April 2024 - The MrT Podcast Studio

USRJ S3 Ep26 Temple to Fort Worth

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:38 — 18.0MB)

Temple to Fort Worth – US Rail Journeys Series 3 Episode 26

‘Temple to Fort Worth’ is composed of my thoughts on the 130 mile journey between these two cities. The journey has schedule of 2 1/2 hours but we reach Fort Worth early.

Please click on a thumbnail to see the photographs that go with this podcast:

Temple:

Temple station dates from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. East of the station, on another railway line through Temple, is a former Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad depot.

The station houses the Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum and an Amtrak ticket office. You can visit the museum from Monday to Saturday.

The Amtrak office is open until the northbound Texas Eagle departs.

Next to the station is the home of the Central Texas Area Model Railroaders who have a model train layout. It is is open to the public on the first and fourth Saturday of each month.

McGregor:

McGregor station is a railway station that dates from 1904. This old Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway station is the closest Amtrak station to Waco, approximately 16 miles to the east.

In 2022 3,344 passengers use the station.

Cleburne:

Cleburne was formerly Camp Henderson. It is named after Confederate General Pat Cleburne. In 1871 the City incorporates.

It becomes a major locomotive works for the Santa Fe Railroad for many years. In 1904 Cleburne becomes the northern end of the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway.

Today’s intermodal station, built in 1999, serves Amtrak trains and is the office for the local bus operation.

Fort Worth:

As the episode ends we reach Fort Worth. We are still early! I’ll tell you all about Fort Worth in the next episode.

Next up:

If you enjoy these podcasts please join me in a couple of weeks as we continue our journey on the Texas Eagle.

Links:

To visit the Amtrak website please follow this link.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

Music:

AKM Music licenses Steam Railway and Look at the Detail for use in this podcast.

TH2023 Ep11 02 Max Miller

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:54 — 13.6MB)

Season 2023 – Talk 11.02 – Max Miller

In ‘Max Miller’ Adrian Martin tells us the life story of the music hall comedian billed as the ‘Cheeky Chappie’. You’ll appreciate from that billing that his humour is not always politically correct. Indeed it could be described as ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink… you know what I mean’ humour. There are a couple of examples in this talk.

Early Life?

He is born born as Thomas Henry Sargent in November 1894 in Kemptown, a part of Brighton. His father is a labourer and his mother a flower seller. There are six children including Thomas and his parents are poor.

Often unable to pay rent they move frequently and he attends a number of schools. He leaves school at the age of 12.

He tries his hand at labouring, delivering milk, selling fish and chips, caddying at the Brighton and Hove Golf Course, and trains to be a motor mechanic.

World War 1

On the outbreak of war in 1914 he volunteers for the army and joins the Royal Sussex Regiment . He serves in France, India and Mesopotamia, where he suffers temporary blindness for three days. This experience stays with him all his life.

Demob:

When he leaves the army work is short supply, and his mother has died in the 1918 flu pandemic. He gets a booking at the Shoreditch Hall in 1919 but only lasts a week because of his inexperience.

Miller returns to Brighton and sees an advertisement for artists to join Jack Sheppard’s concert party in an alfresco theatre on Brighton beach. He joins as a light comedian for the 1919 summer season. His future wife, Frances Kathleen Marsh, is a contralto in the group.

Kathleen is from a middle-class family and her elder brother serves as a Brighton alderman for 43 years, becoming mayor from 1949 to 1950.

It is Kathleen, an astute businesswoman, who suggests that he should change his name to Max Miller.

Listen to Adrian tell the full story.

This is an edited recording of a talk given to the Farnham u3a World History Group . Sadly in a few places there is slight distortion on the recording.

It is not possible to use the images presented in the original talk because of copyright reasons.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

AKM Music licenses Media Magazine for use the music in this talk.

USRJ S3 Ep25 San Marcos to Temple

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:35 — 17.0MB)

San Marcos to Temple – US Rail Journeys Series 3 Episode 25

‘San Marcos to Temple’ covers around 105 miles of our journey. We reach Temple, the fourth station on this part of the journey, after nearly 3 hours.

To see the photographs that accompany this podcast please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:

San Marcos:

We soon reach San Marcos station. It is an intermodal transit centre. The primary destination for passengers is towards Dallas–Fort Worth. 19.4% of passengers commute locally and 12.5% of passengers travel as far as Chicago and Los Angeles.

In addition to the Texas Eagle the station offers the Capital Area Rural Transportation System and Greyhound Lines buses.

On the banks of the San Marcos River, the city is home to Texas State University and the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment. It has a rapidly growing population which in 2010 was 44,894, rising to 67,553 in the 2020 census.

The area is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the Americas.

Austin:

Austin station is just west of downtown Austin. The Missouri Pacific Railroad builds the station in 1947. Today it is served by the north and southbound Texas Eagle. There is a small waiting room, ticket office and toilet for passengers.

2022 saw 26,665 passengers using the station.

Taylor:

The next station is Taylor where 3,570 passengers use the station in 2022. There are no staff at the station which consists of a small pavilion with picnic tables. It shares a plot of land with a Union Pacific yard office.

Taylor dates from 1876 when the Texas Land Company auctions lots in anticipation of the arrival of the International-Great Northern Railroad . The city is named after Edward Moses Taylor, a railway official. Initially Taylorsville, becoming Taylor in 1892.