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Overview | |
---|---|
Headquarters | St. Louis, Missouri |
Founders | Thomas Allen Wayman Crow John O'Fallon Daniel D. Page |
Reporting mark | MP |
Locale | Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas |
Dates of operation | 1872–1997 |
Predecessor | Pacific Railroad |
Successor | Union Pacific Railroad |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
The Missouri Pacific Railroad( reporting mark MP), commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad operated 9,041 miles of road and 13,318 miles of track, not including DK&S, NO&LC, T&P, and its subsidiaries C&EI and Missouri-Illinois.
Union Pacific Corporation, the parent company of the Union Pacific Railroad, agreed to buy the Missouri Pacific Railroad on January 8, 1980. Lawsuits filed by competing railroads delayed approval of the merger until September 13, 1982. After the Supreme Court denied a trial to the Southern Pacific, the merger took effect on December 22, 1982. However, due to outstanding bonds of the Missouri Pacific, its full merger into the Union Pacific Railroad did not become official until January 1, 1997.
On July 4, 1851, ground was broken at St. Louis on the Pacific Railroad, the predecessor of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The first section of track was completed in 1852; in 1865, it was the first railroad in Kansas City, after construction was interrupted by the American Civil War. In 1872, the Pacific Railroad was reorganized as the Missouri Pacific Railway by new investors after a railroad debt crisis. Because of corporate ties extending back to the Pacific Railroad, Missouri Pacific at one time[ when? ] advertised itself as being "The First Railroad West of the Mississippi".
Other predecessors included the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway (SLIMS), Texas and Pacific Railway (TP), Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad (C&EI), St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway (SLBM), Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway (KO&G), Midland Valley Railroad (MV), San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad (SAU&G), Gulf Coast Lines (GC), International-Great Northern Railroad (IGN), Kansas, Nebraska & Dakota Railroad, New Orleans, Texas and Mexico Railway (NOTM), Missouri-Illinois Railroad (MI), as well as the small Central Branch Railway (an early predecessor of MP in Kansas and south-central Nebraska), and joint ventures such as the Alton and Southern Railroad (AS).
Missouri Pacific was under the control of New York financier Jay Gould from 1879 until his death in 1892. Gould developed a system extending through Colorado, Nebraska, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana. His son George Gould inherited control upon his father's death, but lost control of the company after it declared bankruptcy in 1915. [1] The line was merged with the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway (SLIMS) and reorganized as the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1917. Missouri Pacific later acquired or gained a controlling interest in other lines in Texas, including the Gulf Coast Lines, International-Great Northern Railroad, and the Texas and Pacific Railway.
The railroad's first heavy repair shops were built in Sedalia, Missouri in 1872. In 1905 several smaller shop sites were consolidated at Sedalia when the old shops were closed and moved to a new site along Marshall Avenue. The MoPac began using the Baring Cross Shops of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway in North Little Rock, Arkansas in 1882. A fire in 1900 caused them to be rebuilt on a larger scale that would ultimately become the primary MoPac shop site (now known as the Downing B. Jenks Shops). Minor locomotive repairs were carried out at the terminals in St. Louis and Kansas City.
MoPac declared bankruptcy again in 1933, during the Great Depression, and entered into trusteeship. The company was reorganized and the trusteeship ended in 1956. [1]
By the 1980s, the system owned 11,469 miles (18,458 km) of rail line over 11 states bounded by Chicago to the east, Pueblo, Colorado, in the west, north to Omaha, south to the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas, and southeast along the Gulf seaports of Louisiana and Texas. MoPac operated a fleet of more than 1,500 diesel locomotives, almost all purchased within the previous 10 years. Under the leadership of Downing B. Jenks, who became president and chief executive in 1961, the company became a pioneer in the early days of computer-guided rail technology. It was a major hauler of coal, grain, ore, autos, dry goods and shipping containers. At the time of its mega-merger in 1982, the MoPac owned more and newer locomotives and operated more track than partner Union Pacific Railroad.
