Don's Rail Photos

In 1943 the Lone Star Steel Company used government defense-plant money and private capital to build a blast furnace, coke ovens, and a beneficiation plant near Daingerfield. The project was designed to produce pig iron by the orthodox method, using limestone from nearby sources and coke made from Oklahoma coal. While the company sought a federal loan to build a cast-iron plant and steel mill at the site, the Daingerfield plant began shipping beneficiated ore to Houston, St. Louis, and Birmingham. By the war's end the steel mill had not been completed, but the company leased the facility and certain Oklahoma coal mines with an option to buy the properties within two years. Production of pig iron began in the fall of 1947, and in 1948 the firm purchased the $35 million plant from the War Assets Administration. In July 1949 the Reconstruction Finance Corporation granted Lone Star Steel a loan of $34 million to complete a steel mill, contingent on its investment of $22 million of its own. The company's plans called for four open-hearth steel furnaces and a mill for making electric-weld steel line pipe and oil-well casing. Ores were mined in the immediate vicinity of the plant in Morris County in the 1950s. In 1953 the completed plant was finally put into operation producing steel ingots and steel pipe, and in 1954 and 1956 expanded its steel-making capacity. In 1961, after borrowing $40 million from an insurance company, the company repaid the last of the more than $87 million it had borrowed from the government. In 1965 the Philadelphia and Reading Corporation, a New York holding company, bought 73 percent of the Texas firm's stock, and in 1966 acquired the firm's assets. Lone Star was reorganized as a subsidiary of Philadelphia and Reading, and continued in operation using Texas ores and importing coal from Oklahoma.

Wayne Gard and Diana J. Kleiner

The Texas and Northern Railroad was chartered on August 4, 1948, to acquire the existing private railroad of the Lone Star Steel Company. The railroad extended from Veal's Switch (now known as Daingerfield) on the Louisiana and Arkansas to the steel mill at Lone Star. The steel mill and railroad were originally built by the Defense Plant Corporation in 1942-43 and subsequently acquired by Lone Star Steel. The railroad had a capital stock of $550,000. The principal place of business was Lone Star. The members of the first board of directors were John D. McCall,^qv Paul B. Horton, E. Wilson Germany, and J. B. Burleson, all of Dallas; and Jimmie D. Moore of Daingerfield. In 1953 the Texas and Northern reported total gross earnings of $1,341,000 and owned eight locomotives and 108 cars; it also rented a portion of its rolling stock. In 1972 it reported a total net income of $1,507,000 and owned fifteen locomotives and 888 cars. In 1990 its revenue range was under $5,000,000, and it had eight miles of track. By then the line primarily hauled waste and scrap, primary metals (i.e. pipe and other output of Lone Star Steel), and chemicals.

LSS 55, S4m, was built by Alco and has been heavily rebuilt and re-engined.

LSS 56, S4m, was built by Alco and has been heavily rebuilt and re-engined.

T&N 994, CF7, was built by Electro-Motive in December 1953, #18930, as AT&SF 278C, Class 200, an F7A, It was rebeuilt at Cleburne in October 1973, as 2550, Class 2417, It was retired in June 1987 and sold to National Ry Equipment Co in December 1987. They sold it to T&N as 994 in February 1988.

T&N 1500, SW1500, was built by Electro-Motive.

T&N 1510, MP15, was built by Electro-Motive.

AMDG

4/30/2004

Memorial of Saint James of Numidia

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The God of glory thunders.

In His temple they all cry "Glory".

Psalm 29:9