Narrow Gauge Railway

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, if you've ever stood next to one of those little locomotives at Six Flags over Texas and thought, friend, that thing looks too small to be real, well, let me tell you, it is real, and it comes from a long and colorful tradition. Between 1853 and 1900, narrow gauge railroads were lacing themselves all across the state of Texas.

Economical to build, economical to operate, economical to maintain; these were railroads built by people who understood that getting the job done and getting it done cheap are not mutually exclusive virtues. Some of these lines were what they called Taps, little spur routes reaching out to towns that sat off the main line, towns that would've been left behind entirely without them. Others pushed deep into the woods and the swamps, logging roads going places a sensible person might hesitate to follow.

And what did they haul? Passengers. Thousands of cattle.

Tons of sugar cane and other crops. General traffic of every kind you could imagine. These little trains were doing serious work.

Now, here's where the story takes a turn toward the legendary, because among all these narrow gauge lines, one carried a name that stops you cold the moment you hear it. The Great Sweetgum, Yubadam and Hoo Hoo. Say it slow.

Let it sit. The Great Sweetgum, Yubadam and Hoo Hoo. And before it went by that magnificent name, that very same line operated as the T.M. and C., which stood, in all seriousness, for Two Mules and a Car.

There is a whole story living inside those four words, and the marker is wise enough to let your imagination do the work. Now, those two engines over at Six Flags (one built in 1887, the other in 1903, both rebuilt according to their original specifications) they carry all of this history in their iron bones. Every mile of swamp road, every town on the wrong side of the main line, every cattle drive loaded onto a car barely wide enough to hold them.

The narrow gauge era is gone, but those two little engines are still running the loop, and now you know what they're really carrying.

What the marker says

Economical to build, operate and maintain, many narrow gauge railroads were running in Texas between 1853 and 1900. Some were "Taps" (for towns off the main line); some logging roads, going deep into woods and swamps. Hauled passengers, thousands of cattle, tons of sugar cane or other crops, and were used for general traffic. One line--Great Sweetgum, Yubadam & Hoo Hoo--operated at first as the T.M. & C. (Two Mules and a Car). The two engines at Six Flags over Texas were built in 1887 and 1903; and rebuilt according to original specifications.