Texas and Pacific Railway

The Texas and Pacific Railroad Company, shortly Texas Pacific, was established on March 3, 1871 as a Texas and Pacific Railway. The name was changed in the final of the company on May 2, 1872. The Texas Pacific Railway was one of the few companies in the USA, which was equipped with a state license.

After the end of the American Civil War, the company took on the project of a transcontinental rail service from Marshall, Texas to San Diego California in attack. On July 1, 1873, the first stretch of 125 miles between Longview and Dallas was put into operation. However, the project stalled, as a 1873 stock market crisis lowered the share value of the Texas Pacific and due to lack of collateral the Company, no more loans were granted.

The Texas Pacific made ​​by their own means on, but because of the lack of financial support could not be followed up a connection to the Pacific. Only in 1879 was able to provide a syndicate to finance the project on its feet. Due to a dispute with the Southern Pacific Railroad, which had laid their tracks on the land of Texas Pacific, the transcontinental railway was never completed in the planned scope.

Between 1895 and 1932, the Texas and Pacific Railroad took over several smaller railway companies and thus expanded its rail network from. 1931 had the Company 365 locomotives, 236 passenger cars and 9,816 freight wagons. She earned $ 24 million with the transport of goods and $ 3,282,000 with the passenger traffic - $ 2,721,000 flowed from other revenue sources. Oil discoveries in West Texas in the late 1920s and later also in East Texas, had a big impact on the Texas Pacific. Already in 1928 made ​​the transportation of oil from 22% of total freight tonnage.

The Black Friday and the ensuing Great Depression survived the Texas Pacific because of their good financial base better than other railway companies. In the 1960s, the company continued to expand through the acquisition of other small and medium-sized railway company its rail network again. In 1974, the rail network had grown to a total of 1982 miles, 1109 miles, it was only in Texas. The revenue from freight transport amounted to $ 149,073,000. On October 15, 1976, the Texas and Pacific Railroad Company was taken over by the Missouri Pacific Railroad.