Texas Electric Railway Station

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Texas Electric Railway Station in Collin County. Back in 1908, the Texas Traction Company put up a station in Plano: wood frame for the passengers, brick for the freight and the electric transformer works. Two parts, one building, and it had a job to do: move people and goods along the company's North Texas routes.

And for a good long while, it did exactly that. Now, in 1917 a merger came along and reshuffled the name. Texas Traction Company became the Texas Electric Railway, but that station kept right on standin', kept right on servin'.

Passengers coming through, freight comin' and goin', the hum of electricity movin' through that brick section. Decade after decade. Then came the automobile.

Folks got a taste for their own wheels, their own roads, their own schedules, and the rail system (well, it declined). By 1948, that station went quiet. No more passengers filing through the wood frame side, no more freight bound for somewhere else.

What's remarkable is that the building is still there at all. Most of what made up Plano's early twentieth-century transportation world has long since disappeared. This station is one of the few reminders that before the highway was king, North Texas moved on rails.

What the marker says

Built in 1908 by the Texas Traction Company (Texas Electric Railway after a merger in 1917), this station served passengers and freight customers of the company's North Texas routes. The wood frame passenger depot and the attached brick freight/electric transformer section remained in use until 1948, when the rail system declined in favor of automobile travel. It is one of the few reminders of Plano's early 20th-century transportation history. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1990