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The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

OKLAHOMA CITY-ADA-ATOKA RAILWAY.

The Oklahoma City-Ada-Atoka (OC-A-A) Railway was an unusual late-comer among railroads in Oklahoma, as it was incorporated only in 1923 to take over the former Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway (MK&T, Katy) line between the towns in its title. Atoka to Coalgate had already been opened between 1882 and 1886 as feeder to the old MK&T main line, and Coalgate-Shawnee-Oklahoma City had been constructed in 1904 during the great boom in railroad building. When the MK&T got into financial difficulties, management decided, just prior to the 1923 reorganization of the MK&T, to cut off this unremunerative part of the network. The OC-A-A was chartered to continue service on the line. From 1924 the OC-A-A also operated the Oklahoma City-Shawnee Interurban Electric Railway until its final abandonment in 1930. The Muskogee Company, the Philadelphia holding company that also owned the Midland Valley and the Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf, bought up the OC-A-A in 1929, but traffic continued to decline. Receivership was unavoidable and ended only in a reorganization in 1935. World War II meant a temporary reprieve for the line, but after 1945 traffic declined so strongly that the railroad was sold in 1965 to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe for a pittance. The Santa Fe continued to operate the road for some time, but by 1985 every mile of it, apart from a short stretch east of Oklahoma City, had been abandoned.

Augustus J. Veenendaal, Jr.

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Preston George and Sylvan R. Wood, The Railroads of Oklahoma, Bulletin No. 60, The Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, Inc. (Boston, Mass.: The Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, Inc., 1943).

Donovan L. Hofsommer, ed., Railroads in Oklahoma (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Historical Society, 1977).

Citation

The following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles:
Augustus J. Veenendaal, Jr., “Oklahoma City-Ada-Atoka Railway,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=OK033.

Published January 15, 2010

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