Mike Barrett's
Taylor, Bastrop and Houston Railway

The Taylor, Bastrop and Houston Railway was chartered in 1886 to build from Bastrop to Taylor, Texas, a distance of thirty-two miles. Before the track was laid, however, it was sold to and built by the Katy. It still exists as part of Union Pacific.

But what if it had stayed in business, moving traffic between Smithville and Taylor? The railroad depicts the TB&H as it might have existed in the early 1960's, making local pickups and deliveries, and moving interchange traffic among the Katy in Smithville, the Texas & New Orleans through Elgin, and the Missouri Pacific through Taylor.

The loop-to-loop layout is designed for operations. It is dead rail, using Stanton remote control throttles and rechargable batteries on board. Two GP-7's and an S-2 switcher are operational with Econami decoders and sugar cube speakers. The code 83 track has been laid. Caboose Industries ground throws are being installed. There is no scenery yet, except for the bridge scene which was formerly installed on David Barrow's Cat Mountain & Santa Fe.

Handicap accessible.


A photo of one of Mike's locomotives with the on-board battery (in yellow) and decoder in place.