| History: | The stretch of tramroad from Ford's Bluff to Buna, constructed formerly by Yellow Bluff Tram and purchased by Texas Tram and Lumber Company, a Beaumont Lumber Company subsidiary, a distance of nine and a half miles, was sold to John H. Kirby and his new Gulf Beaumont & Kansas City Railway Company by Beaumont Lumber in 1893. The Gulf Beaumont & Kansas City, chartered on March 21 that year, paid $45,000 for the Beaumont Lumber tramroad. Kirby wanted to consolidate his pine holdings in the hands of the Texas Pine Lands Association and to reach the Texas & Pacific farther to the north.
The stretch from Ford's Bluff to Buna was rebuilt and upgraded, and by 1896, the some fifty-three miles from Rogan to Beaumont were covered with railroad tracks. Ten of those miles already had been built by Pan American Railway, which Kirby bought in 1894.
Kirby had the idea to become the largest lumber miller and exporter in Texas, but he needed money to do it. Santa Fe wanted more railroad mileage in Texas and access to the lumber trade. Santa Fe bought Kirby's railroad about 1900, although it would not change its name to the Gulf, Colorado, & Santa Fe until 1948. Santa Fe also lent Kirby an additional $2,000,000, with Kirby Lumber Company stocks and bonds as collateral.
The sale of June 28, 1900, included ten locomotives, two passenger cars, one baggage car, two caboose cars, one combination car, 440 freight cars, and 225 logging cars.
|