A reporter in Moscow

 A footnote on yesterday’s note on Ramon Adams, a native of Moscow, Texas: When I was a young reporter, I rode the train from Moscow to Camden.

The Moscow, Camden & San Augustin Railroad Co. was chartered in 1898 by W.T. Carter, a timber baron. The line was 6.9 miles long. It connected Carter’s mill in Camden with the Houston East & West Texas line in Moscow.

In the 1890s, besides getting into a war with Spain, Americans were buildings cities, stores and houses everywhere. A lot of the lumber came from East Texas. Timber barons needed railroads to ship their wares, but the state wouldn’t grant charters unless the companies promised to provide general freight and passenger service.

About 45 years ago, I showed up in Moscow as the railroad men were putting together a train and asked if the company still honored its charter and provided passenger service.

It did. I was the only passenger among a gazillion tons of cargo — logs going into the mill and dimensional lumber and plywood coming out.

Carter was a sawmill man, not a railroad man. He bought his first rolling stock as cheaply as he could find it. He found an old locomotive that had been in the Panama Canal Zone. His passenger car — singular, not plural — must have looked like a rolling Christmas ornament: it was red with a green roof, and it had rattan seats. It came off a commuter line on Long Island, N.Y.

The Houston East & West Texas, incidentally, was notorious for its rough ride. As soon as the trainmen painted the HE&WT logo on the railcars, the locals insisted it stood for “Hell, Either Way Taken.”