Can anyone out there give me a short history about the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient? It was an AT&SF subsidiary? I was looking in a 1959 Official Guide the other day. After the KCM&O listing in the index, it stated "See Chihuahua Pacific." Which has me very curious! Boxcab E50
I found a handful of references to it. Basically an American businessman named Arthur E. Stillwell built a fortune in other businesses, but had a passion for railroads. He built a handful or railroads in the Kansas City area, but his dream was to build the shortest railroad to connect Kansas City with the Pacific Ocean. He chose the deepwater port of Topolobampo as the western terminus and chartered the KCM&O in 1900. The KCM&O failed without ever completing the line, due mainly to the cost of contructing track in the rugged mountains and problems related to the Mexican Revolution. (the line was completed after the government of Mexico took over all the railroads within Mexico) Stillwell was forced out of the company, and the stock became almost worthless. A Kansas City banker named William T. Kemper ended up with more than 50% of the worthless stock. The railroad operated at a loss for several years. Kemper was still holding the stock when oil was discovered in Regan, Crane, and Upton counties along the KCM&O right-of-way. The line finally began to turn a profit. The stock price increased, and in 1928 Kemper sold the line to AT&SF for $14 million. Santa Fe sold the Mexican portions of the line, and what was left maintained its own separate identity. The line was expanded in Texas, and in 1931 the Texas portions of the line were leased to another AT&SF subsidiary, the Panhandle & Santa Fe. In 1965 AT&SF merged all of its Texas subsidiaries into the parent company. Traffic dwindled in the 1980s on some the original KCM&O lines, and in the early 1990s Santa Fe sold the line. Parts of it are currently operated by the South Orient Railroad, but most of the section in south Texas is out of service, according to a map I have that's supposedly current. On the Mexico side, part of what was to become KCM&O still operates as the Chihuahua al Pacifico, or the Copper Canyon Railroad. Handbook of Texas Online Arthur E. Stillwell biography photo of KCM&O engine shop at Witchita Panhandle & Santa Fe South Orient Railroad history of the Chihuahua Pacific current operations on the Chihuahua Pacific
While Arthur Stilwell's Orient line has withered over time, the other railroad he built- the Kansas City Southern- is still going strong. KCS was Stilwell's first big project before he got involved with the Orient.
