The Texas and New Mexico Railway has been in business for close to 100 years. The line runs from Monahans, Texas to Lovington, New Mexico covering a distance of over 110 miles. The railway has been beneficial to Lea County in transporting oilfield products and other materials for the oil and gas, ranching and wind electricity generation industries and general business freight.

Prior to the discovery of oil in the Permian Basin, there were proposals to extend freight rail lines to Lea County from West Texas, but the plans were not realized. Once oil was discovered in the area in the late 1920s, rail service became more economical and appealing. The railway was incorporated on November 19, 1927 as a subsidiary of the Texas & Pacific Railway. The first train rolled into Lovington, the end of the line, on June 7, 1930. No copies of it can be found online, but the Lovington Leader issued a special “Railroad Edition” for the occasion.

Over the years, the ownership has changed several times with the longest single duration of ownership being Texas and Pacific Railway (T&P). T&P was merged into the Missouri Pacific Railroad (Mo-Pac) in 1976. Mo-Pac merged with Union Pacific to become the Union Pacific System (UP) in 1982. UP sold the line to RailTex in 1989. In 2000 Railtex was taken over by RailAmerica, Inc. Two years later, the line was sold to Permian Basin Railways, a subsidiary of Iowa Pacific Holdings. Watco, a privately held company, acquired the line in 2015.

To view Watco’s description of the line, a map of its rail stops and other information, please see this page on Texas & New Mexico Railway.