Lamar County Texas Trains

About Lamar County Railroads:

Railroad Photos

  One thing was for certain. Without the railroads, western development would have been slow, if not impossible. This follows all the way to the city and town level.

History

Getting Started

  The railroad came to Lamar County in 1875, when the Texas and Pacific was built through Paris to Texarkana. In 1887 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway was built through Ladonia to Paris, to connect with the Texas and Pacific. In 1888 the Paris and Great Northern was built from Paris to connect with the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad at the Red River. In 1909 the Paris and Mount Pleasant Railway was chartered and built; it operated between the two towns until it was discontinued in 1956. The final railroad built in Lamar County during the nineteenth century was the Texas Midland, which connected Paris and Commerce and operated until 1975.

Texas and Pacific Railway

  The Texas and Pacific Railway Company (known as the T& P) was created by federal charter in 1871 with the purpose of building a southern transcontinental railroad between Marshall, Texas, and San Diego, California. Construction difficulties delayed westward progress, until American financier Jay Gould acquired an interest in the railroad in 1879. The T & P never reached San Diego. Instead, it met the Southern Pacific at Sierra Blanca, Texas, in 1881.

  The Missouri Pacific Railroad, also controlled by Gould, leased the T & P from 1881 to 1885 and continued a cooperative relationship with the T & P after the lease ended. Missouri Pacific gained majority ownership of the Texas and Pacific Railway's stock in 1928 but allowed it to continue operation as a separate entity until they were eventually merged on October 15, 1976.

  Several reminders of the Texas and Pacific remain to this day, mainly two towering buildings. Those help define the southern side of Fort Worth's skyline. In 2001, the passenger platforms at the T & P station were put into use for the first time in decades as the westernmost terminus for the Trinity Railway Express, a commuter rail line connecting Fort Worth with Dallas. The warehouse has been torn down and is now luxury condos. The Passenger Terminal and its Corporate Offices have been converted into luxury condominiums.

Current Railroads

Kiamichi Railroad

  Based in Hugo, Oklahoma, the section of the Kiamichi Railroad in Lamar County operates between Paris, Texas, and Hugo, Oklahoma. Most of the trackage that is the Kiamichi Railroad was part of the Ft. Smith & Southern, a predecessor of the St. Louis-San Francisco (Frisco) Railroad and was constructed in 1887. This line started in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, and went south over the Winding stair Mountains in Indian Territory to the Red River at a point north of Paris, TX. The Winding Stair line became Frisco's main line south to Texas, and with the interchange with a Santa Fe branch line from Dallas, TX, provided Frisco with a route from St. Louis to Texas.

  In 1987 Jack Hadley, a retired LTV executive who made his mark operating the steel giant's in-plant railroads, approached BN officials with an offer to buy the lines. The ICC approved the sale by a 2-to-1 decision, and on July 22, 1987 the 7th and 8th Subdivisions of the Ft. Worth Division became the Kiamichi Railroad. In the late 1990s Kiamichi was sold to Statesrail, a Dallas-based shortline firm, which also ran several other lines in the United States. Statesrail became part of the RailAmerica empire on January 1,2002.

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