Texas and Oklahoma Railroad (1902)

Last updated
The Texas and Oklahoma Railroad (1902)
Overview
Locale Oklahoma
Dates of operation19021903
Technical
Track gauge 4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length40 miles (64 km)

The Texas and Oklahoma Railroad (T&O) existed briefly from its incorporation in mid-1902 to its consolidation with another line at the end of 1903. Its main accomplishment was to construct 40 miles of track northwest out of Coalgate, Oklahoma.

History

The Texas and Oklahoma Railroad Company was incorporated May 15, 1902, under the laws of the Oklahoma Territory. [1] In that year, the railway constructed track from Coalgate to a point about 40 miles northwest of that town. [1] On December 12, 1903, the railway was consolidated with the Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad Company (of 1901) to form the new Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad Company (of 1903). [1] The latter built 78 miles of rails from the end of T&O's tracks into Oklahoma City. [1] The physical assets of that entity were sold June 30, 1904 to the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company. [1]

In subsequent history, while the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company was merged into the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway (Katy) in 1922, the trackage between Oklahoma City and Coalgate was not part of the reorganized company. [1] [2] Instead, that line was sold in 1923 to a Mr. H. R. Hudson, who took the trackage, together with leased trackage between Coalgate and Atoka, Oklahoma built by another affiliate, to create the Oklahoma City–Ada–Atoka Railway. [2] That line become one of the Muskogee Roads in 1929, and was in turn sold to the Missouri Pacific Railway's Texas and Pacific Railway subsidiary in 1964. [2] Said trackage was subsequently sold to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. [2] The entire line between Oklahoma City and Atoka was later abandoned. [2]

This railway is not to be confused with another company of the same name, the Texas and Oklahoma Railroad incorporated in 1991. [3] That line originally had trackage in both Oklahoma and Texas, but has since been shortened to a route between Sweetwater and Maryneal in Texas. [3] [4] [5]

Related Research Articles

BNSF Railway America freight railroad

BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad network in North America. One of eight North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, 32,500 miles (52,300 km) of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide rail connections between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles in 2010, more than any other North American railroad.

Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad

The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railway is a former Class I railroad company in the United States, with its last headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Established in 1865 under the name Union Pacific Railway, Southern Branch, it came to serve an extensive rail network in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri. In 1988, it merged with the Missouri Pacific Railroad; today, it is part of Union Pacific Railroad.

Alabama and Gulf Coast Railway

The Alabama and Gulf Coast Railway is a Class II railroad owned by Genesee & Wyoming. It operates 348 miles (560 km) of track from the Pensacola, Florida export terminals, west of downtown, north to Columbus, Mississippi, with trackage rights along BNSF Railway to Amory, Mississippi. A branch uses trackage rights along Norfolk Southern from Kimbrough, Alabama west and south to Mobile, Alabama, with separate trackage at the end of the line in Mobile.

St. Louis–San Francisco Railway former American railroad

The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, commonly known as the "Frisco", was a railroad that operated in the Midwest and South Central United States from 1876 to April 17, 1980. At the end of 1970, it operated 4,547 miles (7,318 km) of road on 6,574 miles (10,580 km) of track, not including subsidiaries Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway and the Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad; that year, it reported 12,795 million ton-miles of revenue freight and no passengers. It was purchased and absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1980. Despite its name, it never came close to San Francisco.

Farmrail Corporation

Farmrail System, Inc. is an employee-owned holding company for two Class III common-carrier railroads comprising "Western Oklahoma’s Regional Railroad" based in Clinton, Oklahoma. Farmrail Corporation has acted since 1981 as a lessee-operator for Oklahoma Department of Transportation, managing an 82-mile east-west former Rock Island line between Weatherford and Erick and an additional 89 miles of former Santa Fe track, Westhorn-Elmer, acquired by the State in 1992 from the ATSF Railway. Another wholly owned affiliate, Grainbelt Corporation (GNBC), was formed in 1987 to buy 176 contiguous north-south route-miles linking Enid and Frederick.

Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad Class III shortline railroad in Missouri

The Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad, LLC is a Class III shortline railroad 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.

Kiamichi Railroad

The Kiamichi Railroad Company is a Class III short-line railroad headquartered in Hugo, Oklahoma.

Midland Valley Railroad

The Midland Valley Railroad (MV) was incorporated on June 4, 1903 for the purpose of building a line from Hope, Arkansas, through Muskogee and Tulsa, Oklahoma to Wichita, Kansas. It was backed by C. Jared Ingersoll, a Philadelphia industrialist who owned coal mining properties in Indian Territory. The railroad took its name from Midland, Arkansas, a coal mining town in western Arkansas, which was served by the railroad. The Midland Valley gained access to Fort Smith, Arkansas via trackage rights over the Frisco from Rock Island, Oklahoma.

