Class 7 (Locobase 14160)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 48, p. 297. See also W T Block, "Fostoria Once Was Prosperous Sawmill Town" (Reprinted from Beaumont ENTERPRISE, January 5, 2005, p. A14) at the Texasescapes website, [] . Works number was 40166 in July 1913.

Block's narrative deserves a full reading, but Locobase will note that the seven Foster brothers who eventually gave the town its name come into view when they set up a Texas location in 1895 as Trinity River and negotiated contracts with several sawmillers including H H Everest in Clinesburg in 1897. Having built a planing mill to take Everest's rough-cut lumber and lent him money for upgrades, the Fosters took over the mill in Clinesburg in 1904 and renamed the town Fostoria.

Having bought 130,000 acres of timberlands in several counties (Montgomery, Harris, Liberty and San Jacinto), the Fosters made their namesake town into a model company town. Block reports on the town's reputation as "clean" and "better-equipped than the average mill town" and repeats Mary Stephen's catalogue of amenities for its residents: "schools, a church, commissary, depot, hotel, combination hospital and pharmacy, community hall, and a baseball team."

The FLC ordered this Mogul as the Trinity River Lumber Company, but had it lettered for the FLC before delivery. The 7 supported lumber-hauling operations over 25 miles of tram road that linked to the Santa Fe in Fostoria and the Houston East & West Texas at Midline. It would later operate for the Palmetto Lumber Company on their Trinity Valley Southern short line's six miles of tram road between Dodge and Oakhurst. The TVS was abandoned in 1936.

Fostoria's mills continued cutting until the 1950s as the company took a "quite conscientious" approach to logging and closed the mill in 1957 with plenty of second-growth timber still available.

Class 8 (Locobase 13319)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 32, p. 35 Works number was 33141 in January 1909.

It's not exactly clear just what business the Florida Land Company of Montbrook was in, but it almost certainly involved timber. Logging roads were a typical venue for the work this little Mogul could do. And when the FLC was finished with the 8, it was sold to the D B Morrison Company of Morriston before 1919. Morrison manufactured yellow pine lumber and barrel staves. And the DB Morrison Company sold it to Irvine Crate and Basket Company of Irvine, Fla.