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Texas North Western receives BNSF short line award
How were BNSF’s expectations exceed?
The Texas Northwestern used to operate more than 10 miles of track. After the Rock Island went out in 1980, the TXNW took over the Rock’s line from Etter thru Sunray to Morse Jct. and also the north-south Rock line from Stinnett to Liberal, KS.
This line was origianly built as the Amarillo & Canadian River RR. and ran from Liberal straight to Amarillo with the branch from Morse Jct. running west thru Etter to Dalhart. The line to Dalhart was taken out sometime in the 50’s I believe, and the line south of Stinnett thru Borger to Amarillo was abandoned in the 60’s in favor of trackage rights on the Santa Fe from Etter to Amarillo.
After Southern Pacific wouldn’t let TXNW power onto their line at Liberal and not enough business on the line other than grain, the TXNW gave up running it and it was eventually torn out in the mid-80’s.
There was also a Santa Fe line that connected with the Rock at Morse Jct. that came from the east off the transcon line at Shattuck, OK and they had rights on the Rock to gain access to the SF line at Etter. I don’t know when SF abandoned the line from Morse Jct. to the east, but the line from Spearman to Shattuck had been operated by the Southwestern RR and they have recenetly stopped operations on this portion of track.