Wichita, Tillman and Jackson Railway

The Wichita, Tillman and Jackson Railway is a shortline railroad subsidiary of the Rio Grande Pacific Corporation that operates in Oklahoma and Texas. The line for which it is named extends from Wichita Falls, Texas to just north of Altus, Oklahoma, through Wichita County, Texas, Tillman County, Oklahoma, and Jackson County, Oklahoma. It interchanges with the Union Pacific (UP) and BNSF at Wichita Falls, with Farmrail (FMRC), Stillwater Central Railroad (SLWC), and the BNSF at Altus, and with Grainbelt (GNBC) at Frederick, Oklahoma. It carries predominately grain, chemicals and agricultural products.

The Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway (KO&G) was formed on July 31, 1919 from the assets of the bankrupt Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway. The KO&G largely consisted of a single line from Baxter Springs, Kansas, to Denison, Texas, prior to its purchase by Missouri Pacific's Texas and Pacific Railway in 1964 and merger in 1970.

The Oklahoma City – Ada – Atoka Railway (OCAA) was formed from trackage from Oklahoma City to Atoka via Shawnee, Ada, and Coalgate, Oklahoma. Atoka to Coalgate had been built between 1882 and 1886 as feeder to the old Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad (Katy) main line, and Coalgate-Shawnee-Oklahoma City had been constructed by Katy affiliates, and specifically the first 40 miles northwest out of Coalgate having been built by the Texas and Oklahoma Railroad in 1902, and the remaining 78 miles into Oklahoma City having been built in the 1903-1904 timeframe by that line’s successor, the Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad Company. However, these properties were not included in the 1923 reorganization of the Katy, and were put in the OCAA instead. The OCAA ended up being sold to the Muskogee Company in 1929, becoming one of the Muskogee Roads.

Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Subsidiary of the Santa Fe Railway

The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad was a U.S. railroad that owned or operated two disjointed segments, one connecting St. Louis, Missouri with Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the other connecting Albuquerque, New Mexico with Southern California. It was incorporated by the U.S. Congress in 1866 as a transcontinental railroad connecting Springfield, Missouri and Van Buren, Arkansas with California. The central portion was never constructed, and the two halves later became parts of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway systems, now both merged into the BNSF Railway.

Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway

The Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway (P&SF) is a now-defunct railroad company that was a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF), operating primarily in the Texas Panhandle.

The Muskogee Company, although a Philadelphia company, was founded in Delaware on February 27, 1923. The company officers were brothers C. Jared Ingersoll, industrialist, as president, and John H. W. Ingersoll, attorney and industrialist, as vice president and treasurer. The Muskogee Company owned large interests in several railroads in and about northeastern Oklahoma.

Muskogee Roads

The Muskogee Roads was the colloquial name for a system of railroads under common management operationally headquartered in Muskogee, Oklahoma and controlled by the Muskogee Company of Philadelphia. The Muskogee Roads were the only Class I railroads to be headquartered in Oklahoma and had a major impact on the development and livelihood of the region.

Texas Northeastern Railroad

The Texas Northeastern Railroad is a Class III railroad operating in the United States state of Texas that began operations in 1990. It consists of 104 miles (167 km) of track on two lines.

Ripley and New Albany Railroad

The Ripley & New Albany Railroad is a 27-mile long (43 km) shortline railroad that runs from New Albany to Falkner, Mississippi, and previously extended from Houston, Mississippi, to Middleton, Tennessee, along former Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad trackage. RNA interchanges with the BNSF Railway in New Albany, Mississippi. It primarily hauls lumber products and Oil-Dri.

Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway

The Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway of Texas came into existence on October 7, 1902, originally chartered to build a railroad from Johnson County to the Beaumont area near the Gulf coast. It took its name from the Trinity and Brazos rivers. It was commonly known as the “Boll Weevil," though it referred to itself as the "Valley Road."

The Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railway, its affiliate the Northwestern Railway Company of Texas, and two subsidiaries collectively constructed a railway running from Wichita Falls, Texas through Altus, Oklahoma to Forgan, Oklahoma, with a branch running from Altus to Wellington, Texas. The network comprised 359.3 miles of track, and was collectively known as the Wichita Falls Route.

The Texas and Oklahoma Railroad (TXOR), created in 1991, ran between Oklahoma and Texas on rail purchased from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF). Much of the trackage has since been sold or abandoned; however, the railway continues to exist as a shortline carrier operating between Sweetwater, Texas and Maryneal, Texas.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Railroads of Oklahoma, June 6, 1870 to April 1, 1978. State of Oklahoma Department of Transportation, Survey Division. April 1, 1978. pp. 50–53.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Oklahoma City, Ada and Atoka Railway". AbandonedRails.com. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  3. 1 2 "Employer Status Determination" (PDF). Railroad Retirement Board. Retrieved January 5, 2022.
  4. "Statewide Railroad Map, 2021" (PDF). Texas Transportation Commission. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
  5. "BNSF Network Map" (PDF). BNSF. Retrieved January 4, 2022.