The Texas & Pacific (T&P)

A hint of things to come.   Texas & Pacific #5314, a 4-8-2, shares the joint T&P/MP roundhouse with newly delivered F7A at Texarkana, Texas in June 1950.   J. Parker Lamb photo / MPHS Collection (this photo appears in the MPHS 1994 Calendar)

The Texas & Pacific System
The Texas & Pacific was a Class 1 railroad criss-crossing the huge expanses of Texas north -south-east-west.   The T&P was part of the Missouri pacific family in the late 1800's until railroad mogul Jay Gould lost control of the T&P along with other notable Texas roads such as M-K-T and I-GN.  

The T&P would once again have ties to the MoPac in 1928 when the MoP gained control.   T&P would retain it's identity for many years yet until finally being owned outright by MoPac on 10/15/76.   MoPac had owned more that 50% of the T&P at least since 1956.

The other Texas Lines in Texas, Gulf Coast Lines and I-GN (International-Great Northern), were purchased in December 1925.   The I-GN was actually purchased by the NOT&M in 12/1924, but is not considered one of the Gulf Coast Lines.   The other short lines were all consolidated into the MoPac in 1956.

The Gulf Coast Lines were once owned by the SL-SF (NOT&M, StLB&M and their subsidiaries).   These formed a part of the "Yoakum Empire", which fell apart in 1913.   The GCL operated independently until the MP takeover in 1925.

A Historic Overview
1870s
The Civil War was over, and the goal to construct a southern transcontinental railroad was revived, thus the Texas Pacific Railroad Company was established by a federal charter in 1871, to build a line from Marshall, Texas to San Diego, California.  On May 2, 1872 by an act of Congress the name was changed to its later form, the Texas & Pacific Railway Company (T&P).   The T&P was one of only a handful of railroads in the U.S. to operate under a federal charter, and the only one in Texas, granted by Congress on March 3, 1871.

The company was granted a federal land grant of twenty sections of land per mile through California and forty sections through what is now Arizona and New Mexico and a state land grant of twenty sections in Texas.   The Texas Legislature recognized the federal charter in 1871 and authorized the Texas Pacific to purchase the Southern Trans-Continental Railway Company and the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, both previously chartered by the state.   (This Southern Pacific was not related to the later Southern Pacific system that originated out of California).   This sixty-six mile railroad was acquired by the Texas and Pacific on March 21, 1872, and was the only predecessor of the company in Texas to have built and operated a railroad.   The aquisitions of the Southern Trans-Continental on March 30, 1872, and the Memphis, El Paso and Pacific Railroad Company, acquired June 12, 1873, were roads to only reach the construction phase.  

The T&P grew quickly, building a through-line from Texarkana to Dallas by the end of 1873.   The terminus at Texarkana was of added importance as the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway had also reached Texarkana earlier that year.   The T&P had a connection back to St. Louis, which greatly facilitated its growth and profitability.  In 1872 the T&P also extended eastward into Lousiana with the acquisition of the local SP railroad.

Marshall O. Roberts was the first president of the T&P, succeeded by Thomas A. Scott of Philadelphia in early 1872.   Grenville M. Dodge was appointed chief engineer.   Construction of the various lines was commenced by the California and Texas Railway Construction Company in October 1872, and the 125 miles between Longview and Dallas was placed in service on July 1, 1873.   The seventy-four miles from Marshall to Texarkana opened for regular service on December 28, 1873, and the fifty-six miles between Sherman and Brookston was also built.  

Due to the panic of 1873, construction begun at San Diego was cancelled.   The T&P resumed construction closer to home with the line from Eagle Ford (Dallas) was extended to Fort Worth on July 19, 1876, and line from Brookston to Texarkana was opened for service on August 11, 1876, giving the company a total of 444 miles of line.   Over the next several years the railroad attempted, without success, to finance construction of its line to the Pacific Ocean.

Texas & Pacific #700 in Eagle colors / MPHS Collection

1880s and Jay Gould's Empire
In the fall of 1879, Jay Gould organized a syndicate to acquire an interest in and to complete the Texas and Pacific.   With General Dodge again in charge of construction, and solid financial backing, work resumed in earnest.   Track laying began at Fort Worth on April 1, 1880, and the rails reached Sierra Blanca on December 16, 1881.   Dodge had constructed 520 miles of track west of Fort Worth, winding through land still home to Native Americans, prairie dogs, and lonely coyotes.

