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Lott offered to extend the S.A. & A.P. from Alice to Brownsville if Brownsville satisfied certain financial demands, but the people of Brownsville failed to meet Lott's demands.
Lott never gave up the idea of constructing a railroad to the Valley. In the early 1890's, soon after leaving the S.A. & A.P., he formed the San Antonio & Tampico Railroad to construct a line from Alice to Tampico, Mexico via Brownsville, but nothing was done other than some preliminary work. In 1897, he incorporated the Guadalupe Valley Railroad. His plans included a branch from Victoria, Texas to the Rio Grande Valley, but had to abandon this enterprise soon after construction began due to lack of funds.
Undaunted, Lott again began promoting the construction of a railroad from Alice to Brownsville in 1899. Late that year or early 1890, Lott completed a preliminary field survey of a prospective route and began looking for investors. Lott failed to raise cash locally, but did secure the support of the big ranch owners between Corpus Christi and Brownsville, including Robert J. Kleberg (1853-1932), John B. Armstrong (1850-1913), Robert Driscoll Jr. (1871- 1929), John G. Kenedy, and Francisco Yturria (1832-1912), who agreed to donate land for the right-of-way. Aware of the prices being paid for farmland elsewhere in the state, "the idea of farm colonization seemed like an answered prayer to the hard-pressed rancher."
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