Even though revenues were falling, Cotton Belt continued to improve their equipment in order to reduce costs and stay competitive. In latter 1930, the Cotton Belt bought ten new 4-8-4 type locomotives from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia to handle fast-manifest freights from the Southern Pacific running from Los Angeles to St. Louis.
The engines were massive. The locomotives measured 100 feet in length, including the tender. The 4-8-4 type indicated two wheel trucks in front, four drivers and a booster with two wheels at the rear, giving the engine a total of sixteen wheels. The four drive wheels were 70 inches in diameter. The new engines were built for speed as well as power.
On Monday, September 15, 1930, the first of the new Cotton Belt locomotives, Number 801, passed through Mt. Pleasant on its trial trip over the Texas railroads en route to Tyler pulling 25 carloads of gravel. Upon hearing the engine's different sounding whistle as it came into town, a large crowd soon gathered at the station to give 801 the "once over."
By latter 1930, the Mt. Pleasant Cotton Belt depot waiting rooms became crowded with hoboes during cold weather. The hoboes slept on the benches and littered the station, making it impossible for the railroad to keep their station clean.
Therefore, in January, 1931, the Texas Railroad Commission authorized Cotton Belt to close the Mt. Pleasant depot waiting rooms for the night one hour after the Lone Star Limited departed and also for three hours each afternoon immediately after the one o'clock bus departed. The rooms were opened one hour before arrival of the passenger trains in the morning and evening.
In an economy move, the Cotton Belt once again reduced passenger train service through Mt. Pleasant on May 31, 1931 by over half of its previous schedule, leaving only one train each way a day. Trains No. 3 and 4 from Mt. Pleasant to Sherman and back were abolished altogether.
Under the new schedule local residents could only travel by train as far west as Sulphur Springs and south as far as Gilmer and return the same day. Mail and express service was be greatly hampered by the new arrangement.
In June, 1931, Southwestern Transportation began efforts to expand its bus service by asking the Texas Railroad Commission's permission to carry passengers in its buses between Texarkana and Dallas. Another company owned the bus permit from Mt. Pleasant to Greenville, and Southwestern busses could not carry passengers through that area unless they were making an interstate trip. Since Southwestern's route went from Farmersville into Dallas, passengers could be carried from Greenville and points between Greenville and Dallas.
Because the Cotton Belt had discontinued all but one daily train each way, almost no decent passenger and mail service was available to the people of Titus County and this area, so they requested some consideration.
Mt. Pleasant city officials, Chamber of Commerce directors, women's clubs and other organizations, and private citizens circulated a petition on June 5, 1931 asking the Railroad Commission to grant Southwestern Transportation Company a permit between Texarkana and Dallas.
The hearing was set for June 26th in Marshall, but was later postponed and would probably be held at Greenville some time in July.
Southwestern Transporation's vehicle registration fees were substantial, and provided considerable revenue to Titus County. In 1932, the company paid a total of $35,000 (approximately $475,000 in 2007 dollars) for licenses to operate through the various counties of Texas and Arkansas. Some truck and bus companies purchased all their licenses in the county where they were based, but Southwestern's policy was to divide the license fees among the counties they operated in. Southwestern paid Titus County $600.30 (approximately $8,100 in 2007 dollars) that year to register its trucks and busses for the year.
Southern Pacific Railway wanted to acquire the St. Louis South Western, but the acquisition was not without conditions. The Interstate Commerce Commission required that the Southern Pacific maintain and keep all routes and channels of trade via existing railways open until otherwise authorized by the commission.
Additionally, Southern Pacific had to agree to acquire the Waco, Beaumont, Trinity & Sabine Railway and the Paris & Mt. Pleasant Railroad and agree to purchase any additional minority stock tendered for exchange before January 1, 1933, on the basis of one share of Southern Pacific stock for three shares of Cotton Belt common stock and three shares of Southern Pacific for five shares of Cotton Belt preferred.
Locally, the Interstate Commerce Commission's order requiring the Southern Pacific to take over the Paris & Mt. Pleasant Railway when it acquired the Cotton Belt created hope that the acquisition would increase Mt. Pleasant's importance in the new system, and that some improvements would be made as a result that would benefit the town.
