Research: Tram & Railroad Database

Code: 2
Corporate Name: Galveston, Beaumont & Northeastern Ry. Co.
Folk Name:
Incorporated:
Ownership: Beaumont Sawmill Company, a division of Miller-Vidor Lumber Company.
Years of Operation: 1906 to about 1928
Track Type:
Standard Gauge Wooden Rails
Track Length: 17
Locations Served: Beaumont Jefferson
Counties of Operation: Jefferson
Line Connections: Kansas City Southern east of Beaumont
Track Information:
Tram Road Logging / Industrial Common Carrier Logging Camp
Equipment: 1906: five miles of trackage, one locomotive, thirty cars. 1910: thirty-five employees, three locomotives, one passenger car, three box cars, forty flat cars, and twenty log cars.
History: The Galveston Beaumont & Northwestern Railway operated as the headquarters for all three Peach River lines belonging to Miller-Vidor Lumber Company and the direct logging and industrial tram of Beaumont Sawmill Company, the subsidiary company of Miller-Vidor at Beaumont. The incorporators of the Galveston, Beaumont & Northeastern were A. W. Miller, C. S. Vidor, R. I. Parks, C. H. Moore, T. E. Meece, C. S. Marshall, Maco Stewart, Minor Stewart, Kilburn Moore, and E. H. Green, Jr. Charted in the spring 1905, the tapline consisted eventually of about seventeen miles of tracks, spurs, and sidings. Originally, the tram was to run from Beaumont through the counties of Jefferson, Orange, Jasper, and Newton to a terminus one hundred miles from Beaumont on the Sabine. In actuality, it ran from the facility of the Beaumont Sawmill Company to a junction three miles away where it connected with the Kansas City Southern. The tapline had trackage rights along the KCSRR to Vidor, another six miles. The Railroad Commission of Texas never recognized it as a common carrier. By 1906, according to the American Lumberman, E. H. Greer, Jr., managed the line, with five miles of tracks, one locomotive, and thirty cars. In 1910, the line employed thirty-five people. It had three locomotives, one passenger car, three box cars, forty flat cars, and twenty log cars. The Interstate Commerce Commission reported that the Galveston, Beaumont & Northeastern ran for nine miles southward from De Sanque to Vidor, Texas, to the Texarkana & Fort Smith Railway, with another eight miles of trackage through Beaumont to Chaisson. It did not carry any express, mail, baggage, or passengers. Its sole purpose was to carry timber to the Miller-Vidor mill at Beaumont. By 1910, all three of the Miller-Vidor short lines had 60.62 miles equipped, 340 miles chartered, eight working locomotives, 365 support and operational employees. During the prior year, the lines carried almost 385,000 tons. Zlatkovich and Reed do not mention this logging mention in their works. The Beaumont Sawmill Company continued operating its facility until just before the Great Depression. The Galveston, Beaumont & Northwestern probably continued to function in switching cars at its junction with the Kansas City Southern until the mill closed.