LANCASTER TAP RAILROAD. The Lancaster Tap Railroad, though never chartered, was constructed in 1889-90 in Dallas County by Charles Dillingham to connect the Dallas-Houston line of the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company at Hutchins with the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway Company in Lancaster. This 4½-mile connection extended southwest from Hutchins to Lancaster and had no intermediary stops. It operated for forty-four years. Earnings for 1903 included $2,102 in passenger revenue and $6,172 in freight revenue. In September 1905 the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company purchased the line for $50,000, payable over a period of ten years. Changes in traffic patterns reduced the amount of freight moving over the line to the point that during the first six months of 1934 the line handled only 683 tons of freight and operated at a monthly deficit of $200. After acquiring the Houston and Texas Central system in 1934, the Texas and New Orleans applied for abandonment of the line, a request that the Interstate Commerce Commission granted on September 13, 1934.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the U.S., Vol. 202 (June 1934-February 1935; Washington: GPO, 1935).
