| Code: | 130 |
| Corporate Name: | W. T. Carter & Bro. tram road at Barnum |
| Folk Name: | |
| Incorporated: |  |
| Ownership: | W. T. Carter, E. A. Anderson, A. B. Catton. Catton sold out to the Carters. |
| Years of Operation: | 1881 to 1897 |
| Track Type: |
 Standard Gauge |
 Wooden Rails |
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| Track Length: | Seven |
| Locations Served: | Barnum (Polk) |
| Counties of Operation: | Polk |
| Line Connections: | Trinity and Sabine at Barnum |
| Track Information: |
| Tram Road |
Logging / Industrial |
Common Carrier |
Logging Camp |
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| Equipment: | Keeling: two narrow gauge geared and two rod locomotives |
| History: | The W. T. Carter & Brother tram road at Barnum exemplified the shift in East Texas from wagons and animals to logging cars and locomotives. This tram road was, in 1881, a replica of the small-time operation used for logging purposes at Carter's earlier sawmill at Trinity. It operated with mules pulling log wagons along a wooden tram road. Flossie Beck noted that the first tram was two miles in length. Four-wheel wagons carried logs from the woods to the tram road. Oxen-drawn, two-wheeled carts were used to skid the logs to the cars. The hoisting of the logs to the axle of the cart was done with the use of a windlass. Secured there with chains, a handmade crane loaded the logs onto the cars. A two-cylinder, twelve-ton Shay “dinkey” hauled the logging flat cars on rails constructed from 4-ft by 6-ft lengths of sweet gum, secured with hand-hewn wooden pegs. A Galveston newspaper noted in 1889 that the the company was using two locomotives to log 12,000 acres of yellow pine with an iron-rail seven-mile long tramroad. The road was extended in 1891 and new rolling stock was added.
The danger that locomotives posed for sawmills was illustrated at Barnum when sparks from a Trinity & Sabine locomotive caused a fire which burned the mill, along with the lumber inventory, commissary, and some houses in 1897. The Carters then decided to move operations six miles south to Camden, since the Barnum loss was complete and a new mill location would afford better access to the timber.
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