Railroad Town: 
Taylor, Texas

Northbound Texas Eagle arriving at Taylor, Texas (2013)

The Texas Eagle glides into Taylor, Texas. Ten-twenty-two a.m., on time, amazingly. A few passengers wait on a bleak, crumbling concrete and brick pad to embark. It is a good thing that Amtrak is on time. There are no restrooms, or other amenities. Other than a small covered space with a few picnic tables there is no waiting room for shelter from the hot Texas morning sun, not even a restroom. A far cry from the once magnificent depot that stood in the same spot. Demolished in the 1980s, it seemed then—as it still does today—that Taylor wants to separate herself from her once booming past as a major railroad junction (one of the oldest in Texas) and shipping point. For most of the 1900s, Taylor billed herself as the “Largest Inland Cotton Market in the World.”

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