The Longhorn & Western Railroad
The Longhorn Depot
(Click on images to enlarge)
The focal point of the Longhorn and Western Railroad, indeed the whole museum,
is our historic depot, originally located in Converse, on the edge of San Antonio. Built
around 1942, it was donated to the museum in 1968 by the Southern Pacific Railroad on whose
system it had operated. It had been "retired" a few years earlier. The railroad closed most
if not all of its remaining small depots along their lines around this time. Most are lost,
unceremoniously demolished. All that remains of the depot in Seguin, for example, is the old
patterned tile floor, which is bleaching to nothing in the sun. Fortunately, this wonderful
building has survived and is quite possibly sees more railroad passengers every week than it
had since the end of world war two.
The depot was not in particularly good shape when it came to the museum. Founding member, in
fact Charter Member #1, Dave Wallace, who became the first chairman of the museum, saw the
neglected old structure while driving through Converse in 1968. He made some enquiries and
found out it was soon to be demolished. Dave, was, and still is, an enterprising kind of
fellow, so he made his way to the office of the Southern Pacific District Superintendent.
He asked if the SP might donate the building to the museum and was given a swift affirmative.
He was told if the museum could get to it before the soon to arrive SP wrecking crew to go ahead
and take it. If the crew got there first, however, they would not hang around to see if we might be
able to make something happen. Wasting no time, Dave had a friend who owed him a favor go out
to Converse and, before the good folks of Converse knew what had happened, the whole building
was lifted up and carried away to its new home. With the passage of time, it has now spent
far more time at the museum than it ever did in Converse.
The depot has been a source of pride for the museum and the subject of much attention. It is
essentially the same building that was moved to the museum in 1968, and we maintain its
original interior and exterior SP color scheme. It has been painted and repainted quite a few
times, most recently in 2005. Thanks to the generosity of South Texas Interiors, a local
general contractor, both its interior and exterior were extensively refurbished. Part of our
plans involve making the depot the museum's main point of entrance again. This will involve
only a few modifications but does require the adding air conditioning. At this time, however,
you can get the full flavor of waiting for the train as they did in the old days, with windows
wide open, antique fan whirring, grateful for every passing breeze. It does have heating, in
the form of a pot bellied stove which originally came from a caboose. In the winter, especially
during Santa's Holiday Depot, with a good fire crackling in the hearth, it's a very cheerful
place to be.
Through the astonishing generosity of many, many people, the building, indeed the museum, is full of interesting
railroad and transportation related items. On the exterior
there are some nice Railroad Express Agency signs. The 'R.E.A.' was the
forerunner of today's UPS and FedEx systems, and its fleets of vans were common sights at one time,
delivering goods and packages across the country. We have an REA van, which is sadly close to the point of destruction. Although this depot served the Southern Pacific,
we have taken the liberty of including memorabilia from the other two railroads that served San Antonio, named the Missouri Pacific and the Missouri Kansas Texas railroads.
Our depot is very typical of small town depots which used
to dot the mainlines all over Texas. It has two main rooms. One, with windows and the stove,
was for passengers. The other was the freight room. Our depot and our railroad took their names
from the adjacent Longhorn junction on the Union pacific mainline opposite our front gates,
which serves a nearby rock quarry.
This depot was not the first to serve Converse, a town, named
for the Chief Civil Engineer of the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railroad, Major James
Converse. (The line did not reach down town San Antonio until the next year.)
There were two prior structures. The first was almost a temporary building. The second was
much more substantial than this one which was built to replace it. The first actual depot was
built around 1878. It was much larger and had living quarters not only for the agent but also
migrant laborers. The railroad brought in these workers but local farmers were unwilling to have
the stay on their cotton plantations overnight so the railroad got into the business of not
only transporting the workers but providing accommodation for them as well. It was demolished
and replaced with a smaller structure to reduce the railroad's tax burden. The new structure
was built, using some of the material from the original building. The bay window
seems to originate from the former depot, as do many of the windows. Former carpentry marks
and joints can be seen on some of the timbers. Of course not only is there is no dormitory, to
further reduce city taxes, there was not even a sink or toilet.
Above you can see some snaps of the depots old location. Unfortunately we have yet to unearth any pictures of "our" depot in
its original location, but the search continues. Their are three lines at the site, all now run by the Union Pacific railroad which bought
the struggling Southern Pacific system in the mid 90's. The depot, and the larger one it replaced, sat right between the lines. One
may speculate as to which end was nearest the road but it would likely be the loading doors, and the building was
probably set as
far as possible from the road to allow for goods to be unloaded and picked up.
Above are two pictures of the first, much larger, depot in Converse. It was built around 1878 and torn down in 1940. It has housing
quarters for the migrant labor used to harvest one of the area's main crops back then, cotton. The railroad brought the labor in, housed them and
shipped the cotton out. Adjacent to the depot was a huge cotton mill at one time. The building was raised with a ramp at one end to
facilitate the loading of cattle on to trains. The building was old, and mostly unused by the time it was torn down, and new bulk shipping
methods rendered local operations obsolete. The station master from 1919 until the 1940's was a German immigrant, Philip Antes, who
can be seen in the second picture. He liked Converse because so much of his native German was spoken there, but he was able to become
fluent in both spoken and written English and Spanish, with the help of his wife, Lillie Bolton. Mr. Antes was a fine agent for
the 'friendly railroad,' encouraging several businesses to locate in the area. Regrettably, he suffered a bad fall while inspecting
a box car which led, eventually, to the amputation of the affected leg. It took time and
perseverance but, fitted with an artificial
leg, he did return to work some eight months after his accident.
The depot really comes to life during our Christmas Extravaganza, "Santa's Holiday Depot." Of course, to a certain extent, the event is named after our lovely old depot.
It took us a few years to figure out how to decorate it properly. The first year, it took hours and hours to get all the lights up and down. Now we have become quite used
to it. We hope to add a string of lights along the remarkably high roof of the building. This will be the 'piece de resistance' and give the roof line some definition
against the day sky. On the event's colder evenings, with the pot bellied stove giving off welcome heat, the building is crowded with people, all enjoying the event enormously.
Maybe we should get some chestnuts to roast, too. Hmm....
Further L & W RR Pages
•TTM Home Page•
•Hours of Operation & Location•
•Locomotives•
•Railroad Carriages;
•Cabooses•
•The Depot•
•Motor Cars•
•Miscellaneous L&W items•
Site Established: June 13, 2002
copyright ©2001