On December 22, 1982, the Missouri Pacific was purchased by the Union Pacific Corporation and combined with the Western Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad to form one large railroad system. The new entity was called Pacific Rail Systems; though part of the Union Pacific Corporation, all three railroads maintained their own corporate and commercial identity. On December 1, 1989, the Missouri Kansas Texas and the Galveston, Houston & Henderson were merged into the Missouri Pacific after having been acquired by the Union Pacific Corporation in 1988.
By 1994, all motive power of the Missouri Pacific was repainted and on January 1, 1997, the Missouri Pacific was officially merged into the Union Pacific Railroad by the Union Pacific Corporation. UP continued to use the MoPac headquarters building at 210 N. 13th St. in downtown St. Louis for its customer service center until February 15, 2005. The former MoPac building has undergone rehab as apartments and is now known as Park Pacific.
MP | Missouri-Illinois | C&EI | Doniphan Kensett & Searcy | New Orleans & Lower Coast | Asherton & Gulf | San Antonio Southern | Sugar Land Ry | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1925 | 11,282 | 84 | 2,355 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 4 | 9 |
1933 | 7,457 | 44 | 1,066 | 0.1 | 1.4 | (with MP) | (with MP) | (with MP) |
1944 | 25,910 | 188 | 3,456 | 0.1 | 7 | |||
1960 | 19,238 | 183 | 2,335 | 0.5 | 9 | |||
1970 | 26,907 | 359 | 2,309 | ? | ? |
In this table, "MP" includes New Orleans Texas & Mexico and all its subsidiary railroads (Beaumont Sour Lake & Western, I-GN, StLB&M, etc.) that officially merged into MP in 1956. Ton-miles for C&EI in 1970 presumably don't include the L&N portion.
By that same definition, MP operated 10,431 route-miles at the end of 1929, after A&G, SAS and Sugar Land had come under NOT&M; NO&LC operated 60 and DK&S (not subsidiary until 1931) operated 6. At the end of 1960, MP operated 9,362 route-miles, NO&LC and DK&S were the same, and M-I operated 172 miles.
T&P | KO&G/KO&G of TX | Midland Valley | Cisco & Northeastern | Pecos Valley Southern | Texas Short Line | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1925 | 1,763 | 193 | 230 | 4 | 7 | 0.8 |
1933 | 1,498 | 163 | 84 | (with T&P) | (with T&P) | (with T&P) |
1944 | 4,761 | 412 | 113 | |||
1960 | 4,168 | 495 | 97 | |||
1970 | 5,854 | 150 (merged Apr 1970) | (merged 1967) |
"T&P" includes its subsidiary roads (A&S, D&PS, T-NM etc.); operated route-miles totaled 2,259 at the end of 1929 (after C≠, PVS and TSL had become subsidiaries) and 2,033 at the end of 1960.
In the early years of the 20th century, most Missouri Pacific and St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern passenger trains were designated by number only, with little emphasis on premier name trains. This changed in May, 1915, with the inauguration of the Scenic Limited between St. Louis, Kansas City, and San Francisco. Between Pueblo, Colorado and Salt Lake City, the Scenic Limited operated through the Royal Gorge over the tracks of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. From Salt Lake City to San Francisco, the Scenic Limited operated over the Western Pacific Railroad. A second premier train, the Sunshine Special began operating on December 5, 1915, between St. Louis and San Antonio via Little Rock and Austin. Another named train, the Rainbow Special , was placed in service in July 1921 between Kansas City and Little Rock. The Sunshine Special soon eclipsed the other trains in travel volume, becoming the signature train of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. An advertising slogan in 1933 proclaimed: "It's 70-degrees in the Sunshine when it's 100-degrees in the shade," referring to the fact that the Sunshine Special was one of the first air-conditioned trains in the southwest. When new streamlined trains were delivered, the Scenic Limited and Rainbow Special names faded, but the Sunshine Special had sufficient name recognition to co-exist along with the new streamliners into the late 1950s.
