During Paul Neff's tenure in office, piggyback freight traffic gained impetus in American railroading and under his direction Missouri Pacific developed a specialized method of handling this type of business. In 1998 a gentleman by the name ofAndre Kristopans put together a web page highlighting virtually every unit out-shopped by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division. Acting for Missouri Pacific, the railroad was bought on 6/20/24 by the New Orleans, Texas & Mexican Railway Company, which was then bought outright by Missouri Pacific in 1925. The strategic geographical position of the System afforded connections with all major rail lines that extended to the four corners of the nation and into Canada and Mexico. Thus in 1974, Mo-Pac was enabled to take a further step toward corporate simplification: the merger of The Texas & Pacific Railway as well as the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad into the Missouri Pacific to create a system unified in name as well as in fact. The Missouri Pacific Railroad, which was in operation between 1851 and 1997, was one of the first railroads to be constructed west of the Mississippi River.. During its active years, it ran through Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. However, it really took off following several bankruptcies and the Staggers Act's passage in 1980. Centralized traffic control, to expedite the movement of trains, was extended to include much more trackage after World War 11, and radio communications equipment became standard on all the company's locomotives. Even the prospect of laying a grade was extremely difficult due to the region's remoteness, sparse population, and lack of infrastructure. If you are researching anything EMD related please visit this page first. Another named train, the Rainbow Special, was placed in service in July 1921 between Kansas City and Little Rock. Today, there are tens of thousands of miles scattered throughout the country. The Missouri Pacific Railroad logo (red). It is an excellent resource with thousands of historic maps on file throughout the country. State aid was sought and secured and efforts to sell stock increased. The most serious one on the Pacific was that led by Sterling Price in the fall of 1864. It operated from 1948 to 1971. -. Union Pacific then allowed the Missouri Pacific & Western Pacific railroads to create a new scheme. Railroad Notes, Abbreviations & Sources: Several "2500 Series" GP35s were later re-#d 2600-17. Under his direction the T&P continued its march, reaching Sierra Blanca in West Texas onDecember 16, 1881 with a goal of connecting to the Southern Pacific at El Paso. 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). Under the direction of Chief Engineer Kirkwood, purchases of land were begun and grading started. 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. Freight terminals, piggyback facilities and track-rail installations were either built new or greatly improved and expanded throughout the Sixties at San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, North Little Rock, St. Louis and Kansas City. With the Missouri Pacific as a foundation, Gould then welded together a great network of rail lines known as the "Southwest System" In 1880, five other smaller western railroads were consolidated with the Missouri Pacific, and in 1881 control of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern was acquired. After months of negotiations to seek a new plan of reorganization, a formula was finally devised which proved satisfactory to all concerned. Later it acquired other lines in the Gulf area and in Texas, extending its operating area to several Midwestern and Southwestern states. Author's work. By July, 1858 the Pacific Railroad was completed the 160 miles to Tipton, Mo., then the end of the line from St. Louis. This setback only increased the determination of the Missouri people. It was placed in service in 1856. This picture from 1981 shows a small Missouri Pacific Railroad yard near the stadium (to the right of the area shown in the photo) in Lincoln, Nebraska. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 8x6 HISTORIC PHOTO OF OTTAWA KANSAS MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILROAD DEPOT c1950 at the best online prices at eBay! Other installations there have included a rail welding plant, producing quarter-mile lengths of continuous welded rail for the entire system, that was completed in 1967, and a diesel locomotive repair and overhaul complex which began operation in 1969. These trains, and others, reached far and wide across its vast network. But it was not until two years later, on March 1, 1956, that the United States District Court at St. Louis officially ended Missouri Pacific's 23 years of receivership. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 ignited the need for more rapid and dependable transportation to the West. The project was ambitious but formidable with numerous challenges, the most critical of which was procuring a steady flow of capital. The T&P sold the third line -the 104-mile OklahomaCity-Ada-Atoka Railway-to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. West from that point the railroad was purposely located away from the Missouri River for fear that it would be unable to compete with the steamboats. The fight was finally resolved when the"Gould-Huntington Agreement" was signed on November 26, 1881. About 1873 a New York financier, Jay Gould, became interested in western railroads when he acquired a large block of stock in the Union Pacific Railroad. It made its last run during September of 1970, carrying just seventeen passengers as part of a two-car consist. It