History of the RS&P

Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific Railway Engine No. 1.

On November 7, 1907, the company took delivery of its first engine ever, an old wood burner built in 1881 that had been converted to coal. Purchased from the Texas & Pacific, it was re-named RS&P Engine No. 1.  It reportedly belched smoke and spewed sparks, but the crew was glad to get it because it was a definite improvement over using mules for all the hauling. They immediately put it to work carrying materials up and down the completed track.
That same month they finished work on the bridge over Cottonwood Creek, four miles out, and proceeded steadily onward to the new city of Wastella, eight miles out, on land that Will Neely donated to the railroad on the condition that the new town be named after his daughter, Wastella. By the end of January 1908, the crew had reached Hermleigh, nineteen miles out.
      Construction of this portion of the line was simplified by the open country and relative flatness of the land.  Hermleigh’s elevation of 2450 feet above sea level is only 59 feet higher than Roscoe’s 2391 feet, and the lowest point between the two towns is only 15 feet below Roscoe. As a result, the grades between the two cities were generally less than 2/3 of one per cent.
Progress was slower, however, between Hermleigh and Snyder, where the country falls off into the rolling ground bordering on Deep Creek, twenty-eight miles out, where it descends 144 feet to 2306 feet above sea level, the lowest point on the line. From Deep Creek to Snyder, two and a half miles away, the land rises nine feet to 2315 feet, or 75 feet lower than Roscoe.
In February, the job received a boost when Winfield James, the son of General James, arrived to take charge of construction. An experienced engineer, he had helped build the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. Under his supervision, the work continued, and he was to remain in charge as Assistant General Manager until the line was completed all the way to Fluvanna.
      The chief engineer and field superintendent was Martin Duvall, who had helped build the Texas & Pacific and Southern Pacific lines back in the 1870s. He had also held responsible positions with the Rock Island and Frisco lines and had been chief engineer for the Texas Midland Railroad in east Texas.
      During the building of the road to Snyder, there was no place for the engine to turn around, so it went forward on its trips to the end of the line and in reverse on its returns to Roscoe. There was also some question as to the quality of the track. One official described the construction as “quarter-spiked and half-tied,” meaning that it had only a quarter of the spikes it should have and half the cross ties. 
      Nevertheless, progress was steadily made throughout the spring. Snyder was reached in April, and on May 22, 1908, the line was completed, and daily service began immediately. For the first time ever, the city of Snyder was connected by rail to the cities back east. Gen. James had kept his promise to finish the line in less than two years, and a grand celebration was planned.
      On June 4, Snyder pulled out all the stops with a huge two-day party to commemorate the event. The Dallas Morning News reported a “conservative estimate” of 10,000 people on hand in a city of about 3000, with businesses “decorated in bright colors and streamers flapping in the breeze.” For entertainment, there were “ball games by professional and amateur teams, balloon ascensions, skilled horsemen maneuvering the untamed bronchos, and many resorts, which more or less subtracted from the speechmaking by candidates for state and district offices.” An “abundance” of beef was barbecued, and “various committees” earnestly worked to see to “the comfort of the visitors in true Western style.” 

Ceremonial Trip to Snyder on June 4, 1908.

The first timetable for the railroad went into effect as soon as service began on May 22. There were four stations on the line, and the train made a return trip from Roscoe Monday through Saturday on the following schedule:

Train No. 1    Leaves     ROSCOE        9:00 a.m.
Arrives    Wastella         9:30 a.m.
Leaves     Wastella    9:30 a.m.
Arrives    Hermleigh    10:00 a.m.
Leaves     Hermleigh    10:25 a.m.
   Arrives    SNYDER       11:00 a.m.    
Train No. 2    Leaves     SNYDER        4:30 p.m.

Arrives    Hermleigh     5:05 p.m.

 Leaves     Hermleigh     5:05 p.m.

Arrives    Wastella         6:00 p.m.

 Leaves     Wastella         6:00 p.m.

 Arrives    ROSCOE        6:30 p.m.

      Shortly after the trains began running, the RS&P suffered its first wreck when three cars, a water car, and the engine went off the track near Wastella, tearing out 200 feet of track and causing Fireman Roy Hale to sprain his ankle when he leapt from the cab. However, this is the only mishap recorded for those early days, and the railroad would not have a major wreck until 1926, and even at that one, no one was seriously hurt. 
      In order to get the original permit for the railroad from the Texas State Railroad Commission, the company had to agree to build the line a minimum of fifty miles, so the job was not complete until that was done.  Soon after daily service to Snyder was initiated, the laying of track resumed in a northwesterly direction out of Snyder toward the community of Light. However, since Light was only 48 miles from Roscoe, two extra miles were needed. A community was planned at the end of the line, and the people of Light agreed to move there. One of the railroad’s engineers proposed that the new town be named Fluvanna after his original home of Fluvanna County, Virginia, and so it was. 

