The Sam Houston Zephyr Leaving Union Station, Crossing Over the Triple Underpass — 1950
by Paula Bosse
The SHZ heading out of Dallas… (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
The title pretty much says it all. The Sam Houston Zephyr passenger train is seen crossing over the Triple Underpass, heading out of Dallas. Next stop: Fort Worth. The Post Office Terminal Annex is the tall white building, the Jefferson Hotel is behind it (with the sign on its roof), and Union Station is in the background, just right of center, with the Dallas Morning News building peeking over its roofline. The Old Red Courthouse would be out of frame to the left.
Below, a view of downtown from the west, with the Triple Underpass partially cut off at the very bottom, and Union Station just out of frame at the right.
In asking members of Facebook’s Texas Railroad History group about the top photo, Gerald Preas, one of the members, made this comment, full of interesting little tidbits (slightly edited by me):
The large building in the center is the USPO Terminal Annex. I started working there in August 1963. The buildings between TA and Union Station were part of Railway Express, used for sorting mail to and from RPO cars. That stack in back was the power station for Union Station — it had its own electric and water system, maybe sewage, too. I drank many times that cool sweet well-water. Notice cars around TA loading dock. I supervised that dock 1968/69 — we had to keep the area open. Now look where train is bending, people would park off ballast, but cars turning would swing out further and hit parked cars. That tree on the upper right led down grade to vacant parting lot. I was coming up that path when the President was shot.
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Top photo shows the Fort Worth and Denver’s Sam Houston Zephyr train No. 4, northbound from Houston, leaving the Dallas Union Terminal Station, heading to Fort Worth. The photo was taken by Roger S. Plummer in 1950; photo from the Museum of the American Railroad, via UNT’s Portal to Texas History, here.
(Other photos of the Sam Houston Zephyr taken in Dallas — and one in Fort Worth — by Roger S. Plummer between 1949 and 1955 can be found on the Portal to Texas History site, here.)
Bottom image titled simply “Dallas, Texas” is an Aerial Photo Service postcard, from the George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University. I’ve edited the image a bit — see the original image and description here.
An aerial view of the same area today can be seen here, via Google.
A previous Flashback Dallas post on the stunningly beautiful Texas Zephyr can be found here.
Thanks to the members of the Texas Railroad History group on Facebook for their comments and help.
Both photos are larger when clicked.
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Copyright © 2016 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Cool photo!
FWIW, the view of downtown from the west is around 1941 since Dealey Plaza is complete but the Mercantile has not been constructed.
Here is a similar view from closer to the date of the Zephyr photo, 1952: https://i.imgur.com/gRKpmXH.jpg It is a good photo but unfortunately it has a scanning error down the right side of the photo.
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I worked at the Terminal Annex 1965-68…Outgoing Letter Section, best job a college student could have.
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Burlington’s Sam Houston Zephyr and Rock Island’s Texas Rocket (later Twin Star Rocket) were two trains on the Burlington-Rock Island route serving Houston and Dallas. Both B-RI trains used a portion of the Katy between Dallas and Waxahachie before running over their home rails the rest of the way to Houston.
I believe the SHZ (the last Houston-Dallas passenger train) ceased operation into Dallas around 1966 and the TSR ceased two years earlier, though the TSR operated northward out of Ft. Worth to the Twin Cities for awhile. B-RI also had a “doodlebug” train between Houston and Dallas dubbed the “Redhead” that operated on an all-stops basis a few years after WW2.
The main competitor to the B-RI trains was the Southern Pacific (Texas & New Orleans). From the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, it offered the Sunbeam, the Hustler, and the overnight Owl between Houston and Dallas. My grandfather, a Dallas insurance man, was a patron of the Owl. All three trains used to Houston & Texas Central route that was eventually subsumed into the Southern Pacific Lines.
My parents returned from their honeymoon at the Shamrock Hilton in Houston on either the Sunbeam or Hustler in 1950.
I believe the Hustler was discontinued first in 1954, followed by the Sunbeam in 1955, and the Owl (carrying US mail) in 1958. SP was the first major Texas railroad to exit the Dallas-Houston passenger scene.
Actually there were some minor players who exited Dallas-Houston railroad service earlier. Up into the early 1930s one could ply between Dallas and Houston-Galveston on a Santa Fe train via Midlothian and Cleburne. You could also travel a longer all-Katy route between Dallas and Houston that took you through Waco and Smithville. Finally there was the Texas Triangle service offered by the T&P and I&GN. All of these were much more indirect than the passenger trains of the Burlington-Rock Island and Southern Pacific.
P.S. Amtrak revived the H&TC route in 1988 for a few years with a Houston section of its Texas Eagle service.
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Thanks for all this great additional info, Dennis!
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I might mention the 5 PM race between the southbound Sunbeam and Sam Houston Zephyr. They were often posed on adjacent tracks in Dallas and left at the same time, barring delays. The two competitors would accelerate side by side past Tower 19 until the tracks diverged–one toward Ennis, the other toward Waxahachie. They would cross again at Corsicana.
The Zephyr was always diesel-hauled; the Sunbeam was steam-hauled up into the early 1950s. The race was between competing companies and competing locomotive technologies.
The race was not duplicated in Houston since the trains left from two different depots.
P.S. Personally I never rode either train. Wish I had. I was fortunate to ride Rock Island’s Twin Star Rocket in 1956 over the B-RI/Katy route from Houston to Dallas. That’s another story!
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Burlington-Rock Island’s lesser known local train on the same route was variously named the Redhead or Short Line Flyer. It ceased running by about 1950.
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FWIW, “chugging” would more accurately refer to a train pulled by a steam locomotive. Diesels don’t chug.
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Ha! Well, shoot. I hardly ever get to use “chugging”! But you’re right. I’ve changed it.
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