Great Southwest

Company History: The GSW was built by the Great Southwest Corporation and opened in 1959 with 22 miles of track serving the Great Southwest Industrial District in the Arlington – Grand Prairie, Texas area (between Dallas and Fort Worth.) A year and a half later, the owners sold a 45% stake in the railroad to Texas & Pacific and a 45% stake to Rock Island. The railroad was switched with EMD switchers. The line consisted of a connection with Rock Island at one end, 26 industrial spurs, one siding and a connection with the T&P at the other end. In 1985, Missouri Pacific (T&P’s successor, and by this time a paper railroad under the Union Pacific flag) picked up the shares of the former Rock Island and bought the remaining 10% from Great Southwest Corporation giving it total ownership. It was officially merged two years later.

Successor/Parent History: The Missouri Pacific Railroad (reporting mark MP), commonly abbreviated MoPac, with nickname of The Mop, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway (SLIMS), Texas and Pacific Railway (TP), Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad (C&EI), St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway (SLBM), Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway (KO&G), Midland Valley Railroad (MV), San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad (SAU&G), Gulf Coast Lines (GC), International-Great Northern Railroad (IGN), New Orleans, Texas and Mexico Railway (NOTM), Missouri-Illinois Railroad (MI), as well as the small Central Branch Railway (an early predecessor of MP in Kansas and south central Nebraska), and joint ventures such as the Alton and Southern Railroad (AS).

In 1967, the railroad operated 9,041 miles of road and 13,318 miles of track, not including DK&S, NO&LC, T&P and its subsidiaries, C&EI and Missouri-Illinois.

On January 8, 1980, the Union Pacific Railroad agreed to buy the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Lawsuits filed by competing railroads delayed approval of the merger until September 13, 1982. After the Supreme Court denied a trial to the Southern Pacific, the merger took effect on December 22, 1982. However, due to outstanding bonds of the Missouri Pacific, the merger with Union Pacific become official only on January 1, 1997.

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