Research: Tram & Railroad Database

Code: 63
Corporate Name: Dayton-Goose Creek Railway Company
Folk Name:
Incorporated:
Ownership: Ross Sterling, president of Humble Oil Company, and later governor, and officer of Dayton Lumber and Dayton Mills.
Years of Operation: 1917 to
Track Type:
Standard Gauge Wooden Rails
Track Length: 25 miles
Locations Served: Dayton Liberty
Counties of Operation:
Line Connections:
Track Information:
Tram Road Logging / Industrial Common Carrier Logging Camp
Equipment:
History: This shortline exemplifies the relationship between lumber, rail, and oil industries. Oil was discovered at Goose Creek in 1916. The charter was filed July 24, 1917, by Ross S. Sterling, President of Humble Oil & Refining Company, and an executive of Dayton Mills, the successor to the Dayton Lumber Company at Dayton, in Liberty County. Dayton Mills already owned the Trinity Valley & Northern Railway shortline. Construction moved quickly with 22.9 miles from Dayton to Goose Creek being completed in 1918 and 2.5 miles from Gosse Greek to Bayton, location of the on-going construction its mammoth Humble Oil refinery, was finished in 1919. Dayton-Goose Creek Railway connected with both the Southern Pacific and the Trinity Valley & Northern (a Dayton Mills shortline) at Dayton. Five miles along the T&VN tracks was a connection with the Beaumont, Sour Lake & Western at Fullerton. The Dayton-Goosecreek Railway operation was very profitable for Mr. Sterling and other stockholders. A later purchase attempt by the Missouri Pacific was disapproved by the Railroad Commission of Texas. The Commission, however, approved the sale of the shortline to Southern Pacific in 1926, which transferred it to a subsidiary, Texas & New Orleans, in 1934. Strapnac's work notes that the Dayton-Goose Creek Railway at Dayton operated a short-line railroad. The notes list four locomotives and their record of disposal. The road was incorporated on 24 July 1917 and was built from Dayton to Baytown. The Southern Pacific (Texas and New Orleans) leased the line on 1 May 1926.