there. But the crown jewel of this railroad's story — the one that stops people cold when they hear it — is a steam engine called Panama No. 201.
Before it ever turned a wheel in East Texas, that locomotive was put to work building the Panama Canal. In 1914, it was out there doing some of the most ambitious construction work the world had ever seen. And then, when all was said and done, it ended up in Camden, Texas, retired alongside other old steam engines, a long way from that famous ditch.
Panama No. 201 didn't just sit idle its whole Texas life, either. It was the last locomotive in service on the line — right up until 1965. Seven miles of track.
A coach born on Long Island. An engine forged in the work of the Panama Canal. Some railroads measure their greatness in thousands of miles.
This one measures it in stories per mile — and by that count, it may be the richest railroad in the state.
What the marker says
Texas' shortest (and one of its oldest) "mixed"-train railroads. Has passenger and freight cars pulled by a single engine on a 7-mile system, 5 days a week. Chartered 1898 by lumberman W. T. Carter to connect sawmill town of Camden with Texas & New Orleans Railway at Moscow. "Panama No. 201," now retired to Camden with other old steam engines, was used in building the Panama Canal in 1914. It was last locomotive in service here, 1965. Passenger coach with original rattan seats began its career 1898 on Long Island Railroad.