operated a number of popular services but is best known for its fleet ofEagles; theAztec Eagle,Colorado Eagle,Missouri River Eagle,Valley Eagle,Louisiana Eagle, and the renownedTexas Eagle. Mississippi began buying Mo-Pac stock in 1959 and gained voting control in 1962. Russel L. Dearmont, for 20 years counsel for the Trustee, was elected president to succeed Mr. Neff. To speed construction and get into operation as quickly as possible, bridges over the White, the Arkansas and the Red rivers were passed up for the time being and passengers and freight were transferred by ferry until the bridges could be constructed. The company's Official Guide listing proudly highlighted these railroads which included: As for the Texas & Pacific, it enjoyed its very own listing. Missouri Pacific PA-2 #59 (built as #8016) lays over at the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis engine terminal along Scott Avenue, circa 1962. Mr. Lloyd joined Mo-Pac as vice president-operation, the same post he had held with the Rock Island Lines. to promote people already with the railroad and to make room for personnel brought in from outside. Mo-Pac's computer applications have since expanded into the areas of traffic and market analyses, equipment control, car accounting and car tracing. This division extended 38 miles to Franklin, now Pacific, Mo. Although no longer active, the Missouri Pacific Railroad, also referred to as MoPac or, more . 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 and Texas. Mr. Jenks was elected president, and Mr. Dearmont was elected chairman of the board, in 1961. The company also increased its efforts to attract new industries to its 12-state territory. The George Washington became the C&O's flagship train between Cincinnati and Norfolk after it was inaugurated in 1932. Our History were completed. Missouri Pacific SD40-2 #3117 leads a long freight through western Kansas in the winter of 1974. Lee Berglund photo. Despite unfavorable weather and shaky finances, this was accomplished on April 2,1857. Meanwhile, work on the Iron Mountain had continued southward from St. Louis and by May, 1857, the 800-ft.-long tunnel at Vineland had been completed along with a bridge over the Meramec River. An important factor in developing the new team was the lowering of Mo-Pac's retirement age from 70 to 65 which made it possible both. Despite paltry and insignificant patronage, the public and state/government officials fought discontinuance, largely out of nostalgia. 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. ); operated route-miles totaled 2259 at the end of 1929 (after C, PVS and TSL had become subsidiaries) and 2033 at the end of 1960. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. This line had to link up with the Iron Mountain to provide through service from St. Louis to Texas. In 1916 they were sold to the New Orleans, Texas & Mexico Railway, and operated as the Gulf Coast Lines. One such intermodal service -Piggyback-received substantial upgrading beginning in 1964 with the introduction of the first of a seriesof special piggyback trains to provide highway competitive service between Chicago and St. Louis and key Texas cities. Perhaps they had more trackage and trains than either the Union Pacific or the ATSF and certainly more than the CRIP, SLSF or Katy in the state of Kansas. -As it name implies, CTC offers safer and more efficient operations by centralizing dispatching in one location. The Pacific was chartered by Missouri in 1849 to extend "from St. Louis to the western boundary of Missouri and thence to the Pacific Ocean ." [1] Rails were purchased in England and were shipped to New Orleans for transfer to St. Louis by river steamboats. In 1967 it gained stock control of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, which provided a coveted entry into Chicago. The Missouri Pacific Railroad logo (blue). In 1967, a holder of Mo-Pac Class B shares sued the railroad over its dividend policy. After the Supreme Court denied a trial to the Southern Pacific, the merger took effect on December 22, 1982. Today, the East St. Louis terminal and classification yard of the Alton & Southern, now owned jointly by the Missouri Pacific and Cotton Belt, continue to play a major role in moving rail traffic through the St. Louis gateway, classifying freight for Mo-Pac and nine other railroads. American-Rails.com collection. In 1885, the T&P entered receivership and by losing the MK&T through court-order in 1888 Gould also lost the I&GN. From this point, a dispatcher controls movements over a particular segment of track, i.e., territory. North Little Rock also is the location of the railroad system headquarters for distribution of materials and supplies. American-Rails.com collection. Mo-Pac has the only single system route linking Chicago and Laredo, Texas, the foremost rail gateways to our neighboring countries. A second premier train, the Sunshine Special began operating on December 5, 1915, between St. Louis and San Antonio via Little Rock and Austin. 