This abandoned railway was originally built by the Dallas & Waco Railroad in 1886 to connect its two namesake towns; it was completed in 1890. It made connection with the main line of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (MKT, or "The Katy") in Hillsboro, north of Waco, and built northeast through Waxahachie to reach Dallas. The D&W created a junction with its line to the Houston & Texas Central Railroad (H&TC) in Waxahachie; shortly after, the MKT bought the D&W and the line. The UP acquired the line through mergers, but did not utilize it since they already had a line that accessed the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex from the south.

The line was abandoned south of Waxahachie to Hillsboro in segments, with the final segment abandoned as recently as 2002; some parts of the track in Waxahachie, the last remaining on the line, were removed in January 2008. For a time before abandonment, the section of track between Waxahachie and Hillboro was owned by SF&L, a scrap dealer/broker.