Missouri Pacific Railroad
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Missouri Pacific Railroad | |
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| Reporting marks | MP |
| Locale | Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas |
| Dates of operation | 1849 – 1982 |
| Successor line | Union Pacific |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Headquarters | St. Louis, Missouri |
Missouri Pacific (MoPac; AAR reporting mark MP) was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. The company merged with Union Pacific in 1982.
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[edit] History
On July 4, 1851 at St. Louis, Missouri, ground-breaking for the Pacific Railroad, chartered in 1849, marked the beginning of what would later be known as the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The first section of track was completed in 1852. In 1865, it became the first railroad to serve Kansas City, after construction was interrupted by the American Civil War.
In 1871, the Texas and Pacific Railway, which merged with the Missouri Pacific in 1928, set plans to build a line from Marshall, Texas to San Diego, CA. In 1872, the Pacific Railroad was reorganized as the Missouri Pacific Railway by new investors after a railroad debt crisis. From 1879 to 1915, it was under the control of controversial New York financier Jay Gould. Gould developed a system extending through Colorado, Nebraska, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana. In 1917 the line was merged with the St Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway (SLIMS) and reorganized as the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Later it acquired and controlled other lines near the Gulf of Mexico and in Texas, including the Texas and Pacific, extending its operating area to several midwestern and southwestern states.
The Missouri Pacific was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers, including 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), Gulf Coast Lines (GC), International-Great Northern Railroad (IGN), 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).
By the 1980s the system would own 11,469 miles 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. MoPac operated a fleet of over 1,500 diesel locomotives, most all purchased within the previous 10 years. The company was a pioneer in the early days of computer-guided rail technology. It was a major hauler of grain, TOFC (Trailer on Flat Car), coal, ore, autos and dry goods. At the time of their mega-merger in 1982, the MoPac owned newer locomotives, more locomotives and operated more track than partner Union Pacific Railroad.
On December 22, 1982 the Missouri Pacific merged with Union Pacific and Western Pacific Railroad companies to create the largest system in its day, the "Union Pacific System", under the holding company Union Pacific Corporation, but maintained its own corporate and commercial identity until January 1, 1997. Union Pacific continued to use the MoPac headquarters building at 210 N. 13th St. in downtown St. Louis, MO for its customer service center until February 15, 2005. Union Pacific now has about 50 employees remaining at the St. Louis office. The MoPac building is slated for rehabilitation as offices, condominiums, and/or retail space.
On July 30, 2005, Union Pacific unveiled a brand new EMD SD70ACe locomotive, Union Pacific 1982, with Missouri Pacific paint and logos, as part of a new heritage program.
[edit] Passenger train service
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 Pueblo, Colorado. Between Pueblo 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, Little Rock, Austin and San Antonio. Another named train, the Rainbow Special was placed in service in July 1921 between Kansas City and Little Rock, Arkansas. 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 its 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. Eagle routes included the Missouri River Eagle (St. Louis to Kansas City and Omaha), the Delta Eagle (Memphis, Tennessee to Tallulah, Louisiana), the Colorado Eagle (St. Louis, Missouri to Pueblo and Denver, the Texas Eagle (St. Louis to Texas), and the Valley Eagle (Houston to Corpus Christi and Brownsville, Texas). Missouri Pacific gained a reputation for aggressively discontinuing passenger trains after the mid-1960s, and when the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) assumed passenger train operations on May 1 1971, the St. Louis to Kansas City route was the only Missouri Pacific route to be included as part of Amtrak's basic system. 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.
[edit] References
- based on article at Screaming Eagles
- Goen, Steve Allen (1997) Texas & Pacific Color Pictorial, Four Ways West Publications, La Mirada, CA. ISBN 1-885614-17-9
- Stout, Greg (1995) Route of the Eagles, Missouri Pacific in the Streamlined Era, White River Productions, Bucklin, MO. ISBN 0-9659040-3-2
[edit] External links
| Current (operating) Class I railroads of North America |
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| United States: AMTK, BNSF, CSXT, GTW, KCS, NS, SOO, UP - Canada: CN, CP, VIA - Mexico: FXE, TFM, KCSM See also: List of USA/Canada/Mexico Class I Railroads, List of USA/Canadian Class II Railroads, Class III railroad, Class 2 Railraods in Canada, Short-line railroad, List of United States railroads, List of Canadian railroads, list of Mexican railroads |
