The International & Great Northern Railroad went from the east Texas town of Longview (where it met the Texas & Pacific) to Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Laredo. At the time this map was issued in 1878, the extension to San Antonio and Laredo wasn’t completed, so travelers to San Antonio were encouraged to take the I&GN to Houston and connect with another railroad, the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio. I&GN’s line to San Antonio would open in 1880.
Click image to download a 7.9-MB PDF of this timetable, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.
Also in 1880, the railroad came under the control of Jay Gould, who also controlled the Texas & Pacific and Missouri Pacific. Although Gould was unable to retain control of the I&GN, which went through a couple of bankruptcies, Missouri Pacific regained control of I&GN in 1925.
This 15″x24″ brochure devotes three of twelve panels on one side to timetables. However, a brief examination reveals that, as far as the I&GN is concerned, all of the timetables are identical. In fact, I&GN only had one westbound train per day, leaving Longview at 4:10 pm, splitting at Palestine that evening with part of the train arriving in Houston at 7:30 am and part in Austin at 10 am. The three timetables differ only in the list of connecting trains that can be taken to Longview from Chicago, Louisville, or Chattanooga.
Curiously, no eastbound trains are shown in any of the timetables, though it wouldn’t have been difficult to include them. This brochure aimed to attract immigrants and farmers to west Texas, so the point was to show people how to get there, not how to get out.
Whether coming from Chicago, Louisville, or Chattanooga, the single train from Longview to Austin/Houston is listed as “Texas Express.” Was that the name of the train or just a statement that this was the express route to destinations in Texas? Although elsewhere the brochure describes the “elegant Pullman sleepers” that “run through from St. Louis and Little Rock to Houston,” as well as dining cars and “ladies coaches,” nowhere in the brochure is the name “Texas Express” applied to this train.
Wikipedia’s admittedly incomplete list of named passenger trains includes three trains named Texas Express, but none were operated by the International & Great Northern. Although not definitive, I suspect that “Texas Express” was not the formal name of the train.