During 1880 the company returned to the construction of its Trans-Continental Division, forging ninety miles west from Sherman to Fort Worth, and put into service on May 9, 1881.   By the end of 1881 the Texas and Pacific had 1,034 miles of main track in Texas.  

The California-based Southern Pacific Railroad Company built it's line to the Colorado River across from Yuma, Arizona Territory, where it was to meet the Texas and Pacific.   However, SP's Collis P. Huntington choose not to wait for the T&P and continued to build eastward, reaching El Paso in May 1881, ahead of the Texas and Pacific.

In its construction the Southern Pacific occupied the line surveyed and designated by the Texas and Pacific as its right-of-way.   This resulted in suits being filed against the SP by the T&P for possession of the line between El Paso and Yuma.   The dispute was settled on November 26, 1881, and under the agreement's terms the T&P was to build no further than Sierra Blanca, ninety-two miles east of El Paso.   The two systems would use the line to El Paso jointly, forming one continuous line to the coast.   The T&P relinquished its property rights and franchises west of El Paso to the SP.   The agreement also provided for pooling, harmonious operation, and for the cooperation in the building of new lines.   Later attempts by T&P to contest the agreement terms were unsuccessful for the most part.

1890s
The Texas and Pacific acquired several lines in Louisiana and on September 12, 1882, finished a route from Shreveport to New Orleans.   In 1898 the company built from Waskom on the Texas Louisiana border to Shreveport and relinquished the leased trackage between the two points that it had used since 1862.   Only a single branch was constructed by the T&P in Texas during this period - the six miles between Mingus and the coal mines at Thurber, built in 1888.   Despite this, the road was active in acquiring or financing the construction of short lines to feed the system.   These included the Denison and Pacific Suburban Railway Company, acquired in 1895, and the Weatherford, Mineral Wells and Northwestern Railway Company, acquired in 1903.

Texas & Pacific #804, a powerful 4-8-2 in the T&P's paint scheme of Eagle colors of blue and gray.   These were the only steam engines on the Missouri Pacific system to wear an adaptation of Eagle colors.   A few of these steamers would take this scheme a step further and display the name "The Eagle" on their flanks.   MPHS Collection

1880-1910s and The Missouri Pacific
Between 1881 and 1885, when the railroad entered receivership, the Texas and Pacific was leased to the Missouri Pacific Railway Company.   Following the cancellation of the lease, the Texas and Pacific and the Missouri Pacific continued to work together as a system through Gould holdings in both companies.   With the 1917 reorganization of the Missouri Pacific, Gould interests no longer controlled the two railroads.   The following year the new Missouri Pacific Railroad Company began to formalize its relationship with the Texas and Pacific by buying stock in the Texas line.

1920s
In 1927 the Texas and Pacific acquired the Cisco and Northeastern, the Abilene and Southern, and the Pecos Valley Southern Railway companies.   In 1928 the Texas-New Mexico Railway Company was organized to build from Monahans to Lovington, New Mexico, and in 1929 the Texas Short Line Railway Company was purchased.   All of these short line railroads maintained their separate corporate identities.

The discovery of oil along the Texas and Pacific line in West Texas during the late 1920s and later in East Texas had a major impact on the company.   In 1928 crude oil accounted for 22 percent of all freight tonnage.

Texas & Pacific Pass / MPHS Collection

Ad for 'The Texan' / MPHS Collection

1930-1940s
The T&P acquired a 60 percent interest in the Fort Worth Belt Railway Company in 1932.   The T&P also owned a one-eighth interest in the Union Terminal Company at Dallas and a one-sixth interest in the El Paso Union Passenger Depot Company.   In 1931 the T&P was a force to be reckoned with, owning 365 locomotives, 236 passenger cars, and 9,816 freight cars, and earning $24,000,000 in freight revenue, $3,282,000 in passenger revenue, and $2,721,000 in other revenue.

During the years of peak crude oil movement the physical condition of the railroad was significantly improved, and the Texas and Pacific was able to weather the Great Depression better than many of the other railroads in its region.   Other than the abandonment of the Cisco and Northeastern on March 9, 1942, and the sale of the Pecos Valley Southern on November 30, 1946, there was little change in the Texas and Pacific system for 40 years.