It was hoped that because of Mt. Pleasant's location and its distance from other important Southern Pacific connections, it would become a more important freight and passenger terminal. Trains would run in four directions from here over the newly merged lines, and it was hoped that shop facilities would be enlarged to care for the equipment. The distance from Corsicana, Dallas and Fort Worth and Paris appeared to favor employees being moved here from other towns.
It was also hoped that the Southern Pacific would again utilize the spacious Cotton Belt District Supervisor's Office building here shortly after the merger was completed.
Southern Pacific agreed to the terms on February 26, 1932, and the Interstate Commerce Commission voted on the order on March 14. The order provided that the Southern Pacific Company should take control thirty days after the date of the order.
The Southern Pacific Company gained control of the St. Louis Southwestern system on April 14, 1932, but the Cotton Belt continued to be operated separately. Mt. Pleasant's hopes didn't materialize. The railroad continued to rent out the former Cotton Belt District Supervisor's office rather than use it themselves. The Titus County Tax Assessor-Collector's office, among other local businesses, was located in the Cotton Belt office building on East Third Street in 1940.
However, there were benefits to the merger. New train schedules were announced that were much better than the old ones. Mt. Pleasant people could now make the trip to Dallas and return the same day, with five hours time in Dallas between trips in which to transact business. Steam trains were replaced by motor cars on the run south of Mt. Pleasant.
Hale Holden, chairman of the Southern Pacific company executive committee, was elected to succeed Frank Bailey as Chairman of the Board of St. Louis Southwestern Railway on May 12, 1932. A. N. McDonald, vice chairman of the Southern Pacific, succeeded William M. Greve as chairman of the Cotton Belt executive committee. Daniel Upthegrove, President of St. Louis Southwestern Railway, was re-elected for the ensuing year.
In June, 1936, the Cotton Belt inaugurated new passenger train service through Mt. Pleasant when it added another train each way and replaced the motor car from Mt. Pleasant to Waco with a steam train. The new schedule allowed travelers to go to neighboring cities and return the same day.
All of the passenger cars had recently been painted and generally overhauled, and trains terminating in Dallas had one air conditioned coach as regular equipment. The Southern Pacific was in receivership, but had already asked the Federal Court's permission to install air conditioning. It was expected that permission would be granted. Otherwise, the Southern Pacific could not compete with other roads that had fully air conditioned cars.
In September, 1936, Southern Pacific made improvements on the Mt. Pleasant Depot. The former yardmaster's office was entirely remodeled as a telegraph office to segregate the dispatchers from other employees. The telegraph equipment was moved from its location in the district office building to the remodeled telegrapher's office, and the freight office was changed considerably. A complete new roof was put on and new flooring was laid in the new offices among other improvements.
On November 25, 1937, the Cotton Belt put one of its new streamlined air conditioned coaches in service on Trains No. 5 and 6 between Dallas and St. Louis.
The railroad had expended at least $500,000 to improve its passenger service and had received several of the new air conditioned coaches, which cost around $50,000 each (approximately $740,000 in 2007 dollars). The railroad planned to gradually replace all old equipment with the new coaches as fast as they could be secured, and hoped within a year to have only air conditioned coaches on their main line service.
The new coaches were considerable departures from the old equipment. They were solid steel, but lighter and more streamlined than the old cars. The interiors were attractive and comfortable. The deeply upholstered seats were adjustable to insure full relaxation. All decorative trim was stainless steel, and the new cars could be kept cleaner than the old ones. The coaches' temperature was regulated according to weather conditions - warm in winter and cool in summer.
When the Cotton Belt added a second air conditioned coach on the Waco line out of Mt. Pleasant on December 9, 1937, every main passenger line on the road became equipped with at least one of the new coaches for each train.
