Welcome to the Roscoe Snyder And Pacific Railway fan site. The RS&P railway is a shortline connecting railroad which once ran from Roscoe, Texas through Snyder, Texas, to Fluvanna, Texas.

This website is a compilation of information and photographs from various sources to preserve and present the history, operation, and glory of the mighty RS&P.

I have tried to give full and complete credit to the authors and photographers whose work is presented herein. A few photographs are of unknown origin, so if you find your photo here, please contact me so that I can properly credit your work.

The Roscoe, Snyder, and Pacific Railroad was chartered on October 1, 1906 by F. W. James, Ed Hughes, and W. G. Swenson to build a railroad northwesterly from Roscoe, Texas to western Bailey County, approximately 200 miles northwest. The capital was $200,000, and the business office was located at Roscoe in Nolan County. Members of the first board of directors included Fleming W. James, William G. Swenson, Edward S. Hughes,qv J. E. Wills, Eugene Wood, Henry James, and J. M. Wagstaff, all of Abilene, Texas, and N. T. Reed and A. A. Reed of Hutchinson, Kansas.
A survey was quickly run following the divide from Roscoe, then dropping down the west slope near the head of Roaring Hollow, then paralleling Deep Creek into Snyder.
The Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific had finished its line into Snyder on June 12, 1908, and was building to Fluvanna, which it would reach September 11, 1909.

The principal topographic features of the line have been formed by erosion. In ancient times a vast talus slope extended east from the Rocky Mountains. Erosion has eaten away at it until the major remnant is the cliff-bound plateau known as the Llano Estacado. The Llano Estacado is several hundred miles across and covers a huge area of West Texas.
The Caprock Escarpment marks the eastern edge of the Great Plains. East and south are badlands punctuated by smaller flat plateaus remaining from the old talus slope.
The majority of the land the RSP traverses is table-top flat farmland, with cotton, wheat, sorghum, and other crops. Near Snyder, the land begins the transition to badlands, with dry hills and gulleys.

The first section of thirty-one miles from Roscoe to Snyder opened on June 12, 1908. The extension of 18½ miles from Snyder to Fluvanna was completed on September 11, 1909, and opened two days later.

Daily services started in 1908 from Roscoe to Snyder and to Fluvanna in 1909. This 50-mile railroad contributed much to the economy and settling of area and later was a major connecting link with the Santa Fe and Texas & Pacific Railroads.
For several decades RSP had a flourishing passenger, mail, express and freight business. It played major role in the Scurry County oil boom of 1920's and 1940's, transporting much essential oil field equipment. Its steam locomotives required from 10 to 12 tons of coal daily for the round trip, with water stops at Roscoe, Snyder and Fluvanna.

From its beginning, the railroad established itself as one of the most profitable short lines in the nation. As a bridge route connecting the Santa Fe and the Texas and Pacific railroads, the line enabled transcontinental shippers to transport California fruits and vegetables to Memphis and New Orleans markets in five days.

The RS&P sold its service directly to shippers through general agents in such cities as Fort Worth, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Washington. The first RS&P locomotive and the original rails were purchased used from the Texas and Pacific.
In 1916 the company owned three locomotives and two passenger cars and earned $15,984 in passenger revenue, $149,054 in freight revenue, and $3,189 in other revenue. In 1931 the company owned four locomotives, one freight car, three passenger cars, and earned $210,101
Oil replaced coal by 1929, and RSP converted to diesel power by 1956. Service to Fluvanna was discontinued in 1941, and passenger service to Snyder was discontinued in 1953, but continued to haul up to 20,000 freight cars yearly.

In 1941 the Fluvanna extension was abandoned and the track taken up, reducing service to the original thirty-one miles from Roscoe to Snyder.
Between 1950 and 1955 diesel locomotives (RSP 500 and 600) replaced the steam equipment, and the last steam engine was retired to Snyder's Towles Park in 1956. In 1960 the company began buying and leasing tank cars and two years later it added a repair shop to its Roscoe facilities to service its own cars and those of other companies. This innovative railcar facility became the National Railcar Corporation (NRC). The company also replaced twenty-two miles of track with heavier rails in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Only one wreck marred the history of the railroad. It occurred in April 1926 when a bridge washed out and a locomotive and one passenger car plunged into a draw. For years the RS&P maintained a payroll of approximately seventy employees and defied the trend toward decline that affected other railroads. In 1972 the railroad was independent and owned two diesel locomotives, numbers 500 and 600, and 641 freight cars. The net income for that year was $516,679.

