Bartlett Western Railway
Bartlett-Florence Railway

Visitors to this page.

Incorporated as the Bartlett-Florence Railway Company on September 2, 1909. The first excursion above ran to Schwertner, about seven miles from Bartlett in February 1910. Later the Bartlett-Florence Railway went into receivership and was ordered sold. The railroad was incorporated under the new name of the Bartlett Western Railway on June 17^th, 1911. The railroad finally reached Florence, the first passenger train arriving there December 27^th, 1911. The railroad had a very colorful operation and very colorful owners and managers. Four of the stations along the line were renamed after four of the Gospels, St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke and St. John. The railroad finally ceased operations December 2^nd, 1935. Murray Hammond has done extensive research, interviews and assembling of photographs of this railroad and the result of that hard work appears in the Aug/Sep/Oct 1997 (V. 2, No. 2) of the "Journal of Texas Shortline Railroads and Transportation" Published by Mr. Lester Haines of Austin, Texas. Mr. Haines puts out an excellent publication covering these interesting Texas railroads and related subjects and should be contacted for a subscription and/or back issues if you are interested. Another excellent capsulized history on the Bartlett - Florence Railway can be found on The Handbook of Texas Online site by clicking here.