| Code: | 318 |
| Corporate Name: | Trinity & Sabine Railway (Trinity Tap) |
| Folk Name: | |
| Incorporated: |  |
| Ownership: | Originally, local lumber interests in Trinity County. Later the Missouri, Kansas, & Texas, then the Waco, Beaumont, Trinity & Sabine. |
| Years of Operation: | 1900-1909 |
| Track Type: |
 Standard Gauge |
Wooden Rails |
|
|
|
| Track Length: | 67 |
| Locations Served: | Trinity |
| Counties of Operation: | Trinity, Polk, and Tyler. |
| Line Connections: | |
| Track Information: |
 Tram Road |
Logging / Industrial |
Common Carrier |
Logging Camp |
|
| Equipment: | Keeling: nine rod locomotives |
| History: | Chartered on September 28, 1881, by local lumber interests, with its headquarters at Trinity, the Trinity & Sabine Railway started a sawmilling boom in Trinity County that would last for more than twenty years. Jay Gould bought the railway on December 9, 1882, and its thirty-eight mile road stretching east from Trinity, for the Missouri Pacific. Gould sold it on the same day to the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, where it became known as the Katy's “orphan branch.” By 1884, the railroad had been pushed twenty-nine miles eastward to Colmesneil, in Tyler County. It gained a junction there with the Texas & New Orleans and obtained access to the magnificent East Texas pineries. The Waco, Beaumont, Trinity & Sabine acquired the Katy road from Trinity to Colmesneil in 1923 and abandoned it in 1936.
Some of the major lumber plants that built on the line were the following:
Name Location Year of Operation
Anderson & Cameron Saron 1883 to 1918
Thompson & Tucker Willard 1882 to 1910
Trinity County Lbr Co Groveton 1882 to 1931
West Lbr Co Westville 1899 to 1920 built by Josserand Lbr Co
Josserand & Brother Josserand 1882 to 1909
|