The Houston and Texas Central Railway (H&TC), was an 872-mile (1403-km) railway system chartered in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

in 1848, with construction beginning in 1856. The line eventually stretched from

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

northward to

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and Denison, Texas. with branches to Austin and

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History

Ebenezer Allen of Galveston, Texas obtained the charter to establish a railroad company on March 11, 1848. A series of meetings about the establishment of the company occurred in Chappell Hill and

. In 1852, the Galveston and Red River Railway (G&RR) company became active. Other investors included Paul Bremond, Thomas William House, Sr., William J. Hutchins, Francis Moore, Benjamin A. Shepherd, James H. Stevens,

William Marsh Rice William Marsh Rice (March 14, 1816 – September 23, 1900) was an American businessman who bequeathed his fortune to found Rice University in Houston, Texas. Rice was murdered by his valet Charles F. Jones while sleeping. The murder was pa ...

, and William Van Alstyne.Maxwell (1998), pp. 6–7. The start of construction occurred on January 1, 1853, when Bremond and House broke ground in Houston. Track-laying of the

gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, ...

railroad began in early 1856. On July 26, 1856, the track-laying reached the point, at Cypress. The railroad company name changed from G&RR to H&TC on September 1, 1856. By April 22, 1861 the railroad construction had reached the point at Millican. Because of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, the railroad construction was halted. In 1867, with the war over, construction resumed. In 1867, the H&TC railroad company took control of the Washington County Railroad (1856–1868). That railroad consisted of of railroad line between Brenham, Texas and

Hempstead, Texas Hempstead is a city in and the county seat of Waller County, Texas, United States, part of the metropolitan area. History On December 29, 1856, Dr. Richard Rodgers Peebles and James W. McDade organized the Hempstead Town Company to sell lots in ...

, which had been chartered in 1856 and completed in April 1861 with a gauge of 5 feet 6 inches. The H&TC completed the line to Austin on December 25, 1871. H&TC rails reached Corsicana in 1871,

in 1872, and Red River City, Texas (now Denison) in 1873, where it connected with the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. This formed the first all-railroad route from Houston to

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, and the

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for freight and passengers. The H&TC was sold to Charles Morgan in March 1877 but continued to operate independently until 1927, when it was leased to the

Texas and New Orleans Railroad The Texas and New Orleans Railroad was a railroad in Texas and Louisiana. It operated of railroad in 1934; by 1961, remained when it merged with parent company Southern Pacific. Location The Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad was a partl ...

, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The HT&C was merged into the T&NO in 1934. The T&NO was merged into the SP in 1961, and the SP into the

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

in 1996. U.S. Route 75 was built on top of the abandoned H&TC from Downtown Dallas to Elsworth Avenue still in Dallas. This highway was locally named as North Central Expressway in homage of the H&TCENTRAL Railroad. The Dallas Area Rapid Transit railroad purchased the track in 2012https://www.dart.org/about/history.asp and runs the commuter train on the former H&TC from Elsworth Avenue to Plano. From that point, the abandonment continues to

McKinney, Texas McKinney is a city in and the county seat of Collin County, Texas. It is Collin County's third-largest city, after Plano and Frisco. A suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, McKinney is about north of Dallas. The U.S. Census Bureau lis ...

Impressions of 1891

File:US-TX(1891) p830 HOUSTON RAILROAD DEPOT AT HOUSTON & TEXAS RAILROAD.jpg, Houston, H&TC Depot, (c. 1890) File:US-TX(1891) p819 CUTTING TIMBER ON THE LINE OF THE HOUSTON & TEXAS CENTRAL RAILROAD.jpg, Cutting timber at the Line of the H&TC File:US-TX(1891) p819 LUMBER MILL AT LINE OF HOUSTON & TEXAS CENTRAL RAILROAD.jpg, Lumber Mill at the Line of the H&TC File:Houston Texas Central ad1894.png, Advertisement, 1894

References

External links

Abandoned rails

Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library
1902 Houston and Texas Central Map

Schedule of the Houston and Texas Central Railway, 1879 {{North America Class I Defunct Texas railroads Predecessors of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company 5 ft 6 in gauge railways in the United States 1852 establishments in Texas

History

See also

Impressions of 1891

References

External links