The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) had jurisdiction over the rates and operations of railroads, terminals, wharves and express companies. The Railroad Commission, at the request of the federal Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), would often hear cases for the ICC (or jointly with the ICC) involving applications for certificates of public convenience and necessity and would recommend to the ICC whether or not to grant the application. The Railroad Commission interaction with the ICC was through the Main Office (later Main Office and Rate Division, then Main Office and Transportation Division, then the Transportation Division). These records are two sets of detailed valuation reports on the construction of railroad branch lines. The reports are from a Texas railroad, the Panhandle and Santa Fe, to the Interstate Commerce Commission's (ICC) Bureau of Valuation. The first report is for a branch line from Panhandle, Texas to Borger, Texas dated October 16, 1926. A year later, October 15, 1927, another valuation report was filed for a branch line from White Deer, Texas to Skellyton, Texas. Each report gives a brief history of the railroad company and of its application with the ICC to construct the line. These reports, labeled "Bureau of Valuation Form 588," then detail the construction costs of each line including the costs of labor, materials, transportation, equipment and all improvements such as bridges, track, stations, signals, and grading. Each different construction cost is assigned to an account and the accounts are arranged numerically. An inventory of the records was conducted to provide a brief description of the contents of each box including the dates and types of materials and a notation of any filing arrangement that may be present. This finding aid describes one series of the Railroad Commission of Texas records. See Railroad Commission of Texas: An Overview of Records (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/20078/tsl-20078.html) for more records series.
