The Longhorn Chapter of the
National Railroad Historical Society
presents . . .
The San Antonio Uvalde and Gulf Railroad
Architect's drawing of the two story depot and offices in Pleasanton; cost $10,000.00 (1913 money)
The chapter is deeply indebted to the LONGHORN MUSEUM in Pleasanton. Their
generosity went above and beyond the call of duty. Their main building is worth a visit for
its fantastic collection and portrayal of this area's history. Their stewardship of the depot,
donated by Union Pacific in 1986, is first rate, as is the railroad history presented within. A
railroad history buff will need several hours to get an idea of its scope.
The museum is located on Highway 97, the main road into Pleasanton from IH 35.
The phone number is (830) 569-6313
They are open five days a week, excluding Sunday and Monday.
Admission is by donation, so PLEASE BE GENEROUS
Here is a link to their site:
Longhorn Museum, Pleasanton
We are further indebted to Norman Porter, the Chairman of the Atascosa County Historical
Commission. His generous assistance was invaluable. Mr. Porter is mainly responsible for the acquisition of the Pleasanton depot and he set up
the displays within it. Atascosa is lucky to have a man who is so dedicated to recording and
preserving its history.
Click on the thumbnails, including map, below for larger image
Introduction
The San Antonio Uvalde and Gulf Railroad was a short line railroad began in 1909 as the
Crystal City & Uvalde Railroad. It was started by local entrepreneurs to serve a specific need.
It grew quickly beyond the original plan and finally ended up being absorbed by a larger railroad.
It became the San Antonio Uvalde and Gulf in 1912. It's independent existence was brief but spectacular.
And, even after it was taken over, its "original "flavor" survived to the extent that, even today, Union Pacific crews
using the route on the way from San Antonio to Corpus Christi still refer to the line as "The
Sausage," which is the fond nickname the railroad acquired. In 1925 the S.A.U. & G. became part
of the Missouri Pacific's "Gulf Coast Lines." The superiority of the route it used to reach
Corpus Christi encouraged the Southern Pacific to down grade its own line to the city, the older "San
Antonio & Aransas Pass" route, to secondary status and to lease use on the "Sausage." While some
of the line's original route, the line that went west of Pleasanton, was removed a long time ago,
the remaining routes are still there. The main line to Corpus Christi is still the "Sausage."
The S.A.U. & G. began in 1909 as the Crystal City & Uvalde Railroad Company. The line ran almost
exactly 41 miles, north to south, between Uvalde and Carrizo Springs. The original plan was only to
reach Crystal City but the folks at Carrizo Springs were so concerned about the future of their
town that they offered a substantial bonus to get the railroad to continue south to their city.
To a certain extent the railroad was built in order to serve the new town of Crystal City, and
its developers were hand in glove with the railroad. Carrizo Springs predates the railroad by
several decades. Its citizens knew that not being served by a railroad when one was nearby
was often fatal to many a township in those days. At Uvalde, the new railroad ran to the main
Southern Pacific line, running east to west, from San Antonio to El Paso. The creation of the
CC & U line meant that farmers and ranchers, both new and established, in the newly
served area could reach much larger markets for their produce and cattle.
For information about the railroad in Uvalde, Click •Uvalde•
The new line's revenue was desperately limited. When more money from colonizers was
offered, it was decided in 1912 to make more additions to the line. Today,
colonizers would be called land speculators. They bought up large ranches and sub-divided them,
for sale at public auction. To make the lots more attractive, towns would be platted out as well,
and very often a lot within the yet unbuilt towns would be thrown in with a purchase of a
larger farm. Railroad service was vital to the success of these auctions, not to mention the
viability of the farms and towns to be created. Some were given some very
optimistic names, like Las Vegas. Of the many names you will see on the 1916 map, between Crystal City and Pleasanton
few still exist today. Despite some interest by Belgian immigrants, Las Vegas lost its post office
in 1917 and had only one occupant in 1940. Today it is gone
Starting at Crystal City, a new line heading more or less east was added to Fowlerton, once a
bonus was offered by the Fowler brothers who were trying to develop the town. It was
reached on 4/4/1912. Fowlerton is another town that hardly exists today. It was laid out a few
years before the railroad came through. It had a population of over one thousand, with not only
attendant businesses but even telephone service. After reaching a peak in 1914, the town began
to decline. Droughts and low prices badly affected farmers. The Fowler brothers, who had
heavily advertised the town, as colonizers, were up to their ears in law suits. By 1925, the
populating had declines to 600. The town, like much of the area, never recovered and today it
has only around 100 inhabitants. The S.A.U. & G line brought only temporary prosperity. The
prospects of the railroad reflected the hardships the area suffered.
