Re: NNG - Track being rebuilt - interesting motive power

From:
[www.cityofwharton.com]


The last regularly scheduled freight train ran from Rosenberg to Victoria in 1985, and after that, the line fell into disrepair. Most of it was abandoned in the mid-1990?s and the track was taken up. However, Wharton and Jackson counties formed a rural rail district and stopped the scrap operations. The track remains in place from Rosenberg to Wharton, and the right-of-way has been sold to the Tex Mex and Kansas City Southern railroads. Current plans are to rebuild the right-of-way to Victoria and re-activate the line, which would save both railroads a several hundred-mile detour from Victoria via San Antonio on the Union Pacific for Houston and Galveston bound traffic. Reconstruction of the line is expected to take about 2 years, and much of the NAFTA generated traffic will traverse it.