St. Louis Southwestern Railway

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for other uses of SSW, see SSW

St. Louis Southwestern Railway

Reporting marks	SSW
Locale	Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Illinois
Dates of operation	1891–1992
Successor line	Southern Pacific
Track gauge	4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters	St. Louis, Missouri

The St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company (AAR reporting marks SSW), known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply "Cotton Belt", was organized on January 15, 1891, although it had its origins in a series of short lines founded in Tyler, Texas in 1877 that connected northeastern Texas to Arkansas and southeastern Missouri.

The company gained trackage rights over Missouri Pacific Railroad to reach the St. Louis, Missouri area. SSW also operated a yard and locomotive servicing facility in East St. Louis, Illinois, just east of Valley Junction, and south of Alton and Southern Railroad's Gateway Yard, and north of Kansas City Southern's East St. Louis Yard. Cotton Belt operated passenger trains out of St. Louis Union Station. They also had a freight station in Downtown St. Louis. Union Pacific Railroad now operates the yard (still named "Cotton Belt Yard"), but the engine servicing facilities have been demolished.

The St. Louis Southwestern and its subsidiaries operated a total of 1,607 miles of track in 1945; 1,555 miles of track in 1965; and 2,115 miles of track in 1981 after taking over the Rock Island's Golden State Route.

The Southern Pacific Railroad gained control of the Cotton Belt system on April 14, 1932 but continued to operate it as a separate company until 1992, when the SP consolidated the Cotton Belt's operations into the parent company. Cotton Belt diesel locomotives from 1959 on were painted in Southern Pacific's "bloody nose" scheme - dark gray locomotive body with a red "winged" nose. The letters "SSW" were painted on the nose and "Cotton Belt" on the sides.

In 1996, the Union Pacific Railroad finished the acquisition that was effectively begun almost a century before with the purchase of the Southern Pacific by UP in 1901, until divestiture was ordered in 1913. The merged company retains the name "Union Pacific" for all railroad operations. Former SSW locomotives have been 'patched' with the UP logo and locomotive numbers, although a few locomotives still have the words "cotton belt" painted on the side.[1]

St. Louis Southwestern 819 is maintained at the Arkansas Railway Museum in Pine Bluff, Arkansas by the Cotton Belt Rail Historical Society. The #819 was the last new steam locomotive purchased by the Cotton Belt in 1943 and it was built in the Pine Bluff Shops.

St. Louis Southwestern 819 on an early excursion run in 1986.

[edit] External links

[edit] Sources

Moody's Steam Railroads 1949
Moody's Transportation Manual 9/1968
Goen, Steve Allen (1999), 'Cotton Belt Color Pictorial', Four Ways West Publications. ISBN 1-885614-25-X