The tracks turned sharply to the north east after Fowlerton, heading for Pleasanton. This was not
the original plan. It had been intended to head towards the gulf but, once again, bonuses came
into play and the railroad detoured in quite a different direction. It briefly acquired a new
name, the San Antonio Rio Grande & Gulf. Another reason for the change in direction was that yet
another railroad was in the planning stages. It was to head through Pleasanton from San Antonio to the Gulf. Its
name was the Mexico San Antonio & Gulf. The developer of this road was given a share in the new SAU & G
in return for the right of way he had acquired. The new SAU & G went through Charlotte and then
one mile north of the new town of Jourdanton, itself created by another new railroad, the
Artesian Belt, just a few years earlier. A one mile spur was built into Jourdanton, and a
depot. For a while the town had two depots, but the spur was removed in 1920. For some time,
even before both lines ended up as part of the Missouri Pacific, both companies had the same
agent in Jourdanton.
Pleasanton was reached in 1912. At the same time, the
name of the company was changed to
the San Antonio Uvalde and Gulf, following yet another momentous decision, which was to
build from Pleasanton to Corpus Christi. Company headquarters moved from Crystal City to the
new city of North Pleasanton. "Old" Pleasanton carried on as before. It got a railroad depot of
its own, only one sixth of a mile from the much grander structure that graced North Pleasanton.
The new town was heavily promoted by colonizers and one of their booklets, from 1913, has been
reproduced and is available from the Longhorn Museum. The importance of Pleasanton was that it
was here that the line divided. To its north is San Antonio, to the west was Crystal City and
to the south east is Corpus Christi. Thus the railroad was to service a huge and dynamic swathe
of south Texas which, in 1912, was growing rapidly. The expanded line built maintenance shops
in North Pleasanton and carried out the many activities needed to run the railroad.
1912 is pretty late in the history of railroads for new lines to be built. San Antonio was the
last major city in the USA to receive rail service and that was in 1877. But in this part of
Texas much land was still unoccupied. Land speculators saw opportunity everywhere and they
gobbled up many a huge ranch with a view to selling them off in smaller, profitable, chunks. Rail
service, in the absence of paved roads and suitably large, reliable, trucks were very much
needed in the area. Public roads outside of bigger towns were unpaved and prone to flooding.
Improvements were a long way off. Railroads are cheaper and faster to build than roads, require
less land and are far less intrusive on the country they cross. In addition, railroads were,
and still are, private enterprises. If someone wanted to build one and land owners were willing
to give them right of way, it was a fairly easy proposition to get the task accomplished.
In Atascosa county alone, the S.A.U. & G. led to the creation six
new towns; Leming, North Pleasanton, McCoy, Coughran, Charlotte and Hindes.
One landowner further south, in Live Oak County, was George West, who owned a massive cattle operation
and ranch half way between Pleasanton and Corpus Christi. He gave the railroad $100,000.00 and
free right of way across his land, so enthusiastic was he to get rail service. He had made his
fortune on cattle drives and knew putting the animals on a train was a much better proposition
all around. He had purchased some 120,000 acres in Live Oak County on which he had some 26,000
cattle in the early 1900s but a devastating drought had caused such losses to had been obliged
to sell off around half of his land. With no water, low prices caused by everyone else trying to
sell their cattle at the same time and no means to ship cattle anyway, West, a leader of some
historic cattle drives, learned the value of railroad service the hard way.