Serving as a bridge between the Santa Fe and Texas and Pacific railroads, the RS&P became one of the most profitable short lines in the nation.
Deregulation of the railroads following the passage of the Staggers Act in 1980 made it impossible for the company to continue to compete for bridge traffic. The Santa Fe had also gained trackage rights on the Union Pacifc, and constructed an interchange near Abilene, which eliminated the necessity of the RSP handling bridge traffic. This resulted in the abandonment in 1984 of all of the line except for about 1½ miles of industrial track remaining at Roscoe for use with NRC and the interchange with the Union Pacific main line.

Today, all that remains of the RSP is the 2 miles of track around NRC, and the interchange with the Union Pacific.

Texas Governor Thomas Campbell called the RSP "...a small railway bult by Texans with Texas capital."

RSP Steam Locomotive Number 5 in Towles Park in Snyder
Photo from Snyder Parks

A Baldwin locomotive of the Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific. This engine (a coal burner converted later to fuel oil) was built in 1920 in Philadelphia and retired to park in 1956.
UPDATE: This loco was recently moved to the Coliseum Grounds in Snyder.
Thank you to Mary Williams for the update.

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The information concerning the various communities along the RSP was primarily gathered from personal information and

The Handbook Of Texas Online

Roscoe, at the junction of U.S. highways 20/80 and 84 and Farm Road 608, eight miles west of Sweetwater in northwest Nolan County, originated in 1890. It was originally called Vista, for an official of the Texas and Pacific Railway, which built through in 1881. When citizens applied for a post office in 1892, the name Roscoe replaced Vista. Growth was stimulated in 1894, when the rail flagstop of Katula, where cattle were penned for shipment, was flooded and the switch line was moved one-half mile to Roscoe. Roscoe is the main headquarters of the RSP.

Today, the main customer of the RSP is the National Railcar Corporation (NRC) in Roscoe Texas. The RSP founded National Railcar to service their own equipment, but due to high quality and innovation, other railroads regularly send their equipment to NRC for inspection and repair.

Wastella is on U.S. Highway 84, Farm Road 1982, RSP, and the Santa Fe Railroad, in extreme northwest Nolan County. It was platted eight miles northwest of Roscoe on land provided by Will Neeley when the Roscoe, Snyder and Pacific Railway was constructed in 1908. Neely named the townsite for his eldest daughter, Wastella. Soon Wastella had stores, a hotel, and a school, but it remained small because of the proximity of other towns.

Inadale, on U.S. Highway 84 in southeastern Scurry County, began in 1922 when W. C. Cleckler built a store on the tracks of the Roscoe, Snyder and Pacific Railway. Mit Cranfil bought a gin and moved it near the store. They named the town for Ina Wooten, the daughter of one of the owners of the railroad. A post office was granted and stores and churches built, and in 1929 the Hermleigh Herald reported that the Western Produce Company was going to open a produce house there.

Hermleigh is on U.S. Highway 84 ninety-six miles southeast of Lubbock in southeastern Scurry County. It was surveyed in 1907 on land donated by R. C. Herm and Harry W. Harlin, and the nearby community of Wheat moved to the new site. The new settlement was named Hermlin for the land donors, but postal officials objected to its similarity to Hamlin, the name of another Texas town, so was renamed to Hermleigh. The Roscoe, Snyder and Pacific Railway had tracks laid through Hermleigh in 1908, and The Santa Fe Railroad reached Hermleigh in 1911. Due to the 2 railroads, Hermleigh became a major trading point for ranchers.

Snyder, the county seat of Scurry County, is at the junction of U.S. highways 84 and 180, eighty-seven miles southeast of Lubbock in the central part of the county. It had its beginnings in 1878, when a buffalo hunter and trader, William Henry (Pete) Snyder, a native of Pennsylvania, built a trading post on the banks of Deep Creek. Other hunters were attracted to the post, and a colony of buffalo-hide dwellings grew up around it. These dwellings, as well as the occasionally dubious character of their inhabitants, gave the town its first names, "Hide Town," and "Robber's Roost."
Construction began on the Roscoe, Snyder and Pacific Railway in 1907, the same year that Snyder's city charter was granted. In 1911 the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway laid tracks through Snyder.

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