The Katy Railroad or MKT Railroad

I've lived all my life within a very short distance of the MKT or Katy Railroad. It's been as much a part of my life as any other facet of my central Texas upbringing.

I remember as a small girl, my dad would take me to the Katy switch-yards and Warden shop area near Waco. It was commonly referred to as the Katy Shops. It was facinating to see so many train tracks converging in one area.

Trains have always made my heart race just a bit. I often wondered why. In my early 20s my mother revealed to me that as a small child we lived in a house that sat very close to the tracks and a train startled me pretty badly once. I guess that explains it.

I thought I'd share a little bit about the MKT, or Katy Railroad with you.

• The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad was better known as simply The Katy
• It was nicknamed The Katy because K-T was it's stock exchange symbol.
• The railroad runs north-south through Missouri, Kansas and Texas. It was the first railroad to enter Texas through the north.
• The Katy Railroad dates back to 1865 when the Union Pacific Railway (later changed to the Missouri Kansas and Texas Railroad in 1870) was chartered to build a line connecting Junction City, Kansas to New Orleans, Louisiana.
• The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad was incorporated May 23, 1870
• It was leased to the Missouri Pacific in 1880 and became part of the Jay Gould empire for a time, which lasted until 1888. The biggest advantage the Katy gained from this leasing was that it acquired new markets and reached cities like Fort Worth, Dallas, and Waco, Texas.
• On June 6, 1870, Katy laid the first rails across the Kansas border
• The Katy Railroad continued to lay rails southward reaching Dallas in 1886, Waco in 1888, Houston in 1893, San Antonio in 1901
• Once they reached Houston, the joint ownership of the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad gave the Katy immediate access to the Port of Galveston
• In 1896, as a publicity stunt the Katy crashed two locomotives at a site that came to be known thereafter as Crush, Texas. It is located about 14 miles north of Waco. I have written a hub about this incident.
• From 1915 until January 4, 1959, the Katy, in a joint venture with the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway , also known as the Frisco, operated the Texas Special. This luxury passenger train ran from St. Louis to Dallas, Ft. Worth, and San Antonio. It had rail cars with names famous Texas names like Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, David Crockett, and James Bowie.
• In 1988 the Katy Railroad was bought out by the Union Pacific Railroad.