that officially merged into MP in 1956. It is difficult to truly articulate just how much material can be found at this website. It may have been the discovery of gold in California in 1848 that ignited in the American people the urgent need for more rapid and dependable transportation facilities in the West. American-Rails.com collection. 18, 2008 (under St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway: St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway Company; chartered June 6, 1903; became part of the Missouri Pacific Lines on Jan. 1, 1925, but continued to operate as a separate company until it was merged into the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company on Mar. A popular pastime for many is studying and/or exploring abandoned rights-of-way. Value for items from a line like Missouri Pacific Railroad can be in a huge range from a couple dollars for something small like a pinback or deck of cards, to thousands for a builder's plate off a famous locomotive or hundreds for a hard to find lantern. A year later, he set his sights west and acquired the recently-completed Union Pacific in 1873; later that decade the Denver & Rio Grande, Kansas Pacific, Denver Pacific, and a few others were added to his growing network. These early switch engines were followed by passenger locomotives which powered the company's first lightweight, streamlined train, the "Missouri River Eagle", placed in service in 1940. The railroad was conceived by the leaders of St. Louis who had hoped to see the railroad stretched to the Pacific Ocean, hence its name. The country was canvassed for the most competent engineer, and the choice fell on James P. Kirkwood, who had constructed some of the early Massachusetts railroads and had also been in charge of operation of the New York and Erie. In 1982 the Missouri Pacific merged with the Union Pacific and Western Pacific Railroad companies to form the Union Pacific System, under the holding company Union Pacific Corporation. Leaders in St. Louis, Missouri, soon visualized a railroad to the Pacific Ocean. Gould noted the westward expansion policy of the new Missouri Pacific Railway as a threat to his Union Pacific, and in 1879 he bought a controlling interest in the company and became its president. Bridges, buildings, tracks and rolling stock were destroyed all the way from Franklin to Kansas City. Because of corporate ties extending back to the Pacific Railroad, Missouri Pacific at one time[when?] Photo by David Harris, 2981. The Missouri Pacific Railroad logo (red). However, Don Strack rescued the data and transferred it over to his UtahRails.net site (another fine resource). Screen and interview candidates (2-3 weeks). 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! 613023-465 HO Scale ExactRail Platinum EP-80406-3 M.P. Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific Lines, Soo Line. Alleghany Corp. joined the suit the next year. Its new success and the mega-merger movement led to its 1982 acquisition by Union Pacific. Missouri Pacific SD40-2 #3117 leads a long freight through western Kansas in the winter of 1974. Location not listed. An 'important factor in Mo-Pac's recent history has been the Mississippi River Corp., a holding company which also controls subsidiaries involved in the production and transmission of natural gas as well as cement manufacturing. Subsequently, he purchased control of the Kansas Pacific, the Denver Pacific and the Central Pacific. The 1920's were a banner decade which witnessed a great deal more expansion. American-Rails.com collection. Author's work. If you are researching anything EMD related please visit this page first. Another disaster occurred when fire, which broke out on a river steamboat, spread and destroyed twenty-two other boats, and a considerable part of the business district. This issue was problematic industry-wide, resulting in many trains running far longer than they should have. An A-B set of Missouri Pacific E7s, led by #7006, hustle west out of St. Louis with what appears to be train #11, the "Colorado Eagle," during a summer's afternoon in the late 1950s. By that same definition MP operated 10431 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. Looking north from St. Louis, Mo-Pac had long recognized that the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad represented a natural extension of its routes into Chicago, the nation's largest rail gateway and the primary gateway for traffic moving between the U.S. and Canada. Meanwhile, financial difficulties in 1872 forced the reorganization of the Pacific Railroad, and when it emerged from receivership it had a new name: the Missouri Pacific Railway Co. 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. One of the company's most noteworthy leaders at this time was Downing Jenks, elected president in 1961 after spending a few years at the Rock Island. Union Pacific Corporation, the parent company of the Union Pacific Railroad, agreed to buy the Missouri Pacific Railroad on January 8, 1980. Throughout the 1960's the railroad perfected the use of electronics, which led to the Transportation Control System (TCS). One such system was the so-called "Gulf Coast Lines" (GSL). American-Rails.com collection. In that year, the Texas & Pacific extended from Marshall to Texarkana and also into Dallas. Corrections? In short, they comprised the bulk of Missouri Pacific's network. Missouri Pacific F7A #811, F3B #810-B, and another F7A layover between assignments, circa 1965. With the death of Mr. Baldwin in 1946, Paul J. Neff, then senior executive assistant in charge of the lines in Texas, became chief executive officer under the Trustee. The StLIM&S began as theSt. