An outgrowth of passenger streetcar lines with 94 miles of track, it became a smaller but full-fledged electric freight railway by the time it ceased operations effective May 31, 1939.
[2] That in turn was absorbed in 1892 by the Southwest Missouri Electric Railway Company, of which Rogers was named President.
[2] That electrified line was in operation by 1893 between the mining camps at Webb City, where the railroad was headquartered, and Joplin, Missouri.
[1] However, it had come to understand that the lightly-built trackage which was appropriate when the railway was founded was becoming obsolete in the face of the demands of the booming Tri-state mining area.
[2] But competition from vehicles on the advancing hard-surface roads took away passengers, and by 1924 it was primarily a freight carrier, with its mainline then running from Carthage, Missouri through southern Kansas to Picher, Oklahoma.