| Railroad Name: | Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway |
| System Map: | Quanah Acme & Pacific Railway - System Index Map.jpg |
| Predecessor Line: | Acme, Red River and Northern Railway |
| Successor Line: | Burlington Northern Railroad |
Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway (QA&P) was a 117miles freight railroad that operated between the Red River and Floydada, Texas, from 1902 until it was merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1981.[1]
On May 3, 1902, the line was incorporated as the Acme, Red River and Northern Railway. The founders' original, never-realized plans were to extend the line from the Red River to El Paso, Texas.[2]
On January 28, 1909, the railroad assumed the name of the Quanah, Acme and Pacific.[3] One of the largest shareholders was Harry Koch.[4]
In 1911, the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway assumed control of the QA&P.<ref name="lewis"/>
On June 8, 1981, the QA&P was merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad, which had merged the QA&P's corporate parent, the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, on November 21, 1980.[5]
The Burlington Northern Railroad abandoned the former QA&P line west of Paducah in 1982.
Freight stops on the QA&P were Red River, Carnes, Quanah, Acme, Lazare, Swearingen, Paducah, Narcisso, Summit (Motley County), Russellville, Roaring Springs, MacBain, Dougherty, Boothe Spur, and Floydada. In 1925, QA&P reported 8 million ton-miles of revenue freight on 91 miles of line; in 1944, it had 51 million and in 1967, 130 million, both on 120 route-miles.
However, QA&P's traffic mostly was overhead freight — between the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway at the Red River and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway at Floydada.[2] Starting in the 1960s, the QLA freight train via Floydada was scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles 38½-to-40 hours after leaving Tulsa. The railroad's traffic diminished after 1973 when overhead trade took a shorter route via Avard, OK.[6]