WFEC Railroad Company-- reporting mark: WFEC-- is a Class III industrial rail line running 14.98 miles from Western Farmers Electric Cooperative's Hugo Power Plant at

Fort Towson Fort Towson was a frontier outpost for Frontier Army Quartermasters along the Permanent Indian Frontier located about two miles (3 km) northeast of the present community of Fort Towson, Oklahoma. Located on Gates Creek near the confluence ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

, near

Hugo Hugo or HUGO may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Hugo'' (film), a 2011 film directed by Martin Scorsese * Hugo Award, a science fiction and fantasy award named after Hugo Gernsback * Hugo (franchise), a children's media franchise based on ...

, to an interchange with the

Texas, Oklahoma and Eastern Railroad The Texas, Oklahoma and Eastern Railroad is a Class III short-line railroad owned by Patriot Rail Company of Jacksonville, Florida, with 39.3 miles of track in southeastern Oklahoma. It is operated along with its affiliate, the De Queen and Ea ...

(TOE) at

Valliant, Oklahoma Valliant is a town in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 754 at the 2010 census. History Valliant was founded June 2, 1902, in what was the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, and named for Frank W. Valliant, a chief div ...

. It is owned by Western Farmers, and was built in 1997.

History

The coal-fired Hugo Power Plant was completed in 1982, and was equipped with six miles of rail line and 330 rail cars. The plant got Wyoming coal at Fort Towson from the

Kiamichi Railroad The Kiamichi Railroad Company is a Class III short-line railroad headquartered in Hugo, Oklahoma. KRR operates two lines totaling which intersect in Hugo, as well as maintaining trackage rights on an additional of track. The main line (1 ...

through that line's interchange with the

Burlington Northern The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroadin ...

. WFEC came about pursuant to a 1997 agreement among WFEC, Western Farmers, TOE, 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 Paci ...

(UP), and Kansas City Southern (KCS), which provided for WFEC to construct the 14+ mile line from the plant to TOE's tracks at Valliant. This allowed UP to ship coal to the KCS at

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

, which in turn would send it to TOE's affiliate at

DeQueen, Arkansas De Queen ( ) is a city and the county seat of Sevier County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 6,629 at the 2010 census. The placename is the anglicization of the family name of the Dutch merchant and railway financier, Jan de Goeij ...

, for delivery by TOE to WFEC at Valliant, resulting in an anticipated cost savings. In 2002, Kiamichi, which also connects at Valliant, gained overhead trackage rights to utilize the entire WFEC line to service the Hugo Power Plant, and in 2012 those rights were expanded to include providing service to any other Western Farmers’ facilities located on or adjacent to the Line, or which may locate on or adjacent to the Line. The State of Oklahoma has noted that Kiamichi is now the Primary Operating Railroad on WFEC's line.

References

Oklahoma railroads {{Oklahoma-transport-stub