The Angelina and Neches River Railroad. (original) (raw)

THE ANGELINA AND NECHES RIVER RAILROAD

An East Texas Short Line Railroad

by John Troesser

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	Most of the Angelina and Neches River Railroad TE Photo, October 2001

	A switching locomotive of the A & NR RR TE Photo, October 2001

The A & NR Railroad celebrated it's centennial in 2000. It still shuttles between industries in Lufkin and the Union Pacific main line. A mural depicting the history of the railroad can be found (appropriately) at the railroad tracks - just west of downtown Lufkin.

The Angelina and Neches River Railroad Company was chartered in August 1900.

It connected Keltys (which is now a part of Lufkin) with Manton, a town eight miles east. There were plans to establish peach orchards on cut over timberland in Manton, but these plans literally failed to bear fruit.

	The Angelina County Lumber Company as portrayed on a mural by Lance HunterDowntown Lufkin TE Photo, October 2001

As early as 1895 the railroad was being used by the Angelina County Lumber Company as a narrow gauge line. In 1906, after adding some 20 miles of track, it was converted to standard gauge.

By 1912 the railroad had extended to Chirenoin Nacogdoches County.

In 1916 the railroad owned one locomotive and five cars. They earned 6,000thatyearonpassengertrafficwhiletheincomefromfreightexceeded6,000 that year on passenger traffic while the income from freight exceeded 6,000thatyearonpassengertrafficwhiletheincomefromfreightexceeded40,000. In 1963 21 miles of track between Dunagan and Chirenowas torn up.

In 1972, it owned two locomotives and eleven pieces of rolling stock.

� John Troesser
January 2002

An Unlikely Partnership by Bob Bowman

They were an unlikely business partnership--a German immigrant, an Irish storekeeper, and two Jewish brothers.

But in 1900, Joseph Kurth, Simon W. Henderson, and Sam and Eli Wiener pooled their resources and created the Angelina and Neches River Railroad.

It wasn�t much of a railroad in the beginning--two wood-burning narrow-gauge locomotives and ten miles of track.

But in almost 110 years, the A&NR has become as much a part of East Texas as the pine trees that blanket the region.... more