"Right-of-way" companies were able to connect with the Bell System (and other telephone companies) this way. In fact, when the Santa Fe freight station in Oklahoma City burned down they built a new freight station in a location further out in an industrial district (and more accessible to trucks, too).
They wanted to keep the same numbers (the new location was not in the same central office area) so they connected with the Bell lines at their old location, extended the loops to the new location over their own facilities, and the Bell phones were connected to them at the new location.
"Right-of-way companies" were those that had their own right of way and communications facilities. Railroads and pipeline companies made up most of the "right-of-way" companies, but undoubtedly there were others.
Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@aol.com