When, on October 28th, 1950, movie-goers lined up on Luling’s East Davis Street to purchase Saturday matinee tickets at the                         then-two-year old Stanley Theater to see the Gene Autrey double-feature of “Sons of New Mexico” and “Pistol Packin’ Mama,”               the stack talk of Espee MK-5 Mikados and F-class 2-10-2s still rattled the windows of the ticket booth as the Sunset Route mainstays plied their trade along the single-track in south central Texas.

Although the death knell had begun to toll when Black Widow F3s arrived in Texas just a year prior in 1949, it would take several more               years before diesel fully and finally vanquished steam. The last fires would be dropped in early 1957, and steam on the                         Texas & New Orleans lines would be finis.

By the time the Stanley showed its last movie in 1974, the F-units would have exited ‘stage left’ and Snoot-nose Tunnel Motors would soon prowl the Sunset Route between Los Angeles and New Orleans, hustling the Blue Streak Merchandise past the vacant marquee and stirring up the dust along Davis Street.

Now an antique mall, the iconic theater still stands as witness to the parade of trains that pass within stone’s throw of its now-extinguished neon lights.

It’s 10:33 on the fine morning of February 13th, 2019, and amid a natural vignette of Live oak and trackside American elm, Norfolk Southern D9-40CW 9908 and a GE sibling are just out of the Luling siding and getting their heavy eastbound train underway. There’s loaded autoracks for Eastern markets…

…and no one in the ticket booth to notice the windows rattling.

Rick Malo©2019

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