Watco is purchasing two railroads from Iowa Pacific Holdings. Watco’s subsidiary, Watco Transportation Services, will acquire Austin & Northwestern Railroad Company, Inc. (d/b/a Texas New Mexico Railroad) (TNMR) and West Texas & Lubbock Railroad Company, Inc. (WTLC). The new railroads owned by WTS will be the Texas & New Mexico Railway, which will take over operations of the rail line currently operated by Texas New Mexico, and the Lubbock & Western Railway, which will take over the rail line currently operated by West Texas & Lubbock.

Texas & New Mexico Railway extends from a Union Pacific connection at Monahans, Texas, to Lovington, New Mexico. The railroad serves the oil fields of west Texas and southeast New Mexico. The primary commodities shipped on the line are oilfield chemicals and minerals, construction aggregates, industrial waste, and scrap. Lubbock & Western Railway is divided into two segments; the most northern segment runs from just north of Dimmitt, Texas, to Plainview, Texas, and the second segment runs west from Lubbock, Texas, to Whiteface, Texas, and southwest from Lubbock to Seagraves. The Lubbock & Western Railway ships commodities such as fertilizer, construction aggregates, grain, cotton, chemicals, peanuts, and plastics.

—Garland McKee