Just In Time Shipping
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Just In Time Shipping
In modern times we often hear of businesses struggling to coordinate the supply of manufacturing components and delivery time strategies, “just in time shipping”. As work began on the St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway starting in Robert Driscoll’s pasture the issue of supplies and timing were apparent even in 1903.
James Allhands has recorded some interesting details about the supply of rail for the new railroad in his book, “Gringo Builders”. The rails were in thirty foot lengths weighing 650 pounds each. The common terminology for identifying the grade of steel rail is to state the weight per three foot length. So this rail is generally identified as 65 pound rail meaning it weighs 65 pounds per three foot length.
The rails were supplied by the Maryland Steel Company. A gross ton of rail cost $30.75. That was a long trip for the rails just to get to Driscoll’s Pasteur. The rails started out being shipped by boat from Sparrows Point in Maryland to Galveston, Tx. The rails were then off loaded from the boat onto railroad cars for their journey. They moved on the G.H. & S.A. from Galveston to San Antonio. From there they were transferred to the S.A. & A. P. railroad for their trip to Alice, Texas. Then the rails were transferred to the Tex-Mex Railroad for the last leg of the trip to “Mile Post 145” in Colonel Driscoll’s pasture.
Once at Driscoll’s pasture the supplies would have to be sorted and loaded for transport to the end of the new line. The cars carrying the supplies were pushed by the locomotive engine out to the end of the tracks to be unloaded. Then the locomotive would be put in reverse to back to the supply depot at Driscoll’s pasture. There was no way to turn the locomotive around.
The arrival of the railroad cross ties was another adventure. Approximately 700,000 cross ties would be needed. These were untreated pine from the Kirby Lumber Company of Houston, Tx. The cost would be fifty-one cents per tie delivered. The delivery would be the trick.
Ties were loaded on barges in Port Arthur to be towed in slow-moving barges to Corpus Christi. They would then be transferred for delivery on the same Tex-Mex Railroad. James Allhands reports that from six to fourteen thousand ties would be loaded on a barge. Corpus Christi did not have its excellent port facilities at that time. The barge went aground before arriving in Corpus. It was lightened by several hundred railroad ties but went aground again. The barge still had great difficulty getting to the wharf for unloading. This caused much delay and uncertainty. The Johnston Brothers, contractor building the railroad finally convinced the tie supplier, Kirby Lumber, to ship the ties by rail. That worked better.
The grading of the railroad bed was done with mule teams and ploughs. The ties were unloaded and positioned by hand. The rails were unloaded and positioned by hand. The spikes holding the rails in place were driven by hand. How very different that construction was from the modern construction methods.
In 2005 the Union Pacific replaced the rails going through Kingsville. Paul Treptow got these two pictures of the huge machine used to put down the continuous 115 pound rail through the town. The first photograph is taken about King Street. It shows the railroad cars holding the rails that are being positioned and welded together.
The photographer has indicated the position of the two workers riding in the center of the machine.
You can see the top of the old Ice House building in the upper right of the picture. The Ice House is now the King Ranch museum. This was about a half mile of rail laying machinery all connected together.
Stop by to visit the 1904 Kingsville Train Depot Museum and ask about the rails.