Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part II (Texas City: maternity, naval base)

[TrapperL]

I think you're talking about the Pig Stand at Rigsby and W W White. They had a neon sign with a walking pig. The ice house was called Richters Ice House. Beer was COLD.

[SATX56]

Back in the 50's we'd visit the Singer Sewing machine Shop on Alamo St. East of Maverick park where the old locomotive sat. I always wanted to stop and get on it. Don't recall if it had a fence around it early on but it did in later years. I recall it being solid black now it's had part of the boiler painter chrome aluminum or silver. Looks cheesy. Christmas lights hanging all over it too.



If I recall the Majestic was built or opened in 1929.

[SATX56]

I've heard others mention a Jay's drive in. It sounded familiar. If it was on W.W. White then I probably would see it on the way to the Towne Twin Drive in. As for the Pig Stand at Rigsby and W.W.White It seems like i recall that being built. But it may have been there as far back as the early 70's. It's surely not as old as the one on Broadway or St.Mary's.

[huckster]

Talk and pictures of Railroads like this around here always brings to mind the enormous Train boiler explosion of 1912 in San Antonio. I read about this, I am not old enough to have seen the damage.........of course ( the last time I checked my I.D. ) but this event has been long recognized as the worse boiler exposion in the history of the country. The damage was what was the most evident in the aftermath of the explosion.
The damage was horrific. So powerful was the explosion. People standing close enough to the old steam locomotive were immediately vaporized, atomized, and then immensesly heavy iron pieces from the locomotive shot far into the air and so were hurled many blocks away from the North Hackberry location near downtown. I don't know how many houses were destroyed by this huge explosion. It was quite a few.
Firemen collected human body parts from victims from all around the area in wheel barrows. An extremely grisly task. I haven't read on this in years, yet, this is of course another very important part of this city's grisly history I believe. Not a good event for San Antonio. It was a definite mess.

The worse recounting I read that was a result of this explosion was from the reporting of a woman's
story who was sitting in her living room in her home a distance away from the explosion.
A male, human arm was driven through and impaled half way through the wall of her wood frame house and stayed there- until removed by the San Antonio Fire Dept... She was sitting in that very room when this event happened.
I would have been very much, quite surprised by this I think...........

Also, this explosion might, could have been, was never been proven, but suspected, to have been caused intentionally, by a labor dispute. Strong evidence existed, that it was.

Originally Posted by SATX56

Back in the 50's we'd visit the Singer Sewing machine Shop on Alamo St. East of Maverick park where the old locomotive sat. I always wanted to stop and get on it. Don't recall if it had a fence around it early on but it did in later years. I recall it being solid black now it's had part of the boiler painter chrome aluminum or silver. Looks cheesy. Christmas lights hanging all over it too.



If I recall the Majestic was built or opened in 1929.

[SATX56]

Originally Posted by huckster

Talk and pictures of Railroads like this around here always brings to mind the enormous Train boiler explosion of 1912 in San Antonio. I read about this, I am not old enough to have seen the damage.........of course ( the last time I checked my I.D. ) but this event has been long recognized as the worse boiler exposion in the history of the country. The damage was what was the most evident in the aftermath of the explosion.
The damage was horrific. So powerful was the explosion. People standing close enough to the old steam locomotive were immediately vaporized, atomized, and then immensesly heavy iron pieces from the locomotive shot far into the air and so were hurled many blocks away from the North Hackberry location near downtown. I don't know how many houses were destroyed by this huge explosion. It was quite a few.
Firemen collected human body parts from victims from all around the area in wheel barrows. An extremely grisly task. I haven't read on this in years, yet, this is of course another very important part of this city's grisly history I believe. Not a good event for San Antonio. It was a definite mess.

The worse recounting I read that was a result of this explosion was from the reporting of a woman's
story who was sitting in her living room in her home a distance away from the explosion.
A male, human arm was driven through and impaled half way through the wall of her wood frame house and stayed there- until removed by the San Antonio Fire Dept... She was sitting in that very room when this event happened.
I would have been very much, quite surprised by this I think...........

Also, this explosion might, could have been, was never been proven, but suspected, to have been caused intentionally, by a labor dispute. Strong evidence existed, that it was.

I read about all that a few years ago also. Parts landing in yards blocks away. Did sound like it probably was intentional. Big disaster but paled in comparison to the Titanic sinking the same year. Definitely a local notable though. I almost went to work as a hostler in the yards there late 70's.

In reference to macvsog13 post, the Jay's Drive in which sounds familiar, I confused it with Robert's Drive in someone had mentioned as a south side hangout. I've yet to hear where exactly it was located. I think there was a Jay's Drive in on New Braunfels just north of I-10/90 at Westfall or just north of it. But this was in later years 70's -80's.

[Azure110]

Here is a good read on the 1912 steam train explosion. I found it as I was curious to learn more about it.

THE EVENT

[SATX56]

Originally Posted by Azure110

Here is a good read on the 1912 steam train explosion. I found it as I was curious to learn more about it.

THE EVENT

Great find. That does have more photos and info than those I've seen in the past. Thanks for sharing!

[TrapperL]

Jays Drive In was on W W White and Hein. Made a lot of stops there on Fridays.

[SATX56]

That's way up there. Doubt I ever saw it.

[huckster]

If we want to mention other out of state catastropes into a historical old locomotives thread in San Antonio,tx, OK- The nearest one was the Titanic indeed ( no pun intended) Texas City, Texas explosion of 1946 - this one in reality did indeed dwarf the locomotive explosion downtown S.A. alright , and nearly anything else. Two ocean going ships full of deadly chemicals were moored at a dock in Texas City that day.
That detonation was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. Two Ocean going, Europe bound ships full of hundreds of tons of explosive ammonium nitrate, sulfur and fertilizer, detonated, perhaps it was suspected in a fire begun by someones cigarrette. They were never , really certain , the last time I read on it, of how the fire began.
The explosion was worsened by the sealing off of the hold ordered by the Captain of one of these ships, the Van De Camp.
Unable to completely extinguish the fire, so then, in order to avoid the looming explosion he thought = they tried to suphocate it. So. The ship became in essence, a smoldering super heated pressure boiler. The entire Fire Dept. of Texas city was killed immediatly. I believe vaporized.
The next day was the second explosion, the other ship moored next to the Van De Camp super heated by the first ships' fire- detonated, full of the same stuff . Ammonium Nitrate. I think they were attempting to pull the second ship away from the Texas City Dock at the time to prevent the second explosion with a tugboat. Poor people. There seem to be a lot of chemical explosions in this state.

Originally Posted by SATX56

I read about all that a few years ago also. Parts landing in yards blocks away. Did sound like it probably was intentional. Big disaster but paled in comparison to the Titanic sinking the same year. Definitely a local notable though. I almost went to work as a hostler in the yards there late 70's.

In reference to macvsog13 post, the Jay's Drive in which sounds familiar, I confused it with Robert's Drive in someone had mentioned as a south side hangout. I've yet to hear where exactly it was located. I think there was a Jay's Drive in on New Braunfels just north of I-10/90 at Westfall or just north of it. But this was in later years 70's -80's.