In the streamliner era, the Missouri Pacific's premier passenger trains were collectively known as the Eagles. A variety of Eagle trains were operated, with the first such train inaugurated in 1940. These routes included the Missouri River Eagle (St. Louis-Kansas City-Omaha), the Delta Eagle (Memphis, Tennessee-Tallulah, Louisiana), the Colorado Eagle (St. Louis-Pueblo-Denver), the Texas Eagle (St. Louis to Texas), and the Valley Eagle (Houston-Corpus Christi-Brownsville, Texas).
Other notable MoPac trains operated included:
Missouri Pacific gained a reputation for aggressively discontinuing passenger trains after the mid-1960s. When the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) assumed passenger train operations on May 1, 1971, the only Missouri Pacific route included as part of Amtrak's basic system was its main line from St. Louis to Kansas City. This route is now served by Amtrak's Missouri River Runner (named for the fact that it runs mostly parallel to the Missouri River). On March 13, 1974, Amtrak restored passenger train service over segments of Missouri Pacific-Texas and Pacific's original Texas Eagle route between St. Louis, Little Rock, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Laredo with the Inter-American. This train was renamed the Texas Eagle in 1981, resurrecting the name of the famous MoPac train. The Amtrak version runs over former MoPac and T&P trackage for much of its route.
On July 30, 2005, UP unveiled a brand new EMD SD70ACe locomotive, Union Pacific 1982, with Missouri Pacific paint and logos, as part of a new heritage program.
The Texas Eagle is a long-distance passenger train operated daily by Amtrak on a 1,306-mile (2,102 km) route between Chicago, Illinois, and San Antonio, Texas, with major stops in St. Louis, Little Rock, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin. Three days per week, the train joins the Sunset Limited in San Antonio and continues to Los Angeles via El Paso and Tucson. The combined 2,728-mile (4,390 km) route is the longest in the United States and the second-longest in the Americas, after the Canadian.
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and also in Texas through subsidiaries Colorado and Southern Railway, Fort Worth and Denver Railway, and Burlington-Rock Island Railroad. Its primary connections included Chicago, Minneapolis–Saint Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Denver. Because of this extensive trackage in the midwest and mountain states, the railroad used the advertising slogans "Everywhere West", "Way of the Zephyrs", and "The Way West".
The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad was a Class I railroad company in the United States, with its last headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Established in 1865 under the name Union Pacific Railroad (UP), Southern Branch, it came to serve an extensive rail network in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri. In 1988, it merged with the Missouri Pacific Railroad; today, it is part of UP.
A dome car is a type of railway passenger car that has a glass dome on the top of the car where passengers can ride and see in all directions around the train. It also can include features of a coach, lounge car, dining car, sleeping car or observation. Beginning in 1945, dome cars were primarily used in the United States and Canada, though a small number were constructed in Europe for Trans Europ Express service.
The Lincoln Service is a 284-mile (457 km) higher-speed rail service operated by Amtrak that runs between Chicago, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri. The train is a part of the Illinois Service and is partially funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation. The train uses the same route as the long-distance Texas Eagle, which continues to San Antonio and Los Angeles. A connection with the Kansas City-bound Missouri River Runner is available in St. Louis.
The St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company, known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply "Cotton Belt", is a former Class I railroad that operated between St. Louis, Missouri, and various points in the U.S. states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas from 1891 to 1980, when the system added the Rock Island's Golden State Route and operations in Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The Cotton Belt operated as a Southern Pacific subsidiary from 1932 until 1992, when its operation was assumed by Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
The Texas and Pacific Railway Company was created by federal charter in 1871 with the purpose of building a southern transcontinental railroad between Marshall, Texas, and San Diego, California.
The Kansas City Mule and St. Louis Mule were a pair of 283-mile (455 km) passenger trains operated by Amtrak running between St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri as part of the Missouri Service train network. Also operating over this route was the Ann Rutledge, which originated in Chicago. In January 2009, Amtrak consolidated these trains under the name Missouri River Runner.