In due course the towns of Three Rivers and George West were platted out on land owned by Mr. West.
Depots were built in both towns and both became successful. West also gave land and $75,000.00 to
have a new county court house built in the town bearing his name, which led to the
eventual eclipse of nearby Oakville, which never got rail service. The new court house actually cost
$120,000 and his own contribution was conditional upon it being built to his own specifications.
He also created a large hotel near the depot which also housed, in a separate building to the rear,
the town's source of electrical power. Three Rivers is now home to a major refinery owned by
Valero, and the town has a large number of sidings to accommodate the large amount of tanker cars
needed to ship its various products. George West is still the County Seat but its old main street
is considerably faded as businesses moved to the improved HWY 281 which runs to
parallel to the railroad several blocks north.
In 1912, hopes were high at the S.A.U. & G.. On September 16, the first train from
San Antonio pulled into Pleasanton. It had started out from the International and Great Northern Depot. The S.A.U. & G.,
which would soon be give the nickname of "The Sausage," used the I. & G.N. within San Antonio.
The train arrived to enormous fanfare at 9:15 AM. On November 19 the first train ran from San
Antonio to Carrizo Springs. In 1913 construction of the handsome, two story depot was completed,
with the upper level providing space for the railroads offices. On 2/28/1914 train service to
Corpus Christi began and the railroad reached its zenith with total trackage
of 320 miles. The town of Pleasanton, which had been platted in 1856, experienced a huge population growth.
In 1912, only 450 people called it home. By 1914 it had risen to 1,500. The
separate town of North Pleasanton was growing by leaps and bounds. (The two Pleasantons would co-exist until 1961.)
The smaller depot built to serve "original" Pleasanton has survived. It was donated to the city
in 1986 by the Union Pacific and was moved, along with a UP caboose, to the Longhorn Museum on
HWY 97, between the town and Interstate 37.
But costs had been high, and even with bonus money to help finance the railroad, the company
called in the receivers on 8/14/1914. Drought hurt farmers badly, and rail business failed to
meet expectations. When it did rain, the land would become boggy and damage to the tracks
from flooding became a constant expense. By 1917, the initial bubble of optimism had burst and
the S.A.U. & G. was obliged to declare bankruptcy. It is one thing to build a railroad and buy
locomotives and rolling stock. (During the companies independent existence it only ever bought
one new locomotive, from Lima. Most of the time it bought used engines, or traded them
with other companies.) It is quite another to run a profitable enterprise and repay your creditors. This fate befell many a railroad and it is
why so many promising starts soon came crashing down to earth. It also lead to railroad
consolidation, as economies of scale allowed larger organizations to operate marginal lines
with greater efficiency.
Like every other US railroad, the S.A.U. & G. was taken over by the federal government on 1/1/1918.
Railroads were considered to be failing the war effort for WW I. It was returned to the receiver
in February of 1920. On 12/1/1925, the "Sausage" was purchased by the New Orleans Texas & Mexico
Railroad, acting on behalf on the Missouri Pacific and lost its independence. It became part of the
Missouri Pacific's "Gulf Coast Lines," one of its three Texas companies. Under Texas law, any
railroad operating in Texas had to be owned and run by a Texas Company. It was also around this
time that the Missouri Pacific took full ownership of the International & Great Northern, also
via the N.O.T & M. And, although the S.A.U. & G. used the I. & G.N. depot in San Antonio and
its line into the city, both operations remained separate. The main purpose of the
I. & G.N. was service to Laredo and Mexico from the north. The S.A.U. & G. served Corpus Christi,
so it was natural for it to be part of the "Gulf Coast Lines."
