McNeil is an

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 ...

in Travis County,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States. According to the

Handbook of Texas The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is an American nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, United States, on March 2, 1897. In November 2008, the ...

, the community had a population of 70 in 2000. It is located within the

Greater Austin The Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos Metropolitan Statistical Area, metropolitan statistical area, or Greater Austin, is a five-county United States metropolitan area, metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Texas, as defined by the Office of ...

Metropolitan area.

History

McNeil arose at the junction of two rail lines. The International & Great Northern Railroad had a track built between Rockdale and Austin, which was completed in 1876. The

Austin and Northwestern Railroad The Austin and Northwestern Railroad began construction on a rail line west of Austin, Texas, United States, USA, toward Llano, Texas, Llano on April 20, 1881. The railroad was originally built as a Narrow gauge railway, narrow gauge line with p ...

built a track from Austin to Burnet in 1892. It was named for George McNeil, a regional manager on the A&N. The community's post office was established in December 1888, with Adison A. Sheppard as the postmaster.McNeil, Texas (Travis County)

Handbook of Texas Online The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is an American nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, United States, on March 2, 1897. In November 2008, the ...

, 2008-01-18. Accessed 2008-08-10. The "McNeil" name is currently used mostly for the Austin White Lime Company facility and railroad junction. The surrounding areas have Austin mailing addresses. From 1888 to 2024, the Austin White Lime Company operated a limestone quarry and a plant for the production of lime products. The final day of operation was March 31st, 2024. Although McNeil is unincorporated, it has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

with the ZIP code of 78651. The ZIP code only includes the McNeil Post Office/Austin White Lime company store and no surrounding land. The current rail lines are owned by the

Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority 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 an ...

(Cap Metro) and the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

(UP). The Cap Metro lines are the former A&N rail lines. Cap Metro currently runs

commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...

and freight rail operations through McNeil. The

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 ...

serves McNeil at Howard station. Freight operations on Cap Metro are operated under contract by

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 ...

. Commuter rail operations use an overpass built in 2007 over the UP tracks.Austin American Statesman
2007-05-31. Accessed 2010-05-19. Freight operations use a

diamond crossing A double junction is a railway junction where a double-track railway splits into two double track lines. Usually, one line is the main line and carries traffic through the junction at normal speed, while the other track is a branch line that car ...

with UP. Freight is interchanged between UP and Austin Western.

BNSF BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide ...

serves Austin Western via

trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may c ...

over UP. In addition to these rail lines, McNeil also had a hotel, a general store, and 200 residents. It fell to 125 by the 1930s and was at 70 from the 1940s through 2000.

Geography

McNeil is located north of

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

in northern Travis County.

Education

McNeil High School McNeil High School (commonly known as MHS or McNeil) is a public secondary school in an unincorporated area in both Travis and Williamson counties, near Austin, Texas, United States. Serving freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The scho ...

was built in 1991 and began classes in 1992, with its first senior class graduating in 1994. It is served by the Round Rock Independent School District.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macneil, Texas Unincorporated communities in Travis County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas