Quitaque Railway Tunnel
10 mi. SW of Quitaque, Quitaque, TXThe Fort Worth and Denver Railroad Tunnel, near Quitaque, is one of the few functioning railroad tunnels in Texas. In 1927 the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad decided to build a branch line from Estelline to Lubbock, Texas for the shipment of agricultural products. A year later a tunnel was blasted and bored through a rugged portion of the Caprock Escarpment to make way for the coming railroad.
In 1930 the railway line and the tunnel were completed and put into use. A second tunnel, located approximately one-half mile upstream and west of the original under-pass, collapsed in 1968 after a derailment occurred inside the structure.
Several years later the older tunnel was threatened with a similar fate. In 1973 a ninety-three-car freight train derailed inside the passageway creating a major collapse. Initially, engineers estimated that the entire tunnel would have to be "daylighted". Following a subsequent investigation, however, the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad determined that the underpass could be saved from destruction. A massive dirt-moving operation facilitated a total restoration of the site.
The Quitaque Railway Tunnel was returned to use early in 1975, after nearly seventeen months during which time the trains were rerouted from Quanah to Floydada.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.