Flatonia - Texas Hot Spot

Flatonia is home to the only train watching platform or pavilion aimed at railfans in the state of Texas. Flatonia is 119 miles west of Houston and 89 miles east of San Antonio on the former Southern Pacific, now Union Pacific, Sunset Route. When we were there the trains of four railroads – Union Pacific, Kansas City Southern, BNSF, and Amtrak - ran past the Flatonia Photo Pavilion as the railfan platform is called on the west side of town. In addition, Tower 3, which used to control the crossing of UP’s Glidden and Cuero subdivisions near the photo pavilion, and a former Southern Pacific caboose have been preserved in the Flatonia Rail Park in downtown Flatonia just south of the Glidden sub. UP’s Glidden subdivision between the outskirts of Houston and San Antonio is part of their busy Sunset Route while the north-south Cuero sub that crosses the Glidden sub at Flatonia is best known for being part of SP’s Dalsa Line and for hosting the Blue Streak Merchandise until the BSM was transferred to a routing via Kansas City and the former Rock Island Golden State Route. This program shows 24 hours of action at Flatonia in May of 2009. “Flatonia – Texas Hot Spot” is 96 minutes in length.  This DVD has the option of being watched with or without narration.