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad (StL&IM), chartered by the state of Missouri on March 3, 1851. The Amtrak version runs over former MoPac and T&P trackage for much of its route. The Pacific Railroad reached Jefferson City late in 1855. Mo-Pac Airfreight, with operations bases at several key cities, takes advantage of Missouri Pacific's terminals and the trucks of the railroad's two motor carrier subsidiaries to offer shippers expedited forwarding of air cargo to and from all major airport cities in the U.S., and to points in Canada and Mexico. Later, the San Antonio, Uvalde & Gulf was acquired to round out the system in southwest Texas. Its last 26 years as an independent entity were defined by strong management and high quality service. MISSOURI PACIFIC RAILROAD #1847 ORIGINAL KODACHROME SLIDE. However, the process was slow. 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. Author's work. On December 9, 1852, a passenger train, with the company's officers and leading citizens of St. Louis aboard, inaugurated the new Pacific Railroad with a trip to the end of the line. In short, the MP owned a web of main lines and secondary corridors which were spread out across Missouri, Kansas, eastern Colorado, eastern Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana. 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. 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. : (St. Louis - El Paso/San Antonio/Palestine/Galveston). 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. These were the St. Louis & Iron Mountain, the Cairo & Fulton, the Southwest Branch of the Pacific Railroad, the North Missouri, and the Hannibal & St. Joseph. Register to access Secure Tools, Applications and Reports to help simplify your business. The railroad's largest maintenance center for locomotives and cars is at North Little Rock where an automated wheel shop and airbrake shop were built in 1964. was opened. On May 2, 1872 the company's name was changed to the Texas & Pacific Railway and just a year later, the first segment between Marshall and Texarkana was completed (December 28, 1873). Today, its 12,000-mile network comprises a significant component of the country's largest and most powerful railroad. ). The railroad's multi-million dollar automated classification yard at North Little Rock, which went into operation in 1961, was first expanded in 1962, again in 1964 when eight classification tracks were added to make a total of 64, and again in 1966 when a special adjoining city freight yard was built. John O'Fallon and Daniel D. Page promptively joined Lucas. By then, Jay Gould had made a name for himself as a shady but successful Wall Street speculator; he first entered the railroad industry during 1859 and within a decade had blossomed into an influential tycoon. 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. 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. Ground was broken in 1851 and the first section of track completed in 1852. Nevertheless, under the Trusteeship, the railroad continued to improve and modernize its properties and it kept pace with the changing patterns of rail transportation. But Gould was unable long to retain control of his vast rail empire. This changed in May, 1915, with the inauguration of the Scenic Limited between St. Louis, Kansas City, and San Francisco. Updates? 1, 1956) Lee Berglund photo. Missouri Pacific Railroad Operated Routes in the Following States: Arkansas, Colorado . This latter point also witnessed interchange traffic from the nearby International & Great Northern (I&GN), which connected with the T&P at Longview. Perhaps the most dramatic development in Missouri Pacific service since 1961 has been what Mo-Pac calls "total transportation" Mo-Pac has made steady progress toward its goal: operation as a total transportation company using all transport modes to offer all the combinations of service that a shipper may need. If you are researching active or abandoned corridors you might want to check out the United States Geological Survey's (USGS) Historical Topographic Map Explorer. But Mo-Pac's most ambitious application of computer technology to date has been its Transportation Control System (TCS), a computer-based management information and control system that actually exceeds in scope and complexity the Apollo Moon Program used to launch, guide and land the astronauts. For his many faults, Gould is credited with establishing many of the classic systems we know so well today; names like the Wabash,Katy, Rio Grande, and Wheeling & Lake Erie. The railroad's corporate history was one financial mess after another. In an effort to combat this threat, Gould engaged in a drawn out battle for control of the agriculture and cattle trade by constructing a tangled web of branch lines across Kansas. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Missouri Pacific SD40-2 #3193 and SD40 #3027 have the "Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus Train" near Kyle, Texas, circa 1982. To effect economies in operation and eliminate costly duplicate facilities, a consolidation of the operations of the majority-owned Texas & Pacific Railway subsidiary into the Missouri Pacific lines was being effected in 1963. 