Fort Worth Belt Railway

Beginning in 1904, the Belt Railway serviced the Fort Worth Stock Yards. The arrival of the railroad in Fort Worth in 1876 moved the cow town from a regional economic player to a national force. The stockyards corporation, chartered in 1895, created a Belt Railway System to handle the movement of livestock and supplies into the yards and finished products out to the national market. As road traffic grew in the mid-1920s, the belt’s role began to diminish. By 1978, the Texas & Pacific and the Missouri Pacific Railroads gained full control of the belt. In 1988, the Fort Worth and Western Railroad purchased what was left of the belt. The remaining two miles of line are now used as an access route by an excursion train to the national historic district. (2014)