Texas and Pacific Railway
The Texas and Pacific Railway Company , Texas Pacific for short, was founded on March 3, 1871 as the Texas Pacific Railroad Company . The name was changed to the final company name on May 2, 1872. The Texas Pacific was one of the few railroad companies in the USA that was equipped with a state concession .
After the end of the American Civil War , the company took on the project of a transcontinental rail link from Marshall , Texas to San Diego , California . On July 1, 1873, the first section of 125 miles between Longview and Dallas was put into operation. However, the project stalled when a stock market crisis in 1873 caused the stock value of the Texas Pacific to fall and the company no longer granted loans due to a lack of collateral.
The Texas Pacific continued with its own resources, but due to the lack of financial support, a connection to the Pacific could not be pursued. It was not until 1879 that a syndicate to finance the project was set up. Due to a dispute with the Southern Pacific Railroad , which had relocated its rails on the Texas Pacific land, the transcontinental railroad was never completed to the planned extent.
Between 1895 and 1932, the Texas and Pacific Railway took over several smaller railroad companies and expanded their rail network. In 1931 the company owned 365 locomotives , 236 passenger cars and 9,816 freight cars. It made $ 24 million moving goods and $ 3.282 million traveling passengers - $ 2.721 million from other sources of income. Oil discoveries in west Texas in the late 1920s, and a little later in east Texas, had a major impact on the Texas Pacific. As early as 1928, oil shipments made up 22% of the total freight tonnage.
The Texas Pacific survived Black Friday and the subsequent Great Depression better than other railroad companies because of its good financial base. In the 1960s, the company was able to expand its rail network by buying up further small and medium-sized railway companies. In 1974 the rail network had grown to a total of 1,982 miles, compared to 1,109 miles in Texas alone. Income from freight transportation was $ 149,073,000. On October 15, 1976, the Texas and Pacific Railway Company went into the Missouri Pacific Railroad .