The 1920 "Railroad Commission of Texas" report gives a lot of detailed information about every railroad
in Texas. The level of detail is almost mind boggling. It gives, over a variety of headings, a detailed
insight into the S.A.U. & G. The total length of the its tracks came to 340.43 miles. That is broken down into
the three constituent parts of the "system:"
144.43 miles from San Antonio to Crystal City
52.83 miles from Uvalde to Carrizo Springs
117.26 miles from Pleasanton to Corpus Christi
For a detailed look at 1920 SAU & G statistics, click •1920•
The line was not operating at a profit. As mentioned, some of its area had not lived up to the
dreams of its developers. The line was prone to flooding and this was a huge drain on its
meager resources. In 1926, following the "merger," the "Sausage" lost its own shops in Pleasanton, and its offices. The railroad's
rolling stock was absorbed into the bigger Missouri Pacific system. This is one of the ways that
larger companies save money, by centralizing maintenance and purchasing, and also by streamlining
office work as well. Local control of the operation was lost and it became, more and more, just
a small section of a unified railroad empire. Ironically, the Missouri Pacific itself went
into receivership not long after, in 1933. It remained in receivership until 1956. As a result,
because bankruptcy law forbade much in the way of absorbing new companies into a financial
structure that was itself in difficulty, many of the lines it had taken control of in the 1920s
were able to maintain at least some of their original identity.
This changed rapidly after 1956 and everything became, simply, Missouri Pacific. With the
improvements in the road system and the emergence of larger and larger trucks, many of the smaller
lines became less and less viable. In 1959, the tracks from Pleasanton to Gardendale were
pulled up. The "Sausage intersected the main MoPac line to Laredo at Gardendale,
which, in 1931, had a school with 50 students. It is little more than a ghost town
today. The old "Sausage" was no more. What remains today is the line from San Antonio to
Corpus Christi. An attempt was made by a new company bearing an old name, Crystal City
Railroad, to keep the western leg open, from Uvalde to Carrizo Springs, and
Crystal City to Gardendale. The C.C. R.R. was operated as an independent short line from 1990 to 1992. but
went out of business in 1992. The tracks themselves were removed ten years later.
Such is the stuff that dreams are made on. With more than a little help form Norman Porter, the
Chairman of the Atascosa County Historical Commission, we can now say definitively where the
various railroads buildings and operations were. The depot in North Pleasanton was just at
Commerce and 1st Street. The land remains unoccupied since it was torn down. Passenger traffic
to Crystal City ended in 1957, two years before the tracks to the west of Pleasanton were removed. The spur was connected to the
existing line some two miles north of town with a "Y" arrangement. The Pleasanton depot was
relocated from its first location in the 1930s, when HWY 281 was upgraded. It was at this time
that the building lost its distinctive tower at one end. Termination of passenger service to
Corpus Christi remains vague as special trains to the coast continued into the 1960s.
Not too much remains of the SAU & G yard in what was then North Pleasanton. A little further
down towards the river on Commerce Street, on the other side of the road from the depot, is a
small road that takes you to the golf course. There is a large foundation there that was once
the railroad superintendent's offices. This building was later used by a fertilizer company,
but that too is now gone. It was in this area that the railroad had its shops, its round house
and other operations, like a dipping vat to treat railroad ties. The remains of the turntable, which
is to say a large hole can also be found by the more adventurous.
With the takeover of the Missouri Pacific by Union Pacific in 1980, the "Sausage" has had
several names. First the S.A.U. & G. Then "Gulf Coast Lines." Then Missouri Pacific and now
Union Pacific. The line to Corpus Christi is now over ninety years old. It is thoroughly modern
and is now the only line between it and San Antonio. Massive trains, some a mile and a half
long, still ply the line forged so many years ago. Railroad crews still refer to the line as
the "Sausage." Its legacy continues.
For details about a trip made by some chapter members from San Antonio to Corpus Christi following the S.A.& A.P. and
returning via the S.A.U. & G., Click
•The 'SAP'
and the 'SAUSAGE•
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