   Building the line from Snyder to Fluvanna proved more difficult than the stretch from Roscoe to Snyder had been. Instead of the long, easy grades over flat farmland, the uneven terrain northwest of Snyder is much rougher with weathered hills and ravines that are subject to flash floods. Thus, the nineteen miles from Snyder to Fluvanna took longer to build than the thirty and a half miles from Roscoe to Snyder. Nevertheless, by the end of August 1909, the construction crews had reached Fluvanna, and on September 13 daily service to that city began.
The citizens of Fluvanna marked the occasion with food and ceremony, as an article in the Dallas Morning News reported:

On the arrival of the track-laying crews, the citizens accorded a welcome to the construction crews that showed their generous spirit and appreciation of the efforts made by the men at the front. On this occasion a sumptuous repast was served at the noon hour and about 100 men were served with everything good to eat by the citizens’ committee, while the Fluvanna Band played for the entertainment of the guests.

The article also quoted Assistant General Manager Winfield James, who spoke of the immediate plans for the railroad in Fluvanna:

Material is arriving for the building of extensive stock yards at Fluvanna, and it is expected to have these ready for shipping cattle by September 15 at the very latest. Many of the stockmen in this section are holding their shipments to take advantage of the railroad facilities, thus saving a drive of twenty-five or thirty miles to other points. Two or three thousand head will be shipped out at once as soon as the pens are completed. An ample depot of commodious size, 30 x 100 feet, will provide facilities for handling for the present the business of Fluvanna and its territory.

In addition, the celebration included a special passenger train with people who made the trip from Roscoe to Fluvanna for a three-day picnic.
Completion of the line to Fluvanna called for the creation of a new timetable, which took effect on September 13, 1909:

NORTH BOUND       SOUTH BOUND

1        Miles from  STATIONS  Station         2
   a. m.       Roscoe                         Number     p.m.
8:30          0.0          Roscoe       1       6:15  
8:55           8.0        Wastella        8       5:50
9:35           18.9        Hermleigh      19    5:20
10:10          30.4       Snyder        31       4:45
  #11.20         40 .0       Bennington     41     #2:30
      11:59         49.2      Fluvanna        50       2:00
        a.m.       Ar.                                   Lv.     p.m.
  #Indicates Flag Station train will stop on signal only.

    Special instructions stipulated that all trains reduce speed to 10 miles per hour on curves entering Roscoe and Snyder and that trains be limited to a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour, to be exceeded with proper authority only.
      Trips to and from Roscoe to Snyder now took only an hour and forty minutes, or twenty miles per hour including stops. The trip from Roscoe to Fluvanna took three and a half hours, or 15 miles per hour including stops, while the return trip from Fluvanna to Roscoe took four and a quarter hours, not quite 12 miles per hour including stops.
        Snyder had separate stations for passengers and freight, while in Roscoe the RS&P shared a depot with the Texas & Pacific. There were wood frame depots in Wastella, Hermleigh, Dermott (called Bennington on the original timetable), and Fluvanna, but Dermott was a flag station, meaning that the train stopped there only by previous arrangement or if it was signaled to do so. Roscoe had the only coal station, and the steam engines used ten to twelve tons for a round trip to Fluvanna.
          The original charter called for the track to go on to Lubbock and all the way to Bailey County once the track to Fluvanna was completed, and moves were made to do just that. In March of 1909, the RS&P’s president, Gen. James, wrote to Lubbock’s Commercial Club, made up of that city’s leaders, stating that sometime in mid-April, he and a civil engineer planned to go to Fluvanna to take up the proposition of extending the line to Lubbock. On its part, the Commercial Club appointed a committee and made plans to meet with Gen. James to discuss the issue. Unfortunately, it is not known if that meeting ever took place, or, if it did, if any decisions were made or deals were struck.
        What is known is that about the same time, the Santa Fe finally decided on a route to run from Texico, on the Texas-New Mexico border, down through Lubbock and Sweetwater to Coleman, where it would connect to its southeast Texas subsidiary, the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe. The finished product would be a wholly Santa Fe-owned line that ran from Houston and Galveston all the way to Los Angeles and San Francisco.
      In September of 1909, the same month that RS&P service to Fluvanna began, the Santa Fe started laying track at Lubbock southward and from Coleman northward to create a line that made any extension of the RS&P superfluous. As a result, the proposed northwestern expansion of the Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific Railway was never realized, and the Pacific part of its name remained only as a relic of the founders’ early dreams.

Fluvanna train depot in 1909.