Locomotive & Shipping Pens

A steam locomotive originally given to Texas Tech University in the 1960s was moved to the National Ranching Heritage Center where specially laid tracks allowed it to stand next to the restored Ropes railroad station. Together with cattle cars, caboose and shipping pens, they help to tell the story of the railroad’s influence on the cattle industry in Texas.

When former vice president of the Fort Worth and Denver railroad line and Texas Tech Regent Wright Armstrong made an effort to acquire a locomotive for the University, he learned the engines had been sold for scrap in 1955. With none available in Texas, the Burlington Railroad Lines, which owned the Fort Worth and Denver, provided an engine from another of its subsidiaries, the Colorado and Southern line out of Denver. Number 4994, was brought out of storage. It was restored and its markings changed to represent the locomotive as one used in West Texas—the Fort Worth and Denver 401. The 4994 is similar in style to the 401, which had been originally built in 1915. Both started in service as coal burners and were later converted to oil.

Built in 1923 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pa., for freight service on the Burlington Northern’s main line, the locomotive was donated to Texas Tech in 1964 and occupied a space near the Coliseum on the Texas Tech campus. In 1983, arrangements were made for it to be part of an exhibit at the National Ranching Heritage Center.

The Santa Fe Railroad personnel used a switch engine to pull the Texas Tech engine across the highway and onto a temporary spur to the permanent exhibit track near the NRHC’s Ropes Depot. Also acquired for the locomotive were wooden Santa Fe cattle cars, including a rare double-deck car that hauled sheep and small livestock, and the single-deck stock car, which carried cattle and horses. Cowhands escorting their herds often rode in the wooden caboose. The NRHC’s train is typical of those used for shipping livestock in the 1920s and ’30s.

The Cattle Shipping Complex was dedicated Sept. 17, 1983, and included cattle shipping pens from the King Ranch near Kingsville, Texas. The train and shipping pens help tie together the histories of the nation’s railroad and ranching industries.

A portion of the Caesar’s Pens from the King Ranch, once the largest cattle shipping enclosures in the world, was given to the NRHC to be a part of the railroad exhibit. A historical marker was placed at the original spot of the Caesar’s Pens near Kingsville in South Texas, dating them to the early 1900s and reflecting the name of Caesar Kleberg, rancher and wildlife promoter, born on Sept. 20, 1873, at Cuero, Texas. He moved to the King Ranch in 1900 to begin work as chief assistant to his uncle, Robert J. Kleberg. Caesar made his mark during his 30-year career as foreman of Norias, 40 miles south of Kingsville.

A King Ranch four-man crew brought two trucks carrying gates, posts and steps from the famous pens, which were taken down when the ranch’s cattle were no longer shipped long distances. Building plans were obtained from the Santa Fe Railroad for the smallest set of pens, and these were donated to the NRHC.

The most active period for the pens was the 1920s through the 1970s. Dr. Lauro F. Cavazos, former president of Texas Tech University who grew up on the King Ranch, said he recalled the image of his father, foreman of the Santa Gertrudis Division, perched on the fence of the Caesar’s Pens, counting cattle. “People worked hard. There was tremendous loyalty, understanding, patriotism—values somehow distorted in today’s world.”

He said the people who grew up on the King Ranch were taught responsibility and truthfulness by their parents and all the ranch family. “I don’t know how or why I was so lucky to have been born at that time, under those circumstances and to that set of parents,” Cavazos said. “But life on the King Ranch gives a perfect example of the impact of environment on people and how they comport themselves later in life.”