Above:  May 31, 1904 GC&SF Public Timetable.
Ken E. Stavinoha Collection.

Above is one of the first GC&SF Public Timetables to include the Cane Belt.  Trains 1 and 2 operated on Sunday only and Trains 3 and 4 operated every other day.  The schedule wasn't exactly expedient - but 4 hours from Sealy to Bay City wasn't unreasonable considering track conditions and locomotive horsepower for 1904.  Note the lengthy time - about 2.5 hours - for the 20-mile section between Matagorda and Bay City.   Probably slow orders were issued (10mph) on this section of track due to either a washout or other problem with the line.

Some changes from the Jan. 1901 timetable (shown on the Cane Belt History page) are:  Trains 1 & 2 (Sunday only) have been added to the schedule, the station named Cantaloupe at milepost 13.35 no longer appears, the station formerly named Dunovant has become Riceland, and the station formerly identified as Quin at milepost 28.68 has disappeared.

Below:  Dec. 20, 1908 GC&SF Public Timetable.  Ken E. Stavinoha Collection.

The 1908 PTT has some interesting features - primarily the origination of the train from Bellville rather than Sealy.  There were two trains that ran every day including Sunday - Train 13 to Matagorda (probably became) Train 14 from Matagorda.  The schedule was reasonable - 6:05 for Train 13 and 5:45 for Train 14 - considering the extra mileage to Bellville.  The time between Matagorda and Sealy was 5 hours or less.

Also notice that there was service between Bonus and Garwood - so a portion of what would become the "Bonus Loop" was complete.  The stop known as Faber would later be replaced by the community of Eldridge.

Some interesting station names that don't appear in the above timetable or any of them below:  Faber, Camperdown, Rehmann, and Harrows (apparently changed to Chalmers).

 

Above:  GC&SF Public Timetable from March 20, 1914.  Courtesy of Joel Rosenbaum.

By 1914, the train numbers had changed to 115 and 116.  Train 115 ran down to Matagorda daily (including Sunday), turned around, and became Train 116 running back to Sealy.  The time from Sealy to Matagorda was a respectable 4 hours and 25 minutes, which reflected an average speed of nearly 20 miles per hour.  (Compare that to the mixed train schedule in 1921, with an average speed of just over 13 miles per hour.)  Train 211 originated in Eagle Lake, ran to Garwood, and returned as Train 212.  It ran every day except Sunday.  The affordability of the automobile and improved roads began to eat away at railroad passenger service - especially along the branch lines like Matagorda.  The railroads cut back on the passenger service (which was seldom profitable anyway) on the branch lines.

Subsequent Santa Fe public timetables show the following:  in 1915, the Garwood trains were renumbered to 111 and 112, but the service (mixed) and the schedule remained the same.  Sealy-Matagorda passenger trains 115 and 116 remained on the same schedule and service level at least through 1917.

                    Below is a copy of a page from the July 17, 1921 Gulf Colorado & Santa Fe Employee Timetable. 
                                                                             Ken E. Stavinoha Collection.

Note that 4 scheduled GC&SF trains came through Eagle Lake on weekdays.   Trains 115 and 116 became separate trains which met in Wharton.  Train 115 ran from Sealy to Matagorda and Train 116 from Matagorda to Sealy.  These trains did not run on Sunday.  Train 117 replaced 115 on Sunday only, and there was no return trip to Sealy from Matagorda between the Saturday morning departure until 116 left on Monday morning.  Note that these were classified as "mixed" trains which means they were freight trains that would accommodate passengers - usually with a coach car - as part of the freight train.  Because the primary purpose was the movement of freight, the schedule was very slow - it literally took all day for a person to get from Sealy to Matagorda or vice-versa.

Employee timetables were not for public use, and they contained much more information regarding train operations, track capacity, and rules.  In the Telegraph Stations column - "N" (night) meant a telegraph operator was on duty 24 hours - usually three 8-hour shifts.  Only Sealy ("SY" call sign) had this status because it was on the main line from Galveston to Temple.  The rest of the stations on the Matagorda District had telegraph operators during daylight hours only.  For the 1921 period shown below, Eagle Lake probably had an operator from 8AM to 4PM or so.  All of the scheduled trains arrived and left Eagle Lake during this interval, so there was typically no need for an operator outside of this time period.  The depot itself may have been open longer hours to accommodate the acceptance and local delivery of freight and express items.

