The Abilene & Northern Railway Company was chartered on February 5, 1906, for the purpose of constructing a line of railroad "from a point near Hamlin in a southeasterly direction to Brady, about 100 miles, with a branch from a point near Anson in a northerly direction to Stamford, about 15 miles." Capital stock was issued at $200,000, and the business office was at Abilene. Members of the first board of directors included C. H. Steel of Anson; R. L. Penick of Stamford; D.T. Bomar of Fort Worth; Ed. S. Hughes, William G. Swenson, Henry James, H. O. Wooten, A. Holt, and George L. Paxton, all of Abilene.

Charter board members Hughes, Swenson and Bomar formed the Fidelity Construction Company to construct and equip the line. Construction was begun between Abilene and Stamford in 1906, the line officially opening for business on January 1, 1907. No further construction was undertaken between Brady and Anson.

Prior to completion, the Colorado & Southern Railway purchased all outstanding capital stock and operated the A&N under an informal lease arrangement, which was formalized on February 1, 1908 when a lease agreement was executed between the A&N and C&S subsidiary Wichita Valley Railway. This enabled the WV to have a through-route between Wichita Falls and Abilene. The line was operated under this arrangement until June 1952 when all former A&N properties were merged into the Fort Worth and Denver and the former Abilene & Northern Railway was no more.