Kirkwood (Amtrak station)

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Kirkwood

Station statistics

Address

110 West Argonne Drive
Kirkwood, MO 63122

Lines

Ann Rutledge

Kansas City/St. Louis Mules

Other information

Code

KWD

Traffic

Passengers (2006)

34,286

20.5%

The Kirkwood Amtrak station is a train station in Kirkwood, Missouri, United States served by Amtrak, the national railroad passenger system.

FAMOUS HOT SPOT ON THE UNION PACIFIC

Jim Tiroch (with help from Scott Nauert)

KIRKWOOD RAILROADS

Two railroads pass through the heart of Kirkwood, the Union Pacific Jefferson City Sub and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe's Cuba sub. On the UP's Jefferson City Sub at milepost 13.46 lies the famous Kirkwood Station. This beautiful station sees 4 passenger trains a day that operate between St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri. The Union Pacific Jeff City Sub sees approximately 30 trains a day while the BNSF Cuba Sub, located about a mile to the south of the station on Kirkwood Road (see getting to Kirkwood below), sees around 10 trains a day. GETTING TO KIRKWOOD

Finding Kirkwood Station is easy. You can reach Kirkwood from highway 40 by taking the Lindbergh exit and heading south approximately 5 miles, or from highway 44 taking the Lindbergh exit and heading north approximately 3 miles (the BNSF line will be crossed FIRST in a little over a mile if you are travelling from highway 44). Note that Lindbergh becomes Kirkwood road in the Kirkwood city limits. JEFF CITY SUB ACTION

With approximately 30 trains a day, this is the hottest spot west of St. Louis city. The station is just west of the crest of the hill, which has over a 1.0 percent ruling grade which is quite a chore for loaded eastbound coal trains. PHOTOGRAPHY

For the photographer, the Kirkwood Area is packed with areas to shoot trains. The Clay Avenue bridge, Station Platform, the small park across from the station, Taylor Avenue, Leffingwell Avenue, the Harrison St. overpass, and the station parking lot. TRAINS

Kirkwood sees a variety of train traffic, including radioactive trains, the 4 car Amtrak trains, general merchandisers, numerous coal drags, intermodals, autoracks, and (occasionally) military movements pass through. On rare occasions, unit locomotive trains, sometimes with 15 or more locomotives pass by. Spending a full day at Kirkwood is a unforgetable experience, and there you will meet many friendly railfans, locals, and railroad employees. Traffic in the daytime varies. One day you may see several moves while the next maybe only a few. Two trains that are guaranteed to pass through during daylight are the Amtrak trains, one from Kansas City and the other from Chicago. These trains typically have a Genesis unit and four coaches. For freight trains, because of the heavy tonnage on this transcontinental main line, freight motive power must accomodate this traffic. SD9043MACs, SD70Ms, SD60Ms, C40-8s, AC6000s, AC4400CWs, C44-9Ws and SD40-2s are quite common. Sometimes, you will see foriegn power pass by. The occasional locomotives owned by BNSF, CSX, and NS make appearances (FERROMEX units have even been spotted). If you spend an entire day in Kirkwood chances are you will see at least one unit not painted in Union Pacific colors (CNW, SP, CSX, NS, etc.). Kirkwood originally had a small frieght yard that served as storage for cars bound for local industries. Over the years the yard was gradually downsize before being downgraded to just a storage siding into the 1970s and by 1989 it too was ripped out. Interesting fact: the road bed for those two tracks is now a city owned parking lot while the small park across from the station was also a part of this yard trackage many years ago; on the station side of the tracks, there was also a freight depot with spur track and was demolished/torn up in the early 1960s. About a half mile east of the station is the former Carondelet Branch which diverges from the main line. Until the late 1980s, this route was used by westbound trains out of MP/UP's Lesperance and Ivory yards located in south St. Louis, as well as Gads Hill granite rock ballast trains coming from the Gads Hill quarry located in southern Missouri. Due to a change in traffic patterns, this line was severed in the early 1990s and today only a few thousand feet exist on the north end in Kirkwood for equipment storage while the southern two miles are used to serve a chemical plant and recycling center in South St. Louis. More recently Union Pacific has expressed interest in possibly reopening the Carondelet branch as a through route if certain conditions come about, such as the proposed Chouteau Pond in St. Louis and additional traffic bound for the DeSoto Sub, particularly coal trains that go to the AmerenUE Meramec Powerplant.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

The Kirkwood station area has really changed in recent years. The old Target store has been torn down and the area around it has been redeveloped into condos and Shops. Theres a hobby shop in the area, Kirkwood Hobbies, but be ready to dish out big bucks, no discounts here! Also, for those who want to make a disruption, please think twice, across the tracks, is the Kirkwood Police Department..

This is an artical, that I , Jim Tiroch have on my website. It was originally written for publication, but was rejected by both TRAINS and Railfan and Railroad. The artical's end has been rewritten since there has been major changes. -Jim Tiroch

[edit] External links

Amtrak - Stations - Kirkwood, MO

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Washington toward Kansas City		Ann Rutledge		St. Louis toward Chicago
Washington toward Kansas City		Kansas City/St. Louis Mules		St. Louis Terminus