Texas & New Mexico

Company History: The T-NM was built between 1927 and 1930 from a connection with Texas & Pacific at Monahans, Texas, north 107 miles to Lovington, New Mexico. The line was built to haul drilling equipment and supplies and oil to and from the oil rich Permian Basin. Texas & Pacific took control of T-NM while construction of the line was underway, making the T-NM a paper railroad. In 1989, T&P successor Union Pacific sold the line to the RailTex shortline group, who named the operation Texas & New Mexico Railroad with TNMR reporting marks. Ten years later, RailTex was purchased by the RailAmerica shortline group. In 2002, RailAmerica sold the TNMR to the Permian Basin Railways shortline group (part of Iowa Pacific Holdings.) They kept the TNMR reporting marks but changed the name back to Texas-New Mexico Railroad. Thanks to fracking technology, this area has again become a hotbed of drilling activity. TNMR announced plans to put 20 million dollars into the railroad and locomotive fleet. However, in 2015, Permian Basin Railways sold the TNMR to the Watco Companies shortline group (perhaps Watco was better positioned to weather the downturn in oil prices.) Watco has changed the name back to Texas & New Mexico Railroad and changed the reporting marks to TXN. Traffic includes drilling mud, hydrochloric acid, frac sand, pipe and well casing, crude oil, iron and scrap steel.

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.