Research: Tram & Railroad Database

Code:	51
Corporate Name:	Great Sweetgum, Yubadam, & Hoo Hoo Route
Folk Name:
Incorporated:
Ownership:	Thomas E. Durham Lumber Company
Years of Operation:	1885 to 1900
Track Type:	Standard Gauge Wooden Rails
Track Length:
Locations Served:	From the timber to the mill five miles south of Hallsville, (Harrison)
Counties of Operation:
Line Connections:
Track Information:	Tram Road Logging / Industrial Common Carrier Logging Camp
Equipment:
History:	The Thomas E. Durham sawmill south of Hallsville was on the tracks of the Texas & Pacific. A tram line was laid to the mill about 1889. Originally known as the T.M. & C. (Two Mules and Car), the narrow-gauge wooden line, constructed primarily from gum, was operated by two mules in file towing a log car. A Shay locomotive of ten tons was later added, and the name of the tramline was changed to The Great Sweetgum, Yubadam, and Hoo Hoo Route. The locomotive was steam-powered, the boiler being fed with split pinewood, and could obtain a top speed of ten miles per hour. If approaching a hill, the engine, which normally pushed one car while pulling a second, would release the tow car, push the front car up over the hill, release it, then go back and fetch the trail car back over the hill. It would then reconnect, back and front, the two cars and continue on its way. This may be the forerunner of the Durham Transportation Company logging railroad for the A. Harris sawmill at Tyler, in Smith County, in 1906.