Jefferson & Cypress Bayou Railway

I rode this train a couple days before I rode the ES&NA. This locomotive was built in the early 1960s between 1962-1964.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• steam
• locomotive
• Jefferson
• Texas
• railroad
• train
• crown
• metal
• products

[livkit]

Hey, I owned a Thorobred racehorse whose registered name was Cypress Bayou. I called him Cymon for short. I wonder if he was named for this!!

[railsrust]

Well, I would have no idea. The railway hear is named for the town of Jefferson, Texas and the bayou affectionately called Big Cypress Bayou for all the cypress tress along the bayou.

[SR722]

Yup, the boat is the sternwheeler Graceful Ghost, but I'm not sure if it's still in operation. I think there is one vid of the boat on youtube, though.

[railsrust]

I don't know about the railway, but the town is one of the biggest tourist draws in the state from what I've heard. I think here's also an old steam boat that runs in Jefferson somewhere. Yeah, you did say down-to-earth before.

[SR722]

The Christmas and New Years runs sound good, if I lived by there I'd go see it. And I was kind of able to tell that it was probably family run; I know I said it earlier, but the line really looks like a friendly and down-to-earth operation.

[railsrust]

I think its quite a bit more then people jumping out saying booh. I haven't personally ridden the train in October. One other event that they host every year is they put christmas lights and decorations all along the tracks along the entire line. And on New Years Eve they shoot off fireworks at the RV park. Originally the family that bought the railway never had any experience of railroading before buying into this railway.

[SR722]

Meh, I guess it's just the preference of the engineer, then. Ha, and having people in costumes randomly jump out at you when you're moving at 5 mph sounds more annoying than scary.

[railsrust]

I have no idea what type of whistle it is. The railway itself isn't near any houses except for at the station. At the second wye on the opposite end of the railway is an RV park owned by the railway. The RV park has a makeshift train station for use in October when they have their big event with the corn maze and their special "Runaway Fright Train". They hire people to be on the side of the tracks in costume to scare people at a very low speed.

[SR722]

Lawl, don't worry, I've been to their site before, but they don't have all of this information up there. An yah, it's a good whistle, it sounds like a buckeye 3 chime. If there are any homes by the tracks the owners bitch chronically about things like that (even though in most cases the railroad was there first).

[railsrust]

The saddest part is that the engineer didn't use the whistle much or ring the bell at all.