Nostalgia & History > Quanah, Acme & Pacific Railway Company

While going through some old boxes of railroad stuff the other day, I came across a small book my mom gave me in 1979. This book was a gift from a friend of hers by the name of Bill Carter.

She asked me if I had ever heard of the Quanah, Acme & Pacific Railway company that was in Texas. I had told her I had not.

She then showed me this small book which is about 5/16 of an inch thick, 3 inches wide, and about 6 inches tall and contains 48 pages. It was copyrighted in 1945 and it was written by the President of the railway, Charles H. Sommer.

The book tells about a Comanche Indian named Quanah who, during the 1860s and 1870s, gave the railroad nothing but trouble as an Indian warrior. His father was a Comanche Chief and his mother was a white woman named Cynthia Ann Parker who, in 1836 at the age of nine, was taken by the Indians from the Parker Fortification (Fort) when the fort was attacked by the Indians.

The book tells little about the railroad itself but reads like a small biography about the life of Quanah. Quanah led a very interesting life. I found it quite interesting. I showed the book to my conductor today and he read it and he, too, found it very interesting.

So, I am asking here, has anybody ever heard of this railroad that ran from Quanah, Texas to Floydada, Texas? It was located about 100 Northeast of Lubbock. I don't think the railroad was more than about 70 or 80 miles in length but that is only a guess on my part.

There are a few pics in the book. One shows the depot and main offices of the railroad in Quanah and another shows the depot at Floydada. Another photo shows a very good looking oil burning 2-10-0, number 1638.

So, if any of you rail historians have any info on this line, I'd sure like to hear about it.

Thanks,
steamjocky

Hi-

Here are some QA&P Links:

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/QQ/eqq1.html

and

http://205.214.89.196/discus/messages/89/89.html?1088224870

Also this book, of which a copy is currently available at:

http://www.skypoint.com/~hudsonl/como.html

(Search: Q)

(Quanah Acme & Pacific), Don L. Hofsommer (1991). The Quanah Route: A History of the Quanah, Acme & Pacific Railway. (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 215 p.). Quanah, Acme, and Pacific Railway Company; Railroads--Texas.


This was a very important line for through traffic originating in the Southeast, that was destined for the West Coast.

Frisco ran trains QLA (Quanah-Los Angeles), and QSF (Quanah-San Francisco), that had their origins on the QA&P route, but later, ran via Tulsa, to the famed "Avard" Connection, with the Santa Fe's "Transcon".

For some recent postings, see this:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,799468,799468#msg-799468

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

http://tacnet.missouri.org/~mgood/clintonrr/dfpp_slsf.html

Quanah, Acme & Pacific Railway Company, by construction:
1.37 miles in Quanah, Tex., 1909-10
37.62 miles, Acme to Paducah, Tex., 1909-10
39.93 miles, Paducah to McBain, Tex., 1913
78.92 miles, Total

Hi,

Don Hofsommer wrote a book on the Quanah entitled, "The Quanah Route: A History of the Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway." The book came out in 1991 and may be available on ebay or through other sources.

The QA&P was a part of the Frisco system. In 1954 they were advertising two freights a day each way, with one named, "The Flash". Quanah also had passenger service including through Pullmans to St. Louis, "on the Streamlined Meteor."

The current BNSF main 1 between Quanah and Acme is the old
QA&P main track between those two points, slighty upgraded
of course.

If I am not mistaken, the depot in Quanah still stands; if not, I may be thinking of another town, but there are some historic structures still on the railroad right of way. Chief Quanah Parker is quite a subject in that area, and every Frisco employee I have ever spoken to knows about the QA&P.

I know a great deal about the QA&P. A friend of mine the late David Traylor was the son of the General Manager of the line in Quannah Tx. It surved a sheetrock plant outside of Quannah and many grain elevators on its line to Floydada where it connected with the Santa Fe. During steam days there was a roundhouse and turntable in Quannah. The road used all hand me down Frisco power, mostly 2-10-0, 2-8-0 for freight and when it ran passengers 4-6-0 and 4-4-0 of the Frisco.

For several years the Santa Fe and QA&P cooperated on a "run thru" train from Floydada to Quannah where it was given to the Frisco on the branch that came down from Oklahoma. Later the train was moved to a connection at Avard Ok to help speed up the operation. All steam engines were lettered for the QA&P, but only a few diesels were lettered that way in the black and gold scheme. This ceased when the orange and white Frisco scheme came out. Same for cabooses.

There was a video tape made of the scraping of the line by an outfit in Wichita Falls Tx. Hope this helps. Tom Stamey

The QA&P station still stand in good condition. It is a spanish style building, 2 stories.

tomstp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
*snip*
> There was a video tape made of the scraping of the
> line by an outfit in Wichita Falls Tx. Hope this
> helps. Tom Stamey



That would probably be Steam Gauge Video's "Ship It On the Frisco" video tape, put together by Texas rail historian Steve Goen. Last I heard he was working on getting some DVD equipment together and was considering re-releasing this and some of his other titles (such as the much-sought-after "Komplete Katy" series) on DVD. He's usually got a booth set up at most of the regular train shows in Texas and Oklahoma.

I have a VHS copy of this tape and it shows some regular pre-merger action on the line, featuring Frisco red and white GP15-1s sublettered "Q A & P," and then later shows the work crews dragging the rail up onto welded rail flatcars to scrap the line. Also shows some general Frisco action on other lines too.