The Alton Railroad was the final name of a railroad linking Chicago to Alton, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri. Its predecessor, the Chicago and Alton Railroad, was purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1931 and was controlled until 1942 when the Alton was released to the courts. On May 31, 1947, the Alton Railroad was merged into the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Jacob Bunn had been one of the founding reorganizers of the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company during the 1860s.
The Missouri & Northern Arkansas Railroad, LLC is a Class II Regional Railroad in the U.S. states of Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas. The company is headquartered in Carthage, Missouri. It is not to be confused with the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad which connected Joplin, Missouri, with Helena, Arkansas, from 1906 to 1946.
The Sunshine Special was inaugurated by the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway,, on December 5, 1915, to provide a premium level of passenger train service between St. Louis, Little Rock, and destinations in Texas, United States, such as El Paso, San Antonio, Laredo and Houston. An auxiliary section of the train originated in Memphis, Tennessee, and linked with the train in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The Beaumont, Sour Lake and Western Railway was an 85-mile (137 km) railroad that ran from Beaumont, Texas to Gulf Coast Junction in Houston. It passed through small southeast Texas communities such as Hull, Kenefick, and Huffman. As part of the Gulf Coast Lines system, the road was eventually merged into the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1956, which in turn was merged into the Union Pacific Railroad in 1982. The Union Pacific still makes heavy use of the route.
Little Rock Union Station, also known as Mopac Station, is a train station in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States served by Amtrak, the national railroad passenger system.
Texarkana Union Station is a historic train station in the Texarkana metropolitan area serving Amtrak, the United States' national passenger rail system. The Arkansas-Texas border bisects the structure; the eastern part, including the waiting room and ticket office, are in Texarkana, Arkansas, but the western part is in Texarkana, Texas, meaning stopped trains span both states. The station was built in 1928 and was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Today it is the second busiest Amtrak station in Arkansas.
The Texas Special was a named passenger train operated jointly by the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad and the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway. It was the flagship of both these lines, operating between St. Louis, Missouri, and San Antonio, Texas, from 1915 until 1959, after which time the Katy changed the northern destination from St Louis to Kansas City after the Frisco discontinued service from St. Louis.
The Missouri River Runner is a 283-mile (455 km) passenger train service operated by Amtrak in Missouri between Gateway Transportation Center in St. Louis and Union Station in Kansas City. The eastern half of the route runs largely along the right bank of the Missouri River.
The Texas Eagle was an American streamlined passenger train operated by the Missouri Pacific Railroad and the Texas and Pacific Railway between St. Louis, Missouri, and multiple destinations in the state of Texas. It operated from 1948 to 1971. The Texas Eagle was one of many trains discontinued when Amtrak began operations in 1971, although Amtrak would revive service over the Missouri Pacific with the Inter-American in 1974. This train was renamed the Eagle in 1981 and finally the Texas Eagle in 1988.
The Gulf Coast Lines was the name of a railroad system comprising three principal railroads, as well as some smaller ones, that stretched from New Orleans, Louisiana, via Baton Rouge and Houston to Brownsville, Texas. Originally chartered as subsidiaries of the Frisco Railroad, the system became independent in 1916 and was purchased by the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1925.
Hope station is a passenger rail station in Hope, Arkansas. The station is located on Amtrak's Texas Eagle line. Trains run daily between Chicago, Illinois, and San Antonio, Texas, and continue to Los Angeles, California, 2,728 miles (4,390 km) total, three days a week.
The Colorado Eagle was an American streamlined passenger train operated by the Missouri Pacific Railroad (MP) in the mid 20th century. It operated between St. Louis, Missouri and Denver, Colorado, using MP trackage from St. Louis to Pueblo, Colorado and traveling on the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad from there to Denver. The train began service on June 21, 1942 and replaced those railroads' Scenic Limited.
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