Taken August 1955 by my Kodak Brownie camera. Scene is taken from the street that ran in front of the New Ulm, Texas bank, looking to the south-southeast. The main line ran on the other side of the depot with the signal, but there was a long siding on the near side of the depot (see next photo) as well. There were also 3 siding tracks on the other side of the main line (which are still there, but the siding on the near side has long been taken up). The depot was manned at the time, at least in the daytime, since the owner of a bar to my left (owned by the sheriff in the area, who'se name was Elo Zeiner I believe) would leave the bar and drive his patrol car there to meet the passenger train and pick up the US Mail. He did this every day.
In my May 1, 1950 Katy Timetable, it shows the Bluebonnet arriving at 4:53 p.m. headed for Houston and the west/north bound Bluebonnet arriving at 10:41 a.m. each day. I don't know if these schedules changed by 1955 or not. (See timetable for this line below)
The track was in pretty good shape when this shot was taken in 1955, but deteroriated rapidly by the 1960s. Union Pacific now owns the line and had their large work crew (buses of workers) do major work on the main line AND the sidings in 2003 or 2004. It is now (November 2006) in the best shape I ever remmber it being with rock trains speeding through town I'd estimate at 45 or 50 mph or a little more (I know I can't beat a train to nearby Cat Springs or even Sealy).
The depot is still partially in existence today, I understand - it's part of a larger house and you can't really see any depot shape in it anymore, but one room of the house used to be part of the depot. It's several miles out in the country. I haven't viewed it there for years, so maybe things have changed.
This January 1960 shot was taken from the east side of the depot (the Houston side). The track those boxcars are on to the right of the depot were sitting on very 'iffy' track. The main line was open just to the left of the signal and there are other freight cars on the other 3 siding tracks. I don't know why there were so many freight cars here on this date - does anybody know? Derailment somewhere?
From the KATY May 1, 1950 timetable that I own.