Also in Wright Plaza are 4 smaller murals on what appears to be arched windows on history in a brick and stone building. The perspective work on these murals are really very well done. The speeding steam locomotive in the mural looks like it is coming right at you!
This mural features scenes from the steam locomotive era in Cleburne and the logs of the major (and minor) rail,ines that served the city.
At the top of the mural is the Chief logo of the Atcheson, Topeka, & Santa Fe RR, representing the ATSF's subsidiary Gulf Colorado & Santa Fe. The GC&SF was completed through Cleburne in 1881, connecting the driver in Cleburne's development. The population of Cleburne increased six-fold between 1870 and 1890.
In 1904 the Trinity & Brazos Valley Railway Co. operated a line throuh Cleburne. It is represented on the mural by its ribbon T & B. V. RY Co. logo under the Santa Fe Chief.
Commonly known as "the Boll Weevil Line", the RR was chartered to build from Cleburne to the lumber-rich city of Beaumont near the Gulf Coast, however financial problems necessitated the sale of the Boll Weevil RR to the Missouri-Kansas-&-Texas RR (The "Katy") in 1904. For more on the Boll; Weevil line, read here: (
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The Katy's familiar shield logo is to the left of the Santa Fe logo, creating a nice triangular grouping of the three logos on the mural. The Katy did not stay long, abandoning much of its old T&BV RR lines by 1920. Other parts of the T&BV were used by the Burlington amd Rock Island lines, but the major RR with a poresence in Cleburne was the ATSF.
The huge and long-operating Santa Fe steam shop complex in Cleburne that was built around 1900 and still operates today is recalled by the two vignettes of men working on the locomotives. One inset black and white image is of a man working on a smaller steamer of the 1880s era. Around him is a color depiction of two men from the 1930s (we think) using sledgehammers to replace a steel locomotive tire on a wheel and another man from the modern era using power tools (and wearing safety goggles) to fabricate locomotive parts.
The Santa Fe Shops complex housed three separate shops: A car shop to fix cars, a locomotive shop to maintain the engines, and a machine shop to make parts from raw steel. Most of the old shop buildings still exist, and some are stil in use today. The huge Santa Fe shops smokestack bears the Santa Fe logo, and is an NGS benchmark.
Blasterz really appreciated the the subtle way the artist used color shading and clothing/tool details to indicate over 100 years of continuous RR shop operations in Cleburne.
For more on the Santa FE's presence in Cleburne, see the most excellent Whiskey Texas blog: (
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On the far right of the mural a speeding Santa Fe 4-8-4 Northern steam locomotive No. 3417 comes straight out of the mural, wheels churning and steam trailing behind out of the mural and over the building.