Texas State Railroad was founded in 1881. Present day, it runs between Rusk and Palestine, Texas. A 25 mile trip. The tracks cut a narrow path through the Piney woods of East Texas. In the Spring and Fall, mother nature decorates the foliage along the way with her glorious colors.

Passengers are offered climate-controlled seating in old red and black rail cars or they can choose a car in which they can open their windows. The train is powered by one of their four steam engines, all of which were built in the early 1900’s. Top speed is about 20 mph. They also have a Diesel engine which is used.

The only community along the 25 mile stretch is Maydelle, which boast having one of the old steam driven turntables used to turn locomotives around for their trip back.

The Railroad offers many excursion trips each year to pick from. Most recently, they opened their operation up for train buffs and photographers like myself for an entire day of shooting. They staged the train at different places along the 25 mile stretch to give us the best shots possible.

The pictures in this gallery were all taken on two different excursion. This year they started with two locomotives hooked up. Check them out. http://www.texasstaterr.com/