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. Missouri Pacific Railroad Police Department, RR. A former Rock Island GP38-2 is ahead of this Missouri Pacific freight at Vinson Siding near Austin, Texas during the early 1980s. This is the movement of great tonnage's of single bulk products between two points on a regularly scheduled basis. The Sunshine Special soon eclipsed the other trains in travel volume, becoming the signature train of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Like other early subscribers those men acted in the public interest rather than in expectation of any early direct return on their investments. Lewis W. Baldwin became president of the company inApril 1923 and the acquisition of the Gulf Coast Lines and the International _Great Northern was an early project of his regime. Locomotives and cars came the same way. Missouri Pacific Railroad Depot may refer to any of following former and active train stations previously used by the Missouri Pacific Railroad, many of which are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places (NRHP): (by state then city) Missouri-Pacific Depot-Altus, Altus, AR, listed on the NRHP in Arkansas On April 2, 1858 it opened to Pilot Knob (very near Ironton), then continued expanding southwestward. Within four years these Eagles had run 2,616,904 miles and had carried 2,062,000 passengers. In 1855, work on the original PR resumed as it reached Jefferson City. 'MOPAC' then went into receivership itself in 1933, for 23 years! Missouri Pacific's auto distribution center at Arlington, Texas, was doubled in size in 1967. He said, "This is a laudable pioneering effort by the Missouri Pacific and it is one which other railroads may utilize to improve the reliability of the transportation product, the utilization of the freight car fleet and the communication with customers". The T&P retained control of the 203-mile Kansas, Oklahoma & Gulf, and of the 335-mile Midland Valley Railroad. Location not listed. On July 4, 1851, ground was broken at St. Louis on the Pacific Railroad, the predecessor of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Hundreds of miles of conventional rail have been replaced by continuous welded rail; many bridges have been rebuilt or upgraded; millions of dollars have been invested in new terminals to handle piggyback and small shipments and still more millions in automated freight classification yards. In 1975, the Federal Railroad Administration awarded Mo-Pac a $5.5 million contract to develop an automated freight car scheduling system, built upon the data base and operating applications of Missouri Pacific's TCS. During Mr. Jenks' presidency. More than 24,000 feet of track were involved in the initial phases of the project including blasting out cuts 47 feet deep through rock harder than granite. On January 1, 1997, Missouri Pacific Railroad legally was merged into Union Pacific Railroad, with UPRR remaining as the surviving corporation. Mo-Pac's heavy investment in shops and yards has been matched with both investment and innovations in service to improve the railroad's competitive position. One such system was the so-called "Gulf Coast Lines" (GSL). More recently, all-new intermodal distribution centers have been built at St. Louis, Memphis, Ft. Worth, Monroe, La.,and Wichita. Afterwards, following theInternational-Great Northern Railroad reorganization in 1922 it, also joined the MoPac (January 1, 1925). 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. Mr. Jenks was elected chairman of the board of Mississippi in 1973. The Missouri Pacific Railroad logo (blue). 2600 from 2008 (2007:1), nee 630 2601 from 2501, nee T&P 601 . It was re-organized as the Missouri Pacific in 1956. Activity in new railroad building and extension of existing trackage was practically stopped by the 1892 depression, but between then and 1910 major projects completed included the Illinois Division, the lines from Helena, Ark., south to Ferriday, La., the White River line from Carthage, Mo., to Batesville, Ark., and the River Route between Jefferson City and Boonville, Mo. A threat to the efficiency of traffic handling at the important St. Louis gateway developed in 1966 when the Cotton Belt, a Southern Pacific subsidiary, attempted to monopolize the Alton & Southern Railroad, a vital terminal switching facility. We strive to offer a variety of merchandise that is related to the Missouri Pacific Railroad and all of its predecessors and affiliates. However, a study in late 1983 indicated the expense of all three railroads paint schemes were too costly. 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. It took congressional action to overcome this handicap. These properties serving Texas and Louisiana were formally merged in 1925 with the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The acquisition provided Mo-Pac a direct route between Kansas City and the Southwest by way of Oklahoma -a route 319 miles shorter than the previous one. A consistent industry leader each year in both growth and volume of piggyback and containerized traffic, Mo-Pac has invested heavily-more than $20 million since 1961 in the facilities and hardware needed to efficiently handle intermodal movements. As traffic recovered the MoPac began overhauling its network with infrastructure upgrades, improved and expanded freight service (in April of 1938 it launched a trucking division, Missouri Pacific Freight Transport Company), and later centralized traffic control. During July of 1853 the line was extended west to Franklin, Missouri (now known as Pacific), a distance of 38 miles. Ground was broken in 1851 and the first section of track completed in 1852. The Texas Eagle was one of many trains discontinued when Amtrak began operations in 1971, although . To further one such enterprise in 1958, some $3 million was spent to build a 27-mile spur to service a new iron ore mine operation set up near Sullivan, Mo. The Amtrak version runs over former MoPac and T&P trackage for much of its route. Ocean and river freight costs amounted to another $1,000, and a local contractor charged $200 to haul it 14 blocks over the city streets from the wharf to the railroad depot. The Midland Valley and the KO&G subsequently weremerged into theT&P in 1967 and 1970, respectively. Condition:--not specified. 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