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. It had its origins when the Pacific Railroad (of Missouri) was chartered on March 12, 1849, to build from St. Louis to the western boundary . It was also during this period that the main stem of what later became the Gulf Coast Lines was constructed. Before the issue came to trial, the parties agreed on a recapitalization plan late in 1972 which was approved by the court early the next year. The MoPacs fleet of passenger trains are well-remembered. Mike Bledsoe photo. Mr. Jenks was elected chairman of the board of Mississippi in 1973. Alas, in 2013 the site closed. In addition to these items, we have informative articles about various aspects of the operation of the railroad. While these surveys were in progress, efforts were continued to secure aid from Congress. This piece of legislation greatly deregulated the industry, enabling railroads an easier process of merging and abandoning unprofitable lines. Canadian Pacific (CP) is currently hiring Conductor Trainees. St. Louis - Sedalia - Kansas City - Omaha, Osawatomie, Kansas - Wagoner, Oklahoma - North Little Rock, Arkansas, Pleasant Hill, Missouri - Wichita - Geneseo, Kansas, St. Louis - Little Rock - Texarkana, Texas, East St. Louis, Illinois - Poplar Bluff, Missouri, Little Rock - McGehee, Arkansas - Lake Charles, Louisiana, Brownsville, Texas - Baton Rouge - New Orleans, New Orleans - Donaldson - Alexandria, Louisiana, El Paso - Longview - Livonia, Louisiana - New Orleans. 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. 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. In 1885 the management of the Texas & Pacific was separated from that of the Missouri Pacific, and in 1888 the lease of the Katy railroad properties was terminated, a move which divorced the I-GN from Missouri Pacific control. In 1964, Mo-Pac's Texas and Pacific Railway subsidiary assumed control through stock purchase of three railroads making up the 767-mile Muskogee Co. system which operated in Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Texas. Despite T&P's 1885 bankruptcy, the two carriers had maintained a close working relationship until the MP finally acquired majority stock control in 1928. These properties serving Texas and Louisiana were formally merged in 1925 with the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Such operations include run-through trains with pooled locomotive of Mo-Pac and other roads and coordinated transcontinental service for which the Missouri Pacific joins with one or more other rail carriers to provide streamlined transportation. This train was renamed the Texas Eagle in 1981, resurrecting the name of the famous MoPac train. Missouri and the West needed railroads, and St. Louisans visualized a railroad all the way to the Pacific Ocean with that railroad starting from their city. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. It made its last run during September of 1970, carrying just seventeen passengers as part of a two-car consist. The SP, led byCollis P. Huntington, had arrived there a few months earlier on May 19th, then continued building east, reaching Sierrra Blanca on November 25th. The first locomotive was the "Pacific,' which also bore the number "3" It was made at Taunton, Massachusetts, and was unloaded on the river wharf on August 20, 1852. The result for the MoPac heritage locomotive was a two-tone blue and white color scheme that harkens back to the streamliner days and combines the buzz saw logo and screaming eagle graphic introduced in the 1960s. Its heritage traces back to the Houston & Great Northern Railroad's (H&GN), originally chartered on October 22, 1866 to link Houston with the Red River. 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. American-Rails.com collection. Even the prospect of laying a grade was extremely difficult due to the region's remoteness, sparse population, and lack of infrastructure. American-Rails.com collection. Please use the main menu to navigate to the item category of your choice. The stock market crash of 1929 only made matters worse and before long it had slipped into bankruptcy once more. 'MOPAC' then went into receivership itself in 1933, for 23 years! Leaders of St. Louis secured a Missouri charter in 1849 for the Pacific Railroad to extend "from St. Louis to the western boundary of Missouri and thence to the Pacific Ocean." Please consider becoming a member and help us keep this history alive. By 1911 it operated 1,106 miles. In May, 1928, Missouri Pacific occupied its new 22 story general office building in downtown St. Louis and continued the task of amalgamating its merged properties into a smooth running and efficiently functioning system. During the Civil War, raids were made against all of the Missouri railroads and great damage was done. In 1974, with this rebuilding job largely accomplished, Mo-Pac introduced its North American Rail Link, which provides single-carrier service across the United States between Canada and Mexico. During MoPac's final years its traffic-base was widely diversified ranging from coal, agriculture, and manufacturing to trailer-on-flat-car (TOFC), ore, and automobiles. Item Information. Included were 3,217 new freight cars and 156 new locomotives. 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