Katy Northwest by Donovan Hofsommer The Story of a branch line w/ Dust Jacket

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Katy Northwest by Donovan Hofsommer The Story of a branch line w/ Dust Jacket
 
Katy Northwest by Donovan Hofsommer The Story of a branch line
Hard cover with Dust Jacket
Copyright 1976 First Edition
305 pages Indexed

Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Farewell to Cow Country
Joseph A. Kemp: The Energizer Enter Frank Kell
The Kemp and Kell Roads
Truly Northwestern
To the Panhandle ... and Beyond? Settling and Civilizing:
The Railroad and the Filling-In Process
The Wichita Falls & Northwestern Railway KATY and Hard Times
Bottles of Bourbon, Barrels of Oil:
The Burkburnett Boom
The Beaver, Meade & Englewood Railroad:
The Home Road: 1912-1923
BM&E West: 1924-1927
Panhandle Odyssey:
The BM&E: 1928-1931
The "Orphan" No More:
Sale of the BM&E
The Belle Epoque
KATY Northwest: 1923-1949
For Better or for Worse:
The BM&E: 1931-1949
Men and Events:
The Northwestern District
Deramus and Damnation
From Branch Line to Short Line:
The Hollis & Eastern Railroad
An Early Autumn:
The BM&E: 1950-1969
Decision for Euthanasia:
The Death Warrant
Muddy Tires and Broken Rails Denouement?
Endnotes
Index

She was born with the dust and distance of the Great Plains in her blood and for over half a century, the Missouri-KansasTexas Railroad's Northwestern District had a profound influence on the life style and commerce of the region she served.
Originating as the Wichita Falls & Northwestern and later combining the Beaver, Meade & Englewood, under MKT ownership, Katy's Northwestern system radiated north from Wichita Falls, Texas into the Oklahoma Panhandle.
As work horse branch lines, their primary function was to haul the agricultural commerce, particularly the wheat of north Texas and western Oklahoma. During its hey-day, part of the line was flush with the short lived traffic of an oil boom. And for a time, liquid petroleum gas also produced traffic, but like the oil, it, too, eventually disappeared.
When agricultural traffic, the mainstay of the system, became increasingly more seasonal, it compounded the financial difficulties which had plagued Katy throughout most of the twentieth century. As a result, management failed to invest in the necessary road maintenance, which in turn led to a gradual deterioration of the system. By 1973, part of the line had been abandoned and dismantled, while other sections were under the ownership of independent short line systems.
KATY Northwest is the first in-depth study of branch line railroading in the United States. As such, it represents an important contribution to railroad history and the history of the American West.

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