In addition to the Division Superintendent's office and depot, which many people are familiar with, the Cotton Belt also had other property in Mt. Pleasant. They had a pool in southern Mt. Pleasant used to fill the steam locomotives with water. The pool was located near the present railroad track north of West Ferguson Road and West of South Jefferson (across West Ferguson Road north of the Jefferson Park Shopping Center). Ferguson Road did not exist at the time. A road drainage ditch now runs through this property. We have been unable to locate exact dates when the pool existed and was in use, and it is possible that this pool was a carry-over from earlier railroads.
The Cotton Belt also had repair shops and a round house in the area south of present-day Ferguson Road and north of what is now Oaklawn Park. The Cotton Belt later began purchasing water from the City of Mt. Pleasant to fill their locomotives. By 1926, use of the pool was discontinued, and the locomotives were being refilled with water and fuel oil at the shop and roundtable installation. Fuel oil was stored in a large underground tank, where it was pumped to a gravity tank to fuel the locomotives.
At one time, they also owned a piece of property located on the south side of West First Street across from the Mt. Pleasant high school athletic field. The railroad used the property for several things through the years. In February 1935, they allowed Mt. Pleasant's newly organized Girl Scouts to take over the property and convert it into a park for recreational use.
Trains remained the primary method for moving people and bulk goods over long distances until the latter 1940s, and were still in use through the latter 1950s. As long-haul trucking took hold across the nation, the railroad's role diminished just as the riverboats did before them. While a train could move people and materials from town to town, automobiles and trucks could move people and goods from door to door in many more places than were reached by train.
The St. Louis Southwestern Railway leased the Southwestern of Texas on March 1, 1954, and merged it into the parent company on January 19, 1984. The St. Louis Southwestern doubled in size in May, 1980 when it began operating the former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company track from Tucumcari, New Mexico, through Dalhart to Kansas City and St. Louis. The trackage, part of the Golden State Route, was subsequently purchased from the estate of the Rock Island. In 1992 Cotton Belt's operations were consolidated with the Southern Pacific Transportation Company. In 1996, the Southern Pacific merged with the Union Pacific, and today the former Cotton Belt's main line is an important part of the Union Pacific.
The Union Pacific moved their offices from Mt. Pleasant's Cotton Belt Depot into a new office building at 230 East 4th Street in 2007. The Cotton Belt Depot is now abandoned and its future is uncertain.
In 2007, with gasoline and diesel prices near $3.00 per gallon, the importance of trains has again been recognized. Trains are much more efficient at moving certain loads than trucks. The J.B. Hunt trucking company, one of the nation's largest, now ships many of its trailers for long distances by train. When the trailer arrives in a distant city, it is again hitched to a truck-tractor and driven to the customer's door.
Over the years, shipping methods have changed, and the railroads have changed with them. The Cotton Belt was the innovator of many "firsts" in it's industry.
The Cotton Belt was first in the Southwest to use oil as a locomotive fuel. They were first to organize a sanitary engineering department to improve health conditions in the areas they served. They were first to feature coordinated train-truck service and offer consignees progress reports of freight en route. They were also first to give shippers passenger-train freight schedules.
The overseas shipping industry recognized many years ago that it was more efficient to pack shipments in a single large container than to handle many small items. Therefore, they designed containerized shipping. Sea shipping containers are approximately 20' long x 8' high x 8' wide, sized to fit inside the hold of a ship. They can be stacked, and are designed to lock together after stacking.
The shipper loads his small goods into the container at the point of origin, then the entire container is loaded onto the ship's hold. At the destination, the entire container is removed from the hold and set onto a truck to be pulled to the consignee's front door.
Railroads, like the overseas shipping companies, designed their own containers. While there is a limit to the length of a rail car, they can carry much more length than a ship's hold. Land shipping containers can be up to 45' long x 12' high x 8' wide. The railroad companies designed special cars to haul the containers, which can be stacked two high. As with sea containers, the rail containers are set onto the rail car with a crane at the point of origin. Once they arrive at their destination, they are unloaded from the rail car and set onto trucks for delivery to the customer.
In step with higher fuel costs and concern for the ecology, railroads are also developing more energy efficient and less polluting locomotives.
We will update this story in the future as more information becomes available.
