Can anybody ID this old rail road ROW?

[CS641]

While traveling from New Mexico to Oklahoma thru Texas along I40 I noticed there is an old rail line that parallels the interstate across the whole of Texas and can be seen in NM and OK. Runs directly past a lot of old grain silos and part of the line still has rail in Amarillo and appears to be used to store cars at a railcar shop. There are still ties in place here and there, no rails other than that one segment thru Amarillo and all the trestles are gone BUT the bents are still in place, mostly.

The eerie thing is I've done this ride numerous times at night and have noticed on one occasion one particular co-op silo west of Amarillo (Bushland or Wildorado?) had the lights on WAY up top, 10 or 12 stories up. I guess the silos are still being used?

 

[EMDGP30]

Off the top of my head I would guess it belonged to the Rock Island; I initially thought of the Fort Worth & Denver but they didn't run through Oklahoma.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Could it have been the old Rock Island Line (Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific)? It went out of business in 1980.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago,_Rock_Island_and_Pacific_Railroad

Check this 1938 Rock Island system map and see if it corresponds to what you saw. Note the Tucumcari-Memphis mainline that passes through Amarillo, Oklahoma City, and Little Rock.
http://www.american-rails.com/images/rock-island-map.jpg

 

[bcp]

Click the map:



Bruce

 

[CS641]

Thank you!

 

[Bill Anderson]

The old Rock Island was really spread out. I counted fourteen states including Tennessee, although it barely made it into the Volunteer state by crossing the Mississippi River from Arkansas to Memphis.