hi,
i’m going to be taking a vacation to valentine texas in late september. SP came throught there approx 1882. my father had a choice of valentine or lumberton missisippi when he got hired by SP in the early 50’s as a telegrapher. he chose the later. i want to see what i missed out on growing up there. i’d like to know if anyone has any info on valentine so when i get there i’ll have some idea of and where some locations to shoot some photos of the traffic going thru and locally and not waste a lot of time in the wrong places. looking at mapquest there appears to be a double siding close to the mainline. the line is still marked as SP on their map.
my reason for posting this request here and not further down the list in Trains is i’m going to be modeling this small town into my layout. a simple mainline with two sidings. this line i believe; sees passenger and a lot of freight.
thanks in advance,
michael gray
Just be thankful your Dad didn’t choose Valentine. You’ll see why when you arrive. There’s not much of anything.
If you’re adventurous, you can follow the Old Texas Trail (fancy name for I-10) through West Texas & then take side roads to see old mines and historical stuff as you pass through the White & Davis Mountains. If you’re a member of AAA, they probably have some pretty extensive tour guides for the general area.
The town of Marfa has mysterious lights in the sky at night You can see them sometimes about 10 miles east of town when looking back toward Marfa to the west…it’s kinda weird. Big Bend National Park is not too far away nor is Terlingua, home of the famous Chili cook-off. Alpine and Van Horn are other towns within an hour’s drive that also provide sterling entertainment, rivaled only by Chicago’s Rush Street and NYC’s Broadway 
A few years back, there was a spectular train wreck near Marathon that caused severe headaches for SP dispatchers for quite a while. Last time I was there you could still see reminants of the accident.
When Espee track crews first arrived in the area on Feb 14th sometime during the last century, they decided to name the place for Valentine’s Day. Lucky for the town it was the first word and not the second (Day) because people send their Valentine cards to the post office to get postmarked. I doubt they’d go to all that trouble if the town was named Day, TX.
By the way, Valentine is so small, it’s rumored they finally received the 5th digit in their zip code just this past April.
As far as photo locations…one or two shots from anywhere in town will probably all fall within the window frame of your camera. You won’t have to worry about running out of film.
A cautionary note…when driving through that part of The Republic, remember NOT to let your gasoline level drop below 1/4. And keep a few extra little bottles of water handy. It gets mighty hot out t
There sure ain’t much in Valentine Texas…there are actually 2 used routes thru West Texas that the SP (now UP) runs (3 but 1 isn’t used anymore) One route starts in Houston (that’s where SP and Cotton Belt used to divide)…it travels thru Eagle Lake, Flatonia, Seguin, San Antonio (with a spur to Mexico at Brackettville to Eagle Pass) and then it continues to Del Rio, Sanderson, Marathon, Alpine, (that’s where the old route ties in from Sherman Texas that’s not used anymore,) Marfa, Valentine, and on to El Paso all along US HWY 90…the second route starts in Dallas from the north and it ties into the southern route at Sierra Blanca along IH 10 to form one route to El Paso… from El Paso the train goes thru Deming NM, Tucson Az, and on to Los Angeles Ca…West Texas is very barren with small to mid sized mountain ranges and rolling hills…not much vegetation …it’s a beauty all to itself if you like desert landscape…if you’re going to travel there, take the US HWY 90 West route starting in San Antonio…it’s real scenic, a good road, and has some nice attractions like Judge Roy Bean’s “Jersey Lilly”, Seminole canyon and lots of SP historic sites not to mention, you’ll stay by the RR tracks most of the time for lots of railfan action…don’t take IH 10 until you get to Van Horn…it’s straight as an arrow not many trains to see until you get to Sierra Blanca, and a very boring drive…US 90 West is the way to see west Texas…chuck
I would also like to add that Highway 90 will have the railroad tracks to your left or right for about 90% of your journey, …you will have a clear shot of the mainline trains to stop and take pictures from the road by the time you get to D’hanis Texas,…You can stop and take pictures of the Brackettville wye that takes trains to Mexico and there is an awesome train bridge across Amisted Lake near Del Rio…HWY 90 parrallels the tracks until you get to the Pecos river where the rails will dissappear for awhile and then you’ll pick them back up again around Langtry … they will again dissappear for a short while near Langtry but not for long…once you reach Sanderson you’ll see the rails and trains just about the entire way to IH 10… At Sierra Blanca you’ll see where the trains converge into one route west where they join the north and south routes together and at El Paso you’ll see an excellent view of a large train yard right off the interstate with trains running into the mountains west of town…chuck
I forgot to add that if you drive through Sonora (I-10 exit 400) on your way West, stop at Devil’s River Inn for some good Texas beef…if you don’t mind a few cowboys and NatGas hombres downin’ Longnecks around suppertime. Los Jarritos has Mexican food. I had lunch there Saturday and haven’t died yet. Rosie’s Mex Cafe is OK too but pack a few TUMS if you eat the Perro de La Cocina tacos. They have quite a bark.
And then there’s always Sonic to really make you wish you’d kept driving and never gotten off I-10.
Chuck Clark’s above post provides some excellent RR & local sight-seeing tips. Brackettville, by the way, is where there’s an exact replica of The Alamo. It was used in the recent movie starring Billy Bob Thornton.