The Cairo & Fulton built through Arkansas southward into Texarkana, a move that had been delayed by the Civil War. Mo-Pac immediately applied to the Commission for authorization to control the C&EI, which was granted in 1967. This piece of legislation greatly deregulated the industry, enabling railroads an easier process of merging and abandoning unprofitable lines. Its truck routes were not to be in competition with the railroad, but would supplement them. 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. Alas, in 2013 the site closed. The Missouri Pacific Railroad, also known as the MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. American-Rails.com 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. In 1885, the T&P entered receivership and by losing the MK&T through court-order in 1888 Gould also lost the I&GN. In 1970, Missouri Pacific introduced Containerpak, a series of shipping plans that organized movements by container. Missouri Pacific SD40-2 #3193 and SD40 #3027 have the "Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus Train" near Kyle, Texas, circa 1982. Coal was the first commodity Mo-Pac hauled in unit train service, a field the railroad entered in 1966. in addition, via the C&EI's western leg, Mo-Pac now had a line to provide direct service between the important Chicago and St. Louis gateways. Enter US $2.75 or more [ 1 bid] Hub of the I-GN, which was built from Longview and Fort Worth to San Antonio and Houston in the late '70s and early '80s, is Palestine, for it is where one stem breaks off to San Antonio and Laredo and the other angles southward to Houston and Galveston. Our History More recently, all-new intermodal distribution centers have been built at St. Louis, Memphis, Ft. Worth, Monroe, La.,and Wichita. While the Pacific Railroad was thus being started, other Missouri railroad projects were being fostered. However, following World War II it made dramatic transformation into a profitable Midwestern carrier. In his book, "Missouri Pacific Lines: Freight Train Services And Equipment," author Patrick Dorin notes ground was broken in St. Louis on July 4, 1851. The stock market crash of 1929 only made matters worse and before long it had slipped into bankruptcy once more. 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. A popular pastime for many is studying and/or exploring abandoned rights-of-way. Construction of this segment began on July 19, 1853 but required upwards of seven years before it was finally completed in 1860. The completion of Eads Bridge in 1874 extended the new standard gauge track through St. Louis to the Atlantic states. 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. In addition, Texas awarded twenty sections per mile within its borders. 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. In December, 1880 Gould gained control of the I&GN (later leased to the MK&T as of June 1, 1881) and it appeared his grip on Texas was firmly established. The Pacific Railroad of Missouri was the St. Louis' and state of Missouri's response to Asa Whitney's and others ideas. These properties serving Texas and Louisiana were formally merged in 1925 with the Missouri Pacific Railroad. 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. 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 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. An important intermodal step toward total transportation was made in 1972 when Missouri Pacific Airfreight, Inc. began operations in St. Louis. In this same period developments in the field of electronic data processing found increased railroad applications and the company soon acquired its first computers and the complex array of component equipment. Mr. Jenks came to the Mo-Pac from the Rock Island Lines where his election as president in 1956 at age 40 made him the youngest president in modern railroad industry. Learn about the vital importance of Illinois to the nation's railroads and enjoy dinner aboard a train at the Monticello Railway Museum. The "ground breaking celebration" was held on the July 4, 1851. Following the settlement, construction continued eastward with the railroad arriving in New Orleans onSeptember 12, 1882. The lines passenger operations were turned over to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) in 1971. 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. On December 1, 1989, the Missouri Kansas Texas and the Galveston, Houston & Henderson were merged into the Missouri Pacific after having been acquired by the Union Pacific Corporation in 1988. Leaders in St. Louis, Missouri, soon visualized a railroad to the Pacific Ocean. Electronic data processing was expanded; many miles of continuous welded rail were laid; an entirely new and automated wheel shop at North Little Rock was underway in 1963 and the first completely automated railroad freight station in the nation was placed in operation at St. Louis in 1963. Author's work. 