Southwestern

Company History: The SW was launched by what would become the Western Group family of shortlines in 1990 with two groups of unconnected lines. The first ran from Shattuck, Oklahoma through Perryton, Spearman and Morse, Texas a distance of 102 miles. The line west of Spearman was later abandoned with the rest following in 2006.

In New Mexico, the SW began with a route between Deming, Whitewater, Tyrone, Fiero and Santa Rita. The New Mexico total was just 37 miles at that time with the copper industry providing most of the traffic.

In 1994, Santa Fe sold them another 27 miles from Whitewater to Peruhill. In 2001, BNSF sold to SW the entire Deming Subdivision from Deming to the BNSF mainline at Rincon, 60 miles to the east. All of these lines with the exception of the line to Tyrone, New Mexico are ex-Santa Fe (the Tyrone line is ex-SP.) BNSF has trackage rights between Rincon and Deming to move coal to a power plant in Cochise, Arizona.

In 2004, SW expanded again by leasing 182 miles of line from Clovis south to Carlsbad, New Mexico from BNSF. The deal includes two clusters of branchlines running generally east from Carlsbad. Traffic on this line includes potash and nuclear waste. In 2016, BNSF canceled the lease citing concerns over SW accidents on the line.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.