Roseland Park and the Southern Pacific Locomotive No. 895 by Christian Wright

            Ever since I was a little kid I used to love going to Roseland park and playing on the playground there. But since I had adoration for trains, I used to love to go look at the train in the park. I admired the locomotive and I would try to go to the park every day to see the train. I’m sure that the train has a significant value to the park and to Baytown itself. The train was always an iconic figure to me. The Southern Pacific Locomotive No. 895 that sits in the park is a wonderful sight to see. The park is a great place for people to go to and let their kids play in the playground, for people to go fishing, have a family barbecue launch boats and Jet Ski’s for summer family fun. It’s a great place to go, seeing the train after it has been restored after years of sitting there and rusting from the moisture of the salt water from the bayou and the Trinity bay. The staff at the park takes good care of the Locomotive, so it’s never a sight for sore eyes; No. 895 is a great symbol of Baytown and it could have been used for many things back in the years, such as helping move things in to start the town we live in now. There are a few railroad tracks and train stations in Baytown, and one track runs right by Roseland Park, on the opposite side of the bridge that is, it’s a bridge itself for trains to cross. People love to go to the park, it’s not a safe place to go to at night but there can be measures taken so that people can enjoy the park without having to worry much about crime, the area the park is located in 
has a high crime rate.

            There wasn’t much information that I could find for the train or the park themselves but from going to the park here’s what I gathered from the plaques on the side of the train. It was built by the American Locomotive Company in the year 1913. The weight of the engine itself is around three hundred forty-one thousand six hundred pounds and its total length is seventy two feet two and five eighths inches. Its tractive effort, which is the force generated by a vehicle's engine or motor in order to generate motion, was around forty one thousand one hundred forty pounds. The train was used in freight services on Texas and Louisiana train lines, gathering from this, knowing that Texas imports fuels like gasoline, oil and other items, which is what the train was used for, importing and exporting goods. The train was donated to Baytown in March 1957 to Robert E. Lee Senior High School’s key club and to the city of Baytown by the Southern Pacific lines. Due to hurricane Ike a few years back, the train was dealt some great damage, and was recently restored back to its former glory a few months back. This is what was gathered from reading a tiny bit of an article on the newspaper article, The Baytown Sun. Also the bell that was in the train was also stolen but either a new one or the original was recovered and shipped back to Texas from California, this took place in roughly about a year ago. The train now stands in the park in all its glory.

            I return to the train after not being there for so many uncounted years, with my friends Caleb and Lane. They drove me there since I have no car, I wanted to take pictures of its beauty so I hopped out of the car, my friend Lane stayed behind in the car but Caleb went with me, though he wasn’t born in Texas, or neither has he lived here long. So he was silent while I approached the train to take my pictures, first though I wanted to view the plaques that used to be in front of the train. I was startled when they were not there and I wondered where they had vanished to, then I remembered hurricane Ike flooded the area so nothing was there, the rushing water from the storm may have torn the plaques off and carried them away. I shrugged it off and continued looking at the glorious steam powered Locomotive. Remembering when I was a little kid and how I used to adore trains. I had many different sets for electronic toy trains, though not many of them looked realistic, they were Thomas the tank engine toys, but this is not the point here. I stared at the train some more while Caleb walked around the other side, still silent, I started to take my pictures and smiled wondering what all it carried it could have helped carry in the equipment to help found our town, importing and exporting oil from the many oil wells Baytown had spread out. I walk around to the other side taking long distance shots of the train trying to get the park in the background, though all you could see was part of it and a chain link fence that blocked some of the view. I missed going to the park and seeing the train, it was one of my favorite things to do when I was a kid. I find 2 plaques with a small bit of information on them, snapped a few pictures of as close as I could of them and finished taking my pictures. As I walked away from the train back to the car, I take a look back and smile knowing that the train had a bit to do with our town history, at least I think so. I turn to Caleb who is now beside me and ask him, “so what do you think of the train dude?” He shrugged and chuckled “I think it’s a wonderful sight to come see.” We then loaded up in the car and left, as we were leaving I thought to myself that I should start coming back here I can make more memories of the wonderful park and of the train.