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Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (1865-1988) - Familiarly called the M.K.T.
and affectionately referred to as "Katy," the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad was
created in 1865. First called the Union Pacific Railway, Southern Branch
(unrelated to the
Union Pacific Railroad,) the line was chartered by the State
of
Kansas to build from Fort Riley,
Kansas, to the state's southern boundary.
After receiving a land grant, the company began construction in 1869. After the
federal government announced that a right-of-way would be given through Indian
Territory and a liberal bonus of land given to the first railroad to first
reached the Territory's northern border, other companies joined the race. But,
on June 6, 1870, the Union Pacific Railway, Southern Branch won the race and
officially changed its name to the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway.
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Missouri-Kansas-Texas train under several feet of
water,1904.
This image available for
photographic prints
and downloads
HERE!
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Winning the
sole right to build south through Indian Territory, construction began southward
and the company also acquired the Tebo & Neosho Railroad, that connected
Sedalia, Missouri to Parsons,
Kansas. The "Katy," touted in advertisements as
the Gateway to Texas, breached the Texas frontier near the site of present
Denison, where the first regular train arrived on Christmas Day, 1872.
Eventually, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad grew to link Missouri's main
cities, with Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; as well as Texas' large cities,
including Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco, Temple, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and
Galveston.
The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad was purchased
by the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company (MoPac), a subsidiary of the
Union Pacific Railroad in 1988. By that time, the century old company served six midwestern states with more than 3,377 miles of track. Today, it continues to
operates as part of the
Union Pacific Railroad system.
Northern Pacific Railroad
(1864-1970) -
Chartered by the Federal Government on July 2, 1864,
the Northern Pacific was the first northern transcontinental railroad in the
United States. The federal charter and
the
completion of its mainline in 1883 were major factors in the opening of the
northern tier of United States. Operating primarily in the north-central
region of the United States, the railroad served a large area, including
extensive trackage in Idaho, Minnesota,
Montana,
North Dakota,
Oregon,
Washington and Wisconsin.
The company
was first headquartered in Brainerd, Minnesota when it was granted some
47,000,000 acres of land to building rail transportation to undeveloped
territories. Like other start-up railroad companies, the Northern Pacific
struggled with financing during its first few years, as the costs of building a
railroad into a vast wilderness were drastically underestimated.
Organizationally, it survived
numerous financial upsets, takeovers, reorganizations, financial panics , and
lawsuits, but finally, the final spike was driven in at Gold Creek,
Montana
on September 8, 1883.
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For the next two decades the railroad continued to
build tracks and grow and by the turn of the century was famous for its
passenger service throughout the northern United States. By the 1950s, the
Northern pacific had almost 7,000 route miles in its system.
However, after more than a
century of operation, in March, 1970, the Northern Pacific merged with the
Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, Great Northern Railway, Spokane,
Portland and Seattle Railway, and their subsidiaries to become the Burlington
Northern Railroad.
Southern
Pacific Railroad (1865-1996) - Founded as a land holding company in
1865, its original charter called for the railroad to be built through southern
California through Arizona and New Mexico to El Paso, Texas. However, it later
expanded to New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1885, Southern Pacific leased the
operations of the |