The Austin and Northwestern Railroad began construction on a rail line west of

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

, toward Llano on April 20, 1881. The railroad was originally built as a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

line with plans to connect to the

Texas and Pacific Railway The Texas and Pacific Railway Company (known as the T&P) was created by federal charter in 1871 with the purpose of building a southern transcontinental railroad between Marshall, Texas, and San Diego, California. However its lines never went we ...

at Abilene. Construction reached

Burnet, Texas Burnet ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Burnet County, Texas, United States. Its population was 6,436 at the 2020 census. Both the city and the county were named for David Gouverneur Burnet, the first (provisional) president of the Re ...

, by 1882 and the line was later extended to Granite Mountain by 1885 - when the railroad was contracted to haul pink granite for the new

Texas State Capitol The Texas State Capitol is the capitol and seat of government of the U.S. state of Texas. Located in downtown Austin, Texas, the structure houses the offices and chambers of the Texas Legislature and of the Governor of Texas. Designed in 188 ...

building in Austin. The company later extended its line to Marble Falls by using the charter of the Granite Mountain and Marble Falls City Railroad. Due to a bend in the tracks, trains would occasionally derail, accidentally dumping some of the pink granite. The rocks which remain are a local point of interest. The line was converted to and by 1892 the railroad was extended to Llano. In 1901 the Texas legislature approved the merger of the Austin and Northwestern and the

Houston and Texas Central Railroad The Houston and Texas Central Railway (H&TC) was an 872-mile (1403-km) railway system chartered in Texas in 1848, with construction beginning in 1856. The line eventually stretched from Houston northward to Dallas and Denison, Texas, with branch ...

. As a condition of the merger, a new passenger terminal was constructed at Austin, and the line was extended from Burnet to

Lampasas Lampasas ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lampasas County, Texas, United States. Its population was 7,291 at the 2020 census. Lampasas is part of the Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood metropolitan statistical area. History For his ...

in 1903. The

Texas and New Orleans Railroad The Texas and New Orleans Railroad (TNO) was an American rail company in Texas and Louisiana. It operated of railroad in 1934; by 1961, remained when it merged with parent company Southern Pacific Railroad, Southern Pacific. Morgan's Louisian ...

absorbed the line in 1934, and it was later absorbed into the

Southern Pacific Company The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the names ...

. In 1986, Southern Pacific elected to abandon the entire Giddings to Llano line. The City of Austin and

Capital Metro The Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, officially stylized as CapMetro, is a public transportation provider located in Austin, Texas. It operates bus, paratransit services and a hybrid rail system known as CapMetro Rail in Austin and ...

purchased the railroad for $9.3 million, with the intent of using the

right-of-way A right of way (also right-of-way) is a specific route that people, animals, vehicles, watercraft, or utility lines travel, or the legal status that gives them the right to do so. Rights-of-way in the physical sense include controlled-access h ...

as a mass transit corridor. Capital Metro commenced

Capital MetroRail CapMetro Rail is a hybrid rail (light rail with some features similar to commuter rail) system that serves the Greater Austin area in Texas and is owned by CapMetro, Austin's primary public transportation provider. The Red Line is CapMetro's f ...

commuter rail service in 2010 on 32 miles of track, running from

Leander, Texas Leander ( ) is a city in Williamson County, Texas, Williamson and Travis County, Texas, Travis Counties, Texas, United States. Its population was 59,202 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and 87,511 at the 2024 census estimate. A subur ...

to Austin. The operating history of the Austin and Northwestern Railroad, subsequent to Capital Metro's acquisition of the railroad, is as follows: *

RailTex RailTex was a transportation holding company that specialized in owning and operating short line railroads across North America. Based in San Antonio, Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central U ...

A&NW (AUNW): August 15, 1986 to May 6, 1996 * Longhorn Railroad (LHRR), operated by Central Tennessee: May 6, 1996 to April 2000 * Austin Area Terminal Railroad (AUAR), operated by Trans-Global Solutions, Inc: April 2000 to October 1, 2007 *

Austin Western Railroad The Austin Western Railroad is a Class III short-line railroad headquartered in Round Rock, Texas. AWRR is a subsidiary of Watco. It is the contracted operator of of ex-Southern Pacific trackage, now owned by Capital Metropolitan Transportatio ...

(AWRR), operated by

Watco Watco Companies, L.L.C. (Watco) Watco is an American transportation and logistics company based in Pittsburg, Kansas. The company’s core services are freight transportation, material handling and storage, logistics, railcar repair and maintena ...

: October 1, 2007 to present In 1997 a 30 mi stretch of the track running from Llano to the

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

of Fairland, Texas was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as the Austin and Northwestern Railroad Historic District-Fairland to Llano.

Cities named after A&NW officials

Cedar Park, Texas Cedar Park is a city and a suburb of Austin, Texas, Austin in the U.S. state of Texas, approximately northwest of the center of Austin. According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 77,595, and in 2022 ...

was previously named Bruggerhoff, after a A&NW railroad official *

is named after a A&NW railroad official *

Bertram, Texas Bertram ( ) is a city in Burnet County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,764 in the 2021 estimate. Geography Bertram is located in eastern Burnet County east of Burnet, the county seat. According to the United States Census Bureau, ...

is named after the largest shareholder of the A&NW railroad *

Manor, Texas Manor ( ) is a city in Travis County, Texas, United States. Manor is located 12 miles northeast of Austin and is part of the Austin-Round Rock metropolitan area. The population was 13,652 at the 2020 census. Manor is one of the faster-growing s ...

is named after someone who donated land to the H&TC railroad in the area now known as Manor *

Elgin, Texas Elgin ( ) is a city in Bastrop County in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 9,784 at the 2020 census. In 1995, the Texas Legislature proclaimed Elgin the "Sausage Capital of Texas". Elgin is also known as the Brick Capital of the Sout ...

is named after the H&TC's land commissioner *

Giddings, Texas Giddings is the county seat of Lee County, Texas, United States situated on the intersection of U.S. Highway U.S. Route 77 in Texas, 77 and U.S. Route U.S. Route 290, 290. Its population was 5,129 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 census. H ...

is named after someone who was instrumental in bringing the H&TC railroad to Giddings

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Austin Northwestern Railroad Defunct Texas railroads Predecessors of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company Railway companies established in 1881 Railway companies disestablished in 1901 Spin-offs of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company Railway companies disestablished in 1996 Narrow-gauge railroads in Texas 1986 disestablishments in Texas 3 ft gauge railways in the United States 1881 establishments in Texas