The Fort Worth and Denver Railway (reporting mark FWD), nicknamed "the Denver Road," was a class I American railroad company that operated in the northern part of Texas from 1881 to 1982, and had a profound influence on the early settlement and economic development of the region.
The Fort Worth and Denver City Railway Company (FW&DC) was chartered by the Texas legislature on May 26, 1873. The company would later change its name to the Fort Worth and Denver Railway Company (FW&D) on August 7, 1951.
The main line of the railroad ran from Fort Worth through Wichita Falls, Childress, Amarillo, and Dalhart, to Texline, where it connected with the rails of parent company Colorado and Southern Railway, which became a subsidiary of the Burlington Route.
At the end of 1970 FW&D operated 1201 miles of road on 1577 miles of track; that year it reported 1493 million ton-miles of revenue freight. (Those totals may or may not include the former Burlington-Rock Island Railroad.) In 1980 operated mileage had dropped to 1181 but ton-miles were 7732 million: the tide of coal had begun.
Read more about Fort Worth And Denver Railway: Construction, Expansion, Peak and Decline, Successor Companies, Rails To Trails
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