Matagorda District Telegraph Information
 

The GC&SF did not list telegraph call signs in their employee timetables.  The call signs appear in the Official List of Santa Fe Stations booklet, which was printed annually (with a few exceptions).  I added the call signs from the 1924 list in red text on the timetable.  Since the telegraph circuit was one long "party line" (meaning every station on the circuit heard every transmission), the call signs were used to identify the transmitter and/or desired recipient. 

In the Matagorda District, for the period of 1916 - 1939, the status of depots as communication offices remained somewhat static over time - either they were or they were not.  There were some exceptions, and some of the call signs changed as well.  Lakeside had a telegraph call sign of "KA" from 1906 through 1914.  Apparently the agency was abolished because no agent is listed after the 1914 Official List.  The 1916 Official List shows the station at Matthews had a telegrapher and a call sign of "MS".  Matthews is not listed as a telegraph station in the 1921 timetable above, so apparently the telegraph was removed sometime after the 1916 Official List and prior to the 1921 timetable.   The telegraph call sign for Wharton was "WR" in the 1916 list, but had changed to "W" by the time of the 1924 edition.  Gulf Hill was not listed as a telegraph station in the 1921 GC&SF employee timetable, but apparently by 1924 there was enough sulfur traffic from the mine there to warrant a telegraph operator at that station and it was assigned the call letters "GH".  However, Gulf Hill was not listed as a telegraph station in a 1926 GC&SF employee timetable either - so the status as a telegraph station didn't last long.  Lane City no longer had a telegraph sometime after November 1931 and before May 1935. Bonus maintained a telegraph until sometime after May 1935 and prior to January 1937.  No evidence has yet surfaced that either Eldridge or Garwood were ever telegraph offices.

                                                                                                     Eagle Lake Santa Fe Depot

The 1906 through 1911 editions of the Official List of Santa Fe Stations show a call sign of "DE" for Eagle Lake and a station number of 8918 - well before Santa Fe built a depot in town.  During this period, the Santa Fe most likely used the Southern Pacific depot and their agent since the Santa Fe track ended right near that structure. After the Santa Fe depot was built, the call sign and station number were transferred there.  The timetables show that "DE" was bundled with the "SA&AP Crossing" at Santa Fe milepost 18.1, which was located 1/10th of a mile east of the Santa Fe depot located at MP 18.2.  A 1920 employee timetable for the San Antonio & Aransas Pass also listed "GC&SF Crossing - Eagle Lake" with a telegraph call sign of "DE".  So, the Eagle Lake Santa Fe depot telegraph operator also handled train order traffic for the SA&AP.  Having a common telegraph operator was not an unusual arrangement at a joint station, where two or more railroads were served - Wallis was a nearby example - but it was a bit more rare to have an operator serve two railroads that each had their own depot and their own telegraph line, as was the case in Eagle Lake.

Tower 115 was authorized on July 22, 1924 to control the crossing of the San Antonio & Aransas Pass with both the Gulf Colorado & Santa Fe and the Galveston Harrisburg & San Antonio (see the bottom image of the SYSTEM MAP page for the location of Tower 115).  The 1925 Official List of Santa Fe Stations showed the Santa Fe Eagle Lake Depot had a new call sign of "DA".  In the 1928 edition, the "DE" call sign formerly assigned to the Eagle Lake Santa Fe depot reappears under the heading for "T&NO Tower" (which was 115).  So, sometime prior to the 1928 edition of the Official List of Santa Fe Stations was printed, Tower 115 began to handle telegraph train orders for the SA&AP, and received the "DE" call sign formerly assigned to the Eagle Lake Santa Fe depot.  The "DA" call sign was associated with Eagle Lake until the late 1970's, despite the fact that the agency moved to Lakeside in 1970.