McNeil arose at the junction of two rail lines. The
International & Great Northern Railroad had a track built between
Rockdale and Austin, which was completed in 1876. The
Austin and Northwestern Railroad built a track from Austin to
Burnet in 1892. It was named for George McNeil, a regional manager on the A&N. The community's post office was established in December 1888, with Adison A. Sheppard as the postmaster. The "McNeil" name is currently used mostly for the Austin White Lime Company facility and railroad junction. The surrounding areas have Austin mailing addresses. From 1888 to 2024, the Austin White Lime Company operated a limestone quarry and a plant for the production of lime products. The final day of operation was March 31st, 2024. Although McNeil is unincorporated, it has a
post office with the
ZIP code of 78651. The ZIP code only includes the McNeil Post Office/Austin White Lime company store and no surrounding land. The current rail lines are owned by the
Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Cap Metro) and the
Union Pacific Railroad (UP). The Cap Metro lines are the former A&N rail lines. Cap Metro currently runs
commuter rail and freight rail operations through McNeil. The
Capital MetroRail serves McNeil at
Howard station. Freight operations on Cap Metro are operated under contract by
Austin Western Railroad. Commuter rail operations use an overpass built in 2007 over the UP tracks. Freight operations use a
diamond crossing with UP. Freight is interchanged between UP and Austin Western.
BNSF serves Austin Western via
trackage rights over UP. In addition to these rail lines, McNeil also had a hotel, a general store, and 200 residents. It fell to 125 by the 1930s and was at 70 from the 1940s through 2000. ==Geography==