Texas & Pacific GP-18 #501 in the hybrid T&P-MoPac paint scheme.   Always individualistic T&P chose to paint their units in a colorful black and swamp holly orange scheme.   But in 1959, while retaining the T&P design, the railroad chose to standardize their colors to MoPac's Eagle blue and gray.   This unit was delivered in May 1960 to T&P as #1146 / MPHS Collection (this photo appears in the MPHS 2001 Calendar)

T&P #1132.   Diesel-hungry Missouri Pacific was placing orders for the GP7'S, 9'S and 18'S almost as soon as they arrived on the system, and many of these purchases went to the Texas & Pacific.   Built in March 1959, GP-9 #1132 wears the T&P-MP hybrid scheme.   It would go on to be renumbered as T&P 387, then again as MP #552 then again as MP 552 before being wrecked and retired in November 1973. / MPHS Collection

1960s
The Texas Short Line was abandoned on March 7, 1962.   In September 1964 the company acquired control of three associated companies based in Oklahoma, the Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway Company, the Midland Valley Railroad Company, and the Oklahoma City-Ada-Atoka Railway Company.   The Oklahoma City-Ada-Atoka was resold to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company, and the Midland Valley was merged on April 1, 1967, and the Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf on April 1, 1970.   With the acquisition of trackage rights over the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company between Denison and Whitesboro, the Denison and Pacific Suburban became surplus and authority to abandon this line was obtained on April 2, 1965.   In 1968 the Texas and Pacific constructed twenty-nine miles of track from San Martine to Rockhouse and the next year acquired nine miles from Fort Worth to Everman from the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company.

1970s
Since the 1930s the Missouri Pacific owned enough Texas and Pacific stock to give it nearly 75 percent ownership; the Missouri Pacific continued to increase its interest so that by the end of 1974 it owned nearly 97 percent of the stock.   In that year the Texas and Pacific owned 1,982 miles of main track in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.   Of the total, 1,109 miles were in Texas.   The railroad also owned a total of 153 diesel units and 3,629 freight cars.   Freight revenues in 1974 were $149,073,000.   In addition, the Texas and Pacific continued to control the Abilene and Southern, Fort Worth Belt, Texas-New Mexico, and Weatherford, Mineral Wells and Northwestern.   On October 15, 1976, the Texas and Pacific was merged into the Missouri Pacific.   (source - Handbook of Texas Online: TEXAS AND PACIFIC RAILWAY)

Texas & Pacific #2010 / MPHS Collection	Texas & Pacific #2010 in builders photo / MPHS Collection

The Texas Eagle
August 15,1948 saw the first run of the "Texas Eagle", a natural Texan extension of the popular "Eagle" streamliner service.   The diesel streamliners were popping up everywhere, closing out the story of steam on other longtime passenger runs as well such as the "The Texan".   The power of the new "Texas Eagle" were identical in appearance to her older sisters, which were first seen on the "Missouri Eagle" run, except for these units wore a Texas diamond on their eagle nose ornamentation and "Texas & Pacific" emblazoned on their flanks.

The "Texas" Class Locomotive
Delivered in 1925 as part of an order for ten Class I-1 locomotives built by the Lima Locomotive Works, the Texas & Pacific Railroad received the very first purposely designed 2-10-4 built in North America.   This locomotive, road number 600 along with nine others (nos. 601 - 609) had 29" dia x 30" stroke cylinders, 63.5 dia. drivers, a 250 psi boiler pressure, a tractive effort of 83,000 lbs and each weighed 448,000 pounds.

As was the common custom, the first railroad to receive a new wheel arrangement was given the honor of naming the new class.   T&P selected the name "Texas" for the 2-10-4s.   By 1929 T&P's roster had expanded to 70 of these "Texas" Class locomotives

The Texas & Pacific 610 is the sole surviving T&P example of a "Texas" class.   Built in 1927, the engine is owned by the Texas Railroad and currently displayed in Palestine, Texas.   During the 1976 bicentennial celebration, #610 was restored to operating condition, in charge of the American Freedom Train on it's route throughout the southwest .   See Preserved Locomotives for more on this engine.