Coal County Railroad history begins in the 1930s, when the ATSF was looking to capitalize on freight from the inland seas of Quahog and Wilhelmina. By the 1950s, they had built a 250-mile branchline from Liberty City which terminated at Quahog City and a small spur to the township at Quahog River.

However, traffic along the line never reached expectations and it was running at a loss. In April 1947, the line was spun off into an independent company; the Coal County Railroad Company with motive power leased from ATSF. It bought up controlling stakes in the inland ports, founded new industries to feed traffic into the line and introduced commuter services to the local communities.

Work soon began on pushing the line towards the west coast in anticipation of global containerization. The huge port at Los Santos would become a prime source of intermodal traffic. However, this would require traversing very difficult and hostile terrain of the Khyber Range and Limestone Desert. This final extension was completed in August 1969.

Today, the route remains a BNSF subdivision but continues to be independently run by the Coal County Railroad Corporation.