Waco, Beaumont, Trinity and Sabine Railway

The Waco, Beaumont, Trinity and Sabine Railway (WBT&S) was a standard gauge U.S. shortline railroad located in East Texas. The company was formed from two earlier shortlines that interchanged in Trinity, Texas, and had come under the control of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway, but were spun off in 1923 as part of that company's bankruptcy reorganization. The WBT&S itself declared bankruptcy in 1930 and would operate under receivership for the rest of its existence—the longest bankruptcy in Texas rail history.^[1]

The line became characterized by financial hardship; by the late 1940s, most of the system had been abandoned, passenger and mail service was reduced to an improvised railcar built from a Ford Model A,^[4][5] and its track was so dilapidated that locals sarcastically referred to the line as the Wobble, Bobble, Turnover and Stop,^[1][2] alternately the Wobbly, Bobbly, Turnover and Stop^[3] or the Wobblety, Bobblety, Turnover and Stop,^[6] often shortened to the Wobbly or the Wobblety. Another nickname was Won't be Back 'Til Saturday.^[3][6] In 1959, the railroad's sole operable locomotive failed an Interstate Commerce Commission safety inspection, and its trains never ran again.^[1][2] Little trace of the Wobbly remains today; all rails except some industrial and yard tracks in Trinity were removed between 1959 and 1972, and all buildings were demolished by 1986, but the Wobbly's last locomotive has been preserved and is displayed at the Galveston Railroad Museum.