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. James H. Lucas offered to be one of three to make up $100,000, a large sum for those days. By July, 1858 the Pacific Railroad was completed the 160 miles to Tipton, Mo., then the end of the line from St. Louis. The initial goal involved following the Missouri River's south bank to reach Kansas City. DeSoto, Mo., was reached in September, but the event escaped mention in the newspapers, probably because there was no DeSoto until after the railroad came. In that year, the Texas & Pacific extended from Marshall to Texarkana and also into Dallas. Although no longer active, the Missouri Pacific Railroad, also referred to as MoPac or, more . However, the process was slow. A variety of Eagle trains were operated, with the first such train inaugurated in 1940. This service was inaugurated early in 1956. Railroad Notes, Abbreviations & Sources: Several "2500 Series" GP35s were later re-#d 2600-17. 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. 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. Enjoy all the splendor West Virginia's natural beauty has to offer while enjoying dinner by train on the West Virginia Central and other locations. He also immediately began building a new management team. Looking back, it was the discovery of gold in California in 1848 that brought forcibly to the attention of the American people the urgent need for more rapid and dependable transportation facilities in the West. Updates? Subsequently, he purchased control of the Kansas Pacific, the Denver Pacific and the Central Pacific. A coin was- flipped to see which of the three would take the odd thousand dollars and O'Fallon won the toss. The fight was finally resolved when the"Gould-Huntington Agreement" was signed on November 26, 1881. By 1955 all steam locomotives had been retired from service and soon all were scrapped. In this regard he did have success. Unfortunately, despite escaping the Goulds' grip the railroad remained hampered by heavy debt and in need of considerable improvements. While these surveys were in progress, efforts were continued to secure aid from Congress. At the time of its mega-merger in 1982, the MoPac owned more and newer locomotives and operated more track than partner Union Pacific Railroad. Missouri Pacific F7A #811, F3B #810-B, and another F7A layover between assignments, circa 1965. The information includes original numbers, serials, and order numbers. American-Rails.com collection. American-Rails.com collection. This pioneer company had been chartered by the State of Missouri on March 12, 1849 and was to "extend from St. Louis via Jefferson City to the western boundary of Missouri and thence to the . It featured the use of demountable containers in truck-rail service, the trailer bodies being lifted off their wheels by gantry cranes and deposited onto flatcars for rail transport to destination. Extensions were built through Kansas and Colorado to Pueblo, western terminus of the Missouri Pacific system, while the Iron Mountain's southern line was completed into Alexandria, Louisiana. But, the Great Depression proved a turning point as the MP slowly transformed itself into a modern, respectable, and profitable carrier. In the two-year period, 1962-1963, more than $100,000,000 was spent to improve the equipment, track and structures of the system. 810751-455 HO Scale Intermountain 45812-11 MP . Interestingly, as Mike Schafer notes in his book, "More Classic American Railroads," when the merger occurred MP actually carried more locomotives route mileage than UP. A multi-stage modernization program carried out at Mo-Pac's major freight car repair complex at DeSoto, Mo., was completed in 1966 with construction of a car fabricating shop, the seventh new structure built during the project. Two years in building, it embodied the latest advances in electronic technology. It was placed in service in 1856. found: Handbook of TexMissouri Pacific Lines and connections online, Apr. American-Rails.com collection. American-Rails.com collection. This service, called "The Overland Mail', made its initial eastward stagecoach run from San Francisco on September 16, 1858, arriving at Tipton on October 10. American-Rails.com collection. But Congress denied aid for the Missouri project. The Texas Western Railroad, chartered in 1852 to build from the eastern to the western boundary of the state, later became the Texas & Pacific. On July 30, 2005, UP unveiled a brand new EMD SD70ACe locomotive, Union Pacific 1982, with Missouri Pacific paint and logos, as part of a new heritage program. 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. 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. Missouri and the West needed railroads, and St. Louisans visualized a railroad all the way to the Pacific Ocean and wanted very much for that railroad to start from their city. 