$70.00 CAD
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Photo postcard showing men at railway station. On track beside them is a steam locomotive, loaded wood wagon and caboose. Locomotive #3.
The Rio Grande Rail Road was the only railroad in Texas and one of the few in the United States to be built to a track gauge of forty-two inches.
Labeled ‘R.G.R.R. buld’t 1868 Isabel Tx.’
Message ‘Port Isabel Tex Dec 17,09. It is promised that it will get back to Brownsville”
On back postmarked ‘ISABEL TEX Dec 17 1909’ mailed to New Orleans.
Some writing on front top left that was scratched out.
The Rio Grande Railroad ran from Brownsville, TX to Port Isabel, TX, and was first completed in 1872 as a narrow gauge railway. It functioned primarily as a freight line to transport goods from the coast into northern Mexico.
“The Rio Grande was the only railroad in Texas and one of the few in the United States to be built to a track gauge of forty-two inches. Its route was relatively direct from Brownsville to the coast but required fifteen bridges, including a 15,550-foot trestle across the Badilla Grande." (Texas State Historical Association)
The line defaulted in 1910 but was reorganized, and moved its track northward, avoiding the coastal areas that had left the road highly vulnerable to hurricanes and floods.
https://www.frrandp.com/2020/05/the-rio-grande-railroad.html
