I made a quick trip to Mineola, Texas via the Texas Eagle on Tuesday, March 19, 2002 and here are a few scenes. The highlight of  the trip was the school tour of 84 Amish/Mennonite kids and their teachers. They rode from Texarkana to Longview and had a ball. Dark clouds came over Mineola late in the day and I got some interesting photos.

 
The Texas Eagle arrived in Texarkana at 1042 a.m., a couple of hours late, to be greeted by a tour of 84 Amish/Mennonite school children on a field trip aboard Amtrak and later to an oil museum in Texas near Longview. They were from a Christian school north of Nashville, Arkansas.


More scenes through my coach window of the group plus a scene of them in the observation/lounge car.


More scenes in the lounge then arrival at Longview, Texas about 151 p.m.


Arrival in Mineola was 309 p.m.


Downtown Mineola and a gazebo next to the tracks. Mineola sits on the intersection of busy US80 and US69.


The Mineola Amtrak depot and the well lighted and clean inside.


LEFT-The Mineola depot's caretaker was there at traintime that afternoon. Even though the return train didn't arrive until 820 instead of the advertised 605 p.m., he stayed there until the train left. He also took pride in keeping the place stocked with necessities and made sure all the lights were burning. RIGHT-About 550 p.m. skies turned an ominous dark and I started getting some moody-looking photos of the clouds and tracks.


Railroad signals silhouetted against the dark clouds. The Missouri Pacific caboose showed off its lights in the dark.


LEFT-For a brief few seconds, the sun almost shone when I got this photo of the MoPac caboose with the dark clouds in the background. I had that "Dorothy and ToTo" feeling in the Wizard of Oz. Would I be lifted into the clouds? However, although it did rain at times, the clouds looked worse than they were with only a few lightning streaks and thunder.  RIGHT-UP2313 on a freight at 349 p.m. speeding through town.


Another UP freight through Mineola at 517 p.m. RIGHT-Ceiling light on a Superliner coach on the way back. The train was on time out of Fort Worth but got held due to freights and was 2 1/2 hours late out of Dallas. I got home to Little Rock at 330 a.m. instead of midnight. However, once in Arkansas, we ran at track speed most of the day with no delays.