Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway (QA&P) was a freight railroad that operated between the Red River and

Floydada, Texas Floydada ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Floyd County, Texas, United States. This rural community lies on the high plains of the Llano Estacado in West Texas and is sometimes referred to as the Pumpkin Capital of Texas. The population was ...

, from 1902 until it was merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1981.

History

On May 3, 1902, the line was incorporated as the Acme, Red River and Northern Railway. The founders' original, never-realized plans were to extend the line from the Red River to

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

. On January 28, 1909, the railroad assumed the name of the Quanah, Acme and Pacific. One of the largest shareholders was Harry Koch. In 1911, the

St. Louis–San Francisco Railway The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway , commonly known as the "Frisco", was a railroad that operated in the Midwest and South Central United States from 1876 to April 17, 1980. At the end of 1970, it operated of road on of track, not includi ...

assumed control of the QA&P. In 1913, the eight-mile long Motley County Railroad was chartered with money from more than ninety investors. It ran through unfenced ranch lands in Motley County before joining the QA&P at Roaring Springs. This railroad continued to operate until 1936. Freight stops on the QA&P were in the Red River, Carnes, Quanah, Acme, Lazare, Swearingen,

Paducah Paducah ( ) is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky. The largest city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Miss ...

, Narcisso, Summit (Motley County), Russellville, Roaring Springs, MacBain, Dougherty, Boothe Spur, and Floydada. On June 8, 1981, the QA&P was merged by owner Burlington Northern Railroad, which had merged the QA&P's corporate parent, the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, on November 21, 1980. The Burlington Northern Railroad abandoned the former QA&P line west of Paducah in 1982.

Traffic

QA&P's traffic consisted of overhead freight—between the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway at the Red River and the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...

at Floydada—and some general commodities. Starting in the 1960s, the QLA freight train via Floydada was scheduled to arrive

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

38½-to-40 hours after leaving Tulsa. The railroad's traffic was cut back after 1973 when overhead trade took a shorter route via Avard, OK.''

Trains In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often know ...

'' magazine, January 1984, p. 44. In 1925, QA&P reported 8 million ton-miles of revenue freight on 91 miles of line; in 1944, it had 51 million and in 1967, 130 million, both on 120 route-miles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quanah Acme Pacific Railway Defunct Texas railroads Railway companies established in 1909 Railway companies disestablished in 1981 Predecessors of the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway Former Class I railroads in the United States