About Us

McGrath designs, constructs, inspects and maintains railroads for Shortline, Military, Amusement Park Industry and Industrial railroad customers. McGrath has been involved in the construction of a number of Inner City Mass Transit Systems across the United States.

Since1865

History of McGrath Family Rail

The McGrath Family started into the US Railroad industry, in 1865, during the United States westward expansion. Starting construction in Burlington, Iowa, John Joseph McGrath along with his father began constructing the Chicago, Quincy & Burlington Railroad (CB&Q) what is today known as the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Line, from Iowa toward to Rocky Mountains near Denver. Due to the harsh winter, John Joseph wintered in Aurora, CO. At this point the former Union Soldiers, constructing what is today the Union Pacific Railroad, built across the Rockies and eventually tied into the Golden Spike at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1865. However, McGrath and his crew built down the eastern slope of the Rockies to Ft. Worth, Texas, and proceeded into Indian Territory to reach the coal deposits at McAlester. The McGrath Transcontinental Railroad Gang disbanded at McAlester in 1892. Harry Gibson contacted John Joseph McGrath and convinced him to move his family and settle in Webbers Falls in what today is the State of Oklahoma

Since 1865 the McGrath family has worked on railroad projects all over the country, most notably 30 different transit projects, mainline railroad projects, short line railroad projects, industry railroad projects, and amusement park rail-based projects. Of these projects, that has included ballasted track, direct fixation track and embedded track.

In 2018, the McGrath family welcomed their sixth-generation legacy, Jon Michael McGrath II, to McGrath family railroad construction firm . McGrath is excited to continue the legacy of “Building Railroads across American since 1865.”