The Fort Worth and Western Railroad

Today the Fort Worth and Western Railroad (FWWR) operates over 250 miles of trackage through a large area of northern Texas. Based out of Fort Worth the railroad has a traffic base ranging from grain and food products to lumber and chemicals. During a visit to Fort Worth in the late 1990s I had a chance to see the railroad in action and I think what stood out the most was the railroad’s colorful blue and yellow livery. It’s very bright! Although the FWWR is only a moderately sized shortline the railroad has no less than three connections with western Class Is including Union Pacific, BNSF Railway, and Kansas City Southern.

The history of the Fort Worth and Western's trackage dates back to the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway system (better known as the Frisco), which is today part of the BNSF Railway system. The railroad had a storied history of two halves. During the railroad’s first 60 years it had a very interesting and tumultuous history going through a number of name changes and bankruptcies (resulting in so many names). However, after its final name as the St. Louis-San Francisco, the railroad did quite well and prospered for its last 60+ years of operation before becoming part of the large Burlington Northern system in the very early 1980s.

For the next roughly 30 years the railroad pressed on and actually did quite well upgrading its lines and even signaling a large section of its railroad. This attention to its physical plant would pay off when it fell into yet another bankruptcy during the Great Depression. While it would take the railroad until 1947 to emerge from its final receivership it exited a well-maintained, upgraded railroad very ready for the future.

The Frisco’s attention to its property would carry on throughout the rest of its life and a driving force behind shedding its history as a bankrupt-prone company to one that earned healthy profits and revenues. This began in the 1950s when it opened a high tech “Hump” yard in Memphis (whereby an inclined track and computer-controlled switches guided cars into their correct staging track), expedited freight trains across its major markets, consolidating operations, began run-through freights with other carriers (which meant Frisco locomotives were used to haul a train across foreign rails and vice-versa, known as “pooling” or “pooling power”) and was able to rid itself of its money-losing passenger operations in the late 1960s (while it always maintained its passenger operations with class the Frisco understood it was a losing battle and protested the ICC until it was able to drop all passenger service, the first large railroad to do so before Amtrak in 1971).

Perhaps the largest boost to the Frisco began in the 1960s and 1970s when industries began moving to the south and the regions it served whereby it not only diversified the railroad’s traffic base but also increased it exponentially! Of course, as is almost always the case, success does not go unnoticed and as the railroad prospered other larger lines began taking interest.

Currently the Fort Worth & Western runs a fleet entirely of Geeps, ranging from variations of GP38s to GP50s. Below is a current roster of the railroad courtesy of The Diesel Shop. Of note about the FWWR, the railroad actually names many of its locomotives giving each a more personal touch:

#2000, Miss Molly - EMD GP38-3: Ex-Wisconsin & Southern, ex-Great Western, ex-Rio Grande

#2001, Niles City - EMD GP38-3: Ex-Omnitrax, ex-LHRR, ex-Rio Grande

#2002, Cowtown - EMD GP38-3: Ex-Omnitrax, ex-LHRR, ex-Rio Grande

#2003, General Worth - EMD GP38-3: Ex-Omnitrax, ex-Southern Pacific, ex-Rio Grande

#2004, Comanche - EMD GP38-2: Ex-Rio Grande

#2005, Major Ripley Arnold - EMD GP38-2: Ex-Norfolk Southern, ex-Conrail, ex-Penn Central

#2006, General Tarrant - EMD GP38: Ex-Point Comfort & Northern, ex-GATX, ex-Baltimore & Ohio

#2007, B.B. Paddock - EMD GP38: Ex-Point Comfort & Northern, ex-GATX, ex-Baltimore & Ohio

#2008, Panther City - EMD GP50: Ex-FURX

#2009, Chisolm Trail - EMD GP50: Ex-FURX, ex-Union Pacific, ex-Chicago & North Western

#2010, Trinity - EMD GP50: Ex-FURX, ex-Union Pacific, ex-Chicago & North Western

#2011 and #2012 - EMD GP50

The Frisco received a number of offers beginning in the 1960s and 1970s but eventually settled with the Burlington Northern in the early 1980s as the Frisco gave the BN a much more diversified traffic base and extended it into the southeastern regions of Memphis, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Gulf Coast (which today contains very lucrative chemical traffic business).

While the Frisco’s life ended in the late fall of 1980 its legacy certainly lives on under the now-BNSF Railway as an important artery into the Gulf Coast and Southeast regions.

For more reading on shortlines like the Fort Worth & Western Railroad consider the book American Shortline Railway Guide from author Ed Lewis. The book has gone through several updated editions to keep up with the ever-changing world of the shortline industry. Today, the publication highlights almost 600 shortlines across the country with general background information about each (such as roster information, rail line history, radio frequencies, etc.). If you have any interest in shortlines you will very likely enjoy this book. If you're interested in perhaps purchasing this book please visit The Railroad Diamond by clicking the tab in the menu to your left marked "TRD Store".