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." Ton-miles for C&EI in 1970 presumably don't include the L&N portion. 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. Additional freight fleet service facilities built new or expanded in this period included the installations at Wichita; Omaha; San Antonio', Ft. Worth, Laredo and Marshall, Texas, and Avondale, La. Mr. Jenks was elected president, and Mr. Dearmont was elected chairman of the board, in 1961. The Colorado Eagle was an American streamlined passenger train operated by the Missouri Pacific Railroad (MP) in the mid 20th century. 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. Its tracks covered 375 acres. 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. When designing the locomotive, the creative team concentrated on two particular time periods: the 1940s, when Mo-Pac introduced a blue, gray and white color scheme with a thin yellow accent stripe, and the 1960s, when the paint scheme was altered to a solid dark blue with the MP buzz saw logo. Through intensive repairs, the railroad's serviceable cars were increased to more than 97 per cent of its 57,577-car fleet. However, the ICC required that the C&EI sell its Evansville line to the L&N. Alas, in 2013 the site closed. While the United States Government was still considering allowing construction of a railroad across federal land in the West, Missouri funded its own first step across the continent. The task was especially difficult because the old yard was kept operating while the new one was built on top of it. However, the merger was delayed by parties seeking reconsideration of the Commission's order. that officially merged into MP in 1956. 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. The temporary organization was succeeded by a permanent one, with Thomas Allen as president. These trains, and others, reached far and wide across its vast network. 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. The company also increased its efforts to attract new industries to its 12-state territory. In 1967 it gained stock control of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, which provided a coveted entry into Chicago. On May 6, 1874 the StL&IM was reorganized as the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway (StLIM&S or "Iron Mountain Route") at which time it leased theCairo, Arkansas & Texas and Little Rock & Fort Smith. New ownership then abandoned the Red River project in favor of opening a connection to the T&P. Nevertheless, promoters pressed forward. It was also in 1874 that the Union Depot Company in St. Louis was incorporated. The Midland Valley and the KO&G subsequently weremerged into theT&P in 1967 and 1970, respectively. The George Washington became the C&O's flagship train between Cincinnati and Norfolk after it was inaugurated in 1932. Missouri Pacific was under the control of New York financier Jay Gould from 1879 until his death in 1892. was opened. However, he, too, suffered the same fate as his father when the financial Panic of 1907 broke up his empire. See a list of lines from 1916 (just before a . Cause: Gunfire 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. Today, Amtrak continues to operate its Texas Eagle and Union Pacific paid homage to the railroad in 2005 by painting one of its new EMD SD70ACe locomotives During is last years of service the MoPac was a fine operation; in 1979 it had a net income of $32.6 million and gross revenues of over $524 million. However, Don Strack rescued the data and transferred it over to his UtahRails.net site (another fine resource). In this table "MP" includes New Orleans Texas & Mexico and all its subsidiary railroads (Beaumont Sour Lake & Western, I-GN, StLB&M, etc.) With the heart of its business destroyed by fire and almost a tenth of its inhabitants dead of cholera, the city exhibited an ominous picture of early death and financial ruin. It is an excellent resource with thousands of historic maps on file throughout the country. 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. This accord gave the T&P trackage rights over the Southern Pacific into El Paso but also forfeited its charter and franchises west of that point which were awarded to SP. 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. Under war-time restriction in 1942, the "Colorado Eagles,' St. Louis to Denver diesel-powered passenger trains, replaced the Scenic Limited on June 21. Mo-Pac began acquiring C&EI stock in 1961. In the streamliner era, the Missouri Pacific's premier passenger trains were collectively known as the Eagles. And so as it entered its 113th year of service to the public, the Missouri Pacific - Texas & Pacific System, with its 12,000 miles of railroad in twelve states, had become a dominant force in the transportation services available to the dynamic west-southwest territory it helped to build. 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. 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