WACO AND NORTHWESTERN RAILROAD. The Waco and Northwestern Railroad Company was chartered as the Waco Tap Railroad Company on November 5, 1866; the name was changed on August 6, 1870. The railroad was organized by citizens of Waco to connect their city with the Houston and Texas Central Railway at a point in or below Falls County. By the time rails of the Houston and Texas Central reached Bremond, selected as the junction, in mid-1870, the Waco Tap had completed several miles of grade. However, progress was slow, and the grade did not reach Marlin until April 1871. On June 27 of that year the Waco and Northwestern ratified an agreement by which the Houston and Texas Central would complete the railroad. The first rails for the Waco line arrived in early October 1871, and the line was completed to Marlin on February 24, 1872, and to Waco on September 18, 1872. Eight additional miles to Ross was also built, giving the Waco and Northwestern fifty-five miles of track. The company was sold to the Houston and Texas Central on February 4, 1873. However, the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company entered receivership on February 23, 1885, and while the Main Line and the Western Division were sold to the Houston and Texas Central Railroad Company on April 1, 1890, the Waco and Northwestern Division remained in receivership until it was sold on September 5, 1895. It was reacquired by the Houston and Texas Central Railroad on June 30, 1898. In 1895 the railroad received $64,890 in passenger revenue, $236,503 from freight revenue, and $4,434 in other revenue. The eight miles of track from Waco to Ross was abandoned in April 1929. In 1965 the Southern Pacific, as successor to the Houston and Texas Central, abandoned the line between Bremond and Marlin and sold the twenty-four miles from Waco to Marlin to the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company.

George C. Werner