Research: Tram & Railroad Database

Code: 246
Corporate Name: Garrison-Norton Timber Company
Folk Name:
Incorporated:
Ownership: Garrison-Norton Lumber Company
Years of Operation: 1907 to 1909
Track Type:
Standard Gauge Wooden Rails
Track Length: Unknown
Locations Served: Rush Sabine
Counties of Operation: Sabine
Line Connections: Gulf Colorado and Santa Fe at Pineland and Rush
Track Information:
Tram Road Logging / Industrial Common Carrier Logging Camp
Equipment: Two locomotives
History: The Garrison-Norton Lumber Company from Nacogdoches County began building a sawmill at Rush, about four miles north of Brookeland in 1905. It became Garrison-Temple Lumber Company, when T. L. L. Temple of the Southern Pine Lumber Company at Diboll bought a minority interest in 1908 or 1909. Temple eventually gained control of this company and amalgamated it with his large plant at Pineland about 1910. The Garrison-Norton Timber Company apparently was the logging steam tram road for the Garrison-Norton Lumber Company at Rush. Strapac's work records that the Garrison-Norton Timber Company operated two steam locomotives on its tram road after 1907. The first was purchased new from on 8 February 1907 and converted to 36-inch track. It was later sold to Knox Lumber Company, then the Temple Lumber Company, Pineland, where it operated as their #1 until it was scrapped in July 1929. The “Lodwick” was purchased from Birmingham Rail and Locomotive in August 1909, which had gained it from the Grogan-Cochran Lumber Company, its #1. The engine was sent to James, Texas [probably a logging camp in Shelby County] and was later sold in 1922 to Ashley Lumber Company at Snyder, Arkansas. Keeling noted that Garrison-Norton operated two geared locomotives.