The Kansas City Southern Railway Company was an American Class I railroad. Founded in 1887, it operated in 10 Midwestern and Southeastern U.S. states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. KCS owns the shortest north-south rail route between Kansas City, Missouri, and several key ports along the Gulf of Mexico.
The St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company, known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply "Cotton Belt", was a Class I railroad that operated between St. Louis, Missouri, and various points in the U.S. states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas from 1891 to 1980, when the system added the Rock Island's Golden State Route and operations in Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The Cotton Belt operated as a Southern Pacific subsidiary from 1932 until 1992, when its operation was assumed by Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
The Blacklands Railroad is a class III short-line railroad headquartered in Sulphur Springs, Texas.
The Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi Railroad is a 52.9-mile (85.1 km) short-line railroad in northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas. Opened in 1908, it has undergone several corporate reorganizations, but has remained independent of larger carriers. In 2004, paper producer Georgia-Pacific sold the company to shortline operator Genesee & Wyoming Inc. Traffic generally consists of lumber, paper, forest products, and chemicals.
The DeQueen and Eastern Railroad , also referred to as the De Queen and Eastern Railroad, is a Class III short-line railroad located in southwest Arkansas and owned by Patriot Rail Company of Jacksonville, Florida. It is operated along with its affiliate, the Texas, Oklahoma and Eastern Railroad in southeast Oklahoma as a single combined railroad with 91 miles of track. Specifically, the DQE continues west from a railway connection at Perkins, Arkansas through Dierks, Lockesburg and De Queen to the Oklahoma border, while the TOE runs from the border through Broken Bow and Wright City to Valliant, Oklahoma.
The Ouachita Railroad Company is a short-line railroad headquartered in El Dorado, Arkansas, United States.
The Missouri & Northern Arkansas Railroad, LLC is a Class II Regional Railroad in the U.S. states of Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas. The company is headquartered in Carthage, Missouri. It is not to be confused with the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad which connected Joplin, Missouri, with Helena, Arkansas, from 1906 to 1946.
The Kiamichi Railroad Company is a Class III short-line railroad headquartered in Hugo, Oklahoma.
The Arkansas Southern Railroad is a short-line railroad which started service in October 2005. ARS operates two disconnected lines consisting of Heavener, Oklahoma to Waldron, Arkansas, and Ashdown to Nashville, Arkansas, plus a switch track at Ashdown, for a total of 63 miles. The lines are leased from Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS) to ARS's owner, the Watco Companies (Watco).
The Arkansas–Oklahoma Railroad is a Class III carrier headquartered in Wilburton, OK that operates two segments of the former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRIP) Choctaw Route that originally ran between Memphis Tennessee and Tucumcari, New Mexico. AOK started operations on March 3, 1996 on 73 miles of track then owned by the U.S. state of Oklahoma between Howe and McAlester by assuming the existing lease of the Missouri Pacific, then wholly owned by the Union Pacific Railroad (UP). This lease included a purchase option which AOK exercised in April 2016. The line interchanges with the Kansas City Southern Railway at Howe, and with the UP at McAlester.
The Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad is a Class II railroad operating in New York and Pennsylvania.
The Tazewell & Peoria Railroad (T&P) is a short-line railroad, running entirely in Peoria County and Tazewell County, Illinois, and formed by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. to lease the assets of the century-old Peoria and Pekin Union Railway (P&PU), which is owned by Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern and Canadian National. It switches close to 100,000 cars per year and has about 142 miles of track. Genesee & Wyoming owns 81 miles of TZPR and can handle freight cars with up to 286,000 pounds of cargo.
The Jake Award is an annual award presented to North American short line railroads by rail transport industry group American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association. The award recognizes railroads with a frequency-severity index (FSI) rating of 0.00, thus having no FRA reportable injuries.
The following is a brief history of the North American rail system, mainly through major changes to Class I railroads, the largest class by operating revenue.
In 1887, Robert A. Long and Victor Bell formed the Long-Bell Lumber Company in Columbus, Kansas. The Long-Bell Lumber Company branched out using balanced vertical integration to control all aspects of lumber from the sawmills to the retail lumber yard. As the company expanded it moved further south and eventually had holdings in Arkansas, Oklahoma Indian Territory, and Louisiana, before heading west to Washington.
