Wichita Valley Railway

          The Wichita Valley Railway was chartered on February 8th, 1890 to construct a line from Wichita Falls, Texas to the Texas border 300 miles to the west with a branch line to Mitchell County 200 miles to the southwest. Surveyors and Grading crews began working on February 14th with intentions to build south to Seymour, Texas. Track laying commenced on April 1st and was completed to Seymour on September 12th with the arrival of its first train. Discussions of extension began in 1905 between Col. Morgan Jones and Grenville M. Dodge about expanding south from Seymour to Stamford. After much consideration, a new railroad was chartered on October 12th by the name of the Wichita Valley Railroad to construct 60 miles of track from Seymour south to Stamford. Ground broke on or before November 19th and Pushed rapidly towards Stamford. During this time the Colorado & Southern Railway sought interest in the Wichita Valley Railway and ultimately gained control. In 1908 both the Abilene & Northern Railway and the Wichita Valley Railroad became subsidiaries to the Colorado & Southern Railway and both were soon leased to the Wichita Valley Railway on February 1st. By the end of the year in December the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad had purchased the Colorado & Southern Railway becoming a subsidiary of their own. The last passenger train on the Wichita Valley Railway was seen on October 29, 1949 from Wichita Falls to Abilene. It was conducted by Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad doodlebug No. 9842 and ran 1 hour and 20 minutes late arriving in Abilene at 11:20AM. On June 13, 1952 the Stamford & Northwestern Railroad, Abilene & Northern Railway, and the Wichita Valley Railway were all merged into the Fort Worth & Denver Railway, another Colorado & Southern Subsidiary. On April 1, 1953 the first two diesels were delivered from Wichita Falls to replace two steam locomotives. A brand new Fort Worth & Denver SD7 locomotive No. 857 made its way to Abilene that morning with Stamford crew. One of the last if not the last documented steam locomotives across the line was Fort Worth & Denver Railway No. 410 in February 1957. A year prior, in 1981, the Burlington Northern Railroad acquired and merged the Colorado & Southern Railway. That meant that they also acquired the Fort Worth & Denver Railway. However, the Fort Worth & Denver Railway name existed within the company until December 31, 1982. The Abilene to Wichita Falls section of the Burlington Northern Railroad was sold to Lone Star Railroad Incorporated's Southern Switching Company on May 19, 1994 at 2PM. Lone Star Railroad quickly increased shipping prices by $500 a car to drive off business. Their operations by that point included servicing 1500 cars from May to June and 300-400 cars the rest of the year. Late that summer a bridge burned down and Lone Star Railroad did not rebuild it. Southern Switching put in a request to abandon the line in late 1995. Through the efforts of Stamford and other towns along the line, they managed to delay the abandonment by desperately trying to find someone to purchase the line. Unfortunately, a buyer was never found and interest slowly died out. The line eventually was approved for abandonment in the month of August 1996 and the tracks between Wichita Falls and Abilene were torn up by September 6th when the railroad donated 1000 ties to Stamford’s Harmon Park refurbishment. Today portions of the Wichita Valley Railway is still operated by Southern Switching Company. About 4.5 miles of track on the north side of Abilene and the South 2nd Street spurs are all that remain in use. However, various depots and other structural remnants can be found up and down the former roadbed between Abilene and Wichita Falls along Highway 277.