The Roby and Northern Railroad was constructed in 1915 to connect the agricultural community of

Roby, Texas Roby is a city in and the county seat of Fisher County, Texas, United States. The population was 643 at the 2010 census. History In 1885, shortly after Fisher County was organized, a dispute arose between business partners from Mississippi an ...

with a connection to the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway at North Roby, then known as Old Fisher, both located in

Fisher County, Texas Fisher County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 3,672. The county seat is Roby. The county was created in 1876 and later organized in 1886. It is named for Samuel Rhoads Fisher, a signer ...

, a few miles north of Sweetwater. There was a need to move agricultural products (such as cotton) passengers, and livestock the north to the Waco-Rotan branch of the MKT. The original railroad was equipped with steam locomotives, but in 1922 the owners made the decision to abandon the line. The concerned citizens of Roby were able to raise $10,000.00 to assist the local utility company, West Texas Utilities Company, to convert the railroad to electrical power. This was accomplished in 1923, and rail service was to be continued. The operating corporation was headquartered in Roby. The electric locomotive was shipped in parts to Memphis Tennessee from back east and assembled from its various component parts before being transferred to Roby, where on November 22, 1923, the new electrified Roby and Northern Railroad resumed operations. This made the Roby and Northern the only electrified interurban in

West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio. No consensus exists on the boundary betwee ...

. The railroad continued operations until 1941 when a shortage of business, a lack of employees due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and the more pressing need for scrap iron all contributed to the abandonment of the railroad.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roby Northern Railroad Defunct Texas railroads Railway companies established in 1915 Railway companies disestablished in 1941 Transportation in Fisher County, Texas Interurban railways in Texas American companies established in 1915 American companies disestablished in 1941