Research: Tram & Railroad Database

Code:	1
Corporate Name:	Central & Montgomery Railway Company
Folk Name:
Incorporated:
Ownership:	G. Jordan, President; F. A. Hyatt, Vice President; T. W. Blake, Secretary-Treasurer.
Years of Operation:	1877-
Track Type:	Standard Gauge Wooden Rails
Track Length:	27.4
Locations Served:	Plantersville Montgomery
Counties of Operation:	Grimes, Montgomery
Line Connections:
Track Information:	Tram Road Logging / Industrial Common Carrier Logging Camp
Equipment:	The Central & Montgomery began as an independent shortline to haul the finished products of the sawmills. Its standard equipment was general railroad rolling stock.
History:	Chartered in 1877, with headquarters at Plantersville, Grimes County, the Central & Montgomery Railway Company built a stretch almost thirty miles in length from Navasota to Montgomery by 1878. Its incorporators were G. Jordan, President; F. A. Hyatt, Vice President; and T. W. Blake, Secretary-Treasurer. The shortline was sold to the Gulf, Colorado, & Santa Fe in 1887, which became a part of the Atcheson, Topeka & Santa Fe in 1947. Zlatkovich reports that the length was 27.4 miles. Colonel F.A. Hyatt of Beaumont demonstrates the interconnection between railroads and the lumber industry. In 1876, he was a part owner in the firm of Hyatt, Stewart, & Fuller, a sawmill company cutting railroad ties and timbers for the Southern Pacific in Orange County. Along with Jonas and William Rice, he held a partnership in the Rice Lumber Company at Hyatt, from the early 1880s to 1906. By 1906, he was the vice president of the Eastman-Hyatt Lumber Company at Eastman, in Hardin County.