Wikipedia:WikiProject Trains/ICC valuations/Cimarron and Northwestern Railway

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The railroad of The Cimarron and Northwestern Railway Company, hereinafter called the carrier, is a single-track standard-gauge steam railroad, located entirely within New Mexico and extending from Cimarron to Ponil Park, a distance of 21.333 miles. Besides main tracks of the mileage above indicated, the carrier owns 1.378 miles of other tracks, making a total of 22.711 miles of all tracks. The carrier also operates, under a verbal agreement, about 5 miles of spur tracks, between Ponil Park and Station 27, owned by the Continental Tie and Lumber Company.

Corporate history.—The carrier was incorporated for a period of 50 years under the laws of New Mexico. Articles of incorporation were filed on January 21, 1907, the first succeeding meeting of stockholders taking place on January 23, 1907. The articles recite that the carrier was incorporated for the purpose of building, owning, and operating a steam railroad extending from Cimarron in a general northwesterly direction to a point in Van Bremmer Park, N. Mex., a distance of about 36 miles. The principal incorporator was T. A. Schomburg, president of the Continental Tie and Lumber Company, which purchased the standing timber on lands of the Maxwell Land Grant Company.

The Continental Tie and Lumber Company maintains control of the carrier through stock ownership. The general offices of both companies are at Cimarron, though the articles of incorporation name Raton, N. Mex., as the principal place of business of the carrier.

The carrier is virtually a plant facility for the transportation of the lumber mill products of the Continental Tie and Lumber Company. To supply the mills and bring out lumber is the sole reason for the road's existence. When the timber is gone, the Continental Tie and Lumber Company, having no interest in the cut-over lands, intends to close the road and take up the rails. The point of maximum production of lumber has already been passed and the abandonment of the line is only the matter of a few years, as the country has no other resources susceptible of development.

Under its charter the carrier built 22 miles of road, from Cimarron to Ponil Park, N. Mex. Grading was commenced by contractor W. Whitescarver about March, 1907, and the line was completed on January 1, 1908, ready for operation.