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In 1915 the Katy began operating the Texas Special from St. Louis to San Antonio via North Jefferson City, Missouri; Parsons, Kansas; McAlester, Oklahoma; Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin, Texas. This was done to augment the existing Katy Flyer and Katy Limited trains.

Effective March 4, 1917, the Texas Special operated over Frisco line from St. Louis through Springfield, Missouri, to Vinita, Oklahoma, where it met Katy lines. When the Texas Specialchanged lines in Vinita, it changed crews as well. In the early days of joint operations, down the Katy line in Muskogee, Oklahoma, the locomotive was changed also.

The M-K-T began splitting the train at Denison, Texas, with one section serving Dallas, Austin and San Antonio, and the other serving Ft. Worth and continuing over their roundabout route to Houston. Through Houston service, which was much slower than the Missouri Pacific Railroad‘s service from St. Louis, was discontinued in the mid 1950s, though a Ft. Worth section continued to split cars out at Denison.

The joint operation created one of the shortest routes connecting Texas financial centers with those in the East. In light of this success the two railroads inaugurated a second train, named the Bluebonnet on December 11, 1927; it operated until May 1, 1948, serving the same route, but terminating in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

Through World War II the Texas Special consisted of “heavyweight” passenger cars pulled by Katy Pacific 4-6-2s, Frisco Northern 4-8-4s, or Frisco Mountain 4-8-2s.