The 7 Railroads of Clay County in 1895

This story of the tax receipts from seven railroads in 1895 gives us a picture of the railroad scene in the county.

The B & M was the Burlington and Missouri Rail Road

The K. C. & O. R. R may have been a typo or some variation of the early predecessor/branch of the Kansas City Southern Railroad (research continues.)

The S. J. & G. I. R. R. was the St. Joe & Grand Island Rail Road

The Neb. & Colo. R. R. was, I guess, The Nebraska & Colorado Railroad though I haven't found its story (research continues). There is a current company called the Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado Railroad with 509 miles of track and headquartered in Grant, Nebraska.

The F. E. & M. V. R. R. was the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Rail Road.

The Republican Valley Rail Road was also called the Omaha and Republican Valley Railroad and was a branch of the Union Pacific.

The Pacific Railroad was a predecessor of the Missouri Pacific and of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway.

Railroads were the go-go business prospects of the nineteenth century - kind of the dot com of that era, or perhaps more accurately, the dot com era was a copycat of the early American Railroad industry. Massive fortunes were made and lost in near equal numbers during the frenzy. 

And it is really not over. This contemporary story traces recent history of OmniTRAX - the current owner/operator of Nebraska, Kansas & Colorado Railroad - likely completely unrelated to the rail listed in the 1895 clipping. Research continues. 

The clipping is found at https://omnitrax.com/our-company/history/ :

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A BRIEF TIMELINE OF EVENTS THAT HAVE SHAPED OMNITRAX

• 1986 – Three investors collaborated on a real estate opportunity that lead to the purchase of the Great Western Railway from Great Western Sugar
• 1991 – Six short line railroads purchased – CWPS, MJ, NSR, CRL, KSW, WICT, and GWRC
• 1991 – WICT sold
• 1991 – CWP&S and CRL merged into one railroad, CRL
• 1993 – PNR purchased from BNSF
• 1994 – Fort Collins line added to the Great Western Railway
• 1994 – Quality Terminal Services enters into switching service with operations in California and Texas
• 1995 – NOW leased from CSXT
• 1996 – Greeley, Colorado added to the GWR
• 1997 – HBRY, CTRW, the Port of Churchill and Churchill Marine Tank Farm purchased
• 2004 – KFR purchased
• 2004 – ATN and FCR leased from CSXT
• 2005 – GFRR, IR and NKCR acquired North American RailNet
• 2011 –  Stockton Terminal & Eastern Railroad (STE) acquired
• 2014 – Sand Springs Railway Company (SS) in Tulsa, OK purchased
• 2014 – OmniTRAX enters into agreement to operate Brownsville & Rio Grande International Railway (BRG)
• 2016 – Heart of Texas Railroad purchased and renamed Central Texas & Colorado River Railway (CTXR)
• 2016 – Partnership with Topflight Grain to operate railroad under the new name of Decatur Central Railroad
• 2016 – OmniTRAX affiliate acquired Terracor Group assets that included sand terminals in Montana and Texas, OmniTRAX Energy Solutions is formed.
• 2019 – Entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Cleveland Commercial Railroad (CCRL) and its wholly owned subsidiary, Cleveland Harbor Belt Railroad (CHB).  CCRL will is renamed Cleveland & Cuyahoga Railway, LLC and the CHB is renamed Cleveland Port Railway, LLC.
• 2019 – OmniTRAX completes the acquisition of the 101 year-old Winchester & Western Railroad (WW) from Covia Holdings.