The Colorado Eagle, Missouri Pacific's Long Distance Train Between St. Louis And Denver

The Missouri Pacific was another classic fallen flag that had an entire fleet of passenger trains with a common name. The MoPac’s fleet became known as Eagles and have their beginnings thanks to the railroad’s first such train known simply as the Eagle, which served St. Louis, Kansas City, and Omaha. Most of the Eagle fleet was regional in nature although two were long-distance in nature, the Colorado Eagle and Texas Eagle. While the MoPac’s Eagle fleet is well remembered, particularly in the regions and cities it served, the trains never carried the patronage of other famous fleets like the Union Pacific’s City trains or Southern Pacific’s Daylights. Still, the fleet carried enough status that the Texas Eagle remains an important route under Amtrak today, serving Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas, and San Antonio.

The Missouri Pacific, better known by railroaders and railfans as the “MoPac,” was never a strong company financially but it was always a fighter. The railroad was the first to be built west of the Mississippi River and would eventually come under the Jay Gould empire, who owned scores of railroads in the 19th century. The railroad is also well remembered for its beautiful paint scheme of blue and gray with an eagle adorning the flanks of locomotives.

By also owning the Texas & Pacific the Missouri Pacific reached nearly all of Texas’s major cities and by the early 20th century it had stretched across 11 Midwestern and Western states from New Orleans and Memphis to Denver, Colorado and El Paso, Texas. For all of the railroad’s mileage and size this did not necessarily turn into substantial profits and earnings. Between its earliest beginnings and the mid-1950s the railroad witnessed over a half-dozen bankruptcies and reorganizations (the final one being in 1956).

Perhaps most interesting about the MoPac was that for the railroad’s large size, over 11,000 miles before it vanished as an independent entity, it would not own a direct line into Chicago until the late 1960s when it acquired the Chicago & Eastern Illinois. For all of these drawbacks, however, the railroad was beloved wherever it went and its famous eagle emblem, especially emblazoned on its fleet of Eagle passenger trains, was instantly recognized.

The Missouri Pacific’s Colorado Eagle was the very last of Eagle fleet to get its wings when it was inaugurated in June of 1942. What the MoPac began as just the Eagle in March 1940 blossomed into an entire fleet of Eagles including the Aztec Eagle, Missouri River Eagle (which was the original Eagle renamed), Valley Eagle, Louisiana Eagle, and Delta Eagle (along with the aforementioned Texas Eagle and Colorado Eagle).

Like the rest of the Eagle fleet the Colorado Eagle featured dazzling designs on both its exterior and interior. All of this came from noted industrial designer Raymond Loewy (of Pennsylvania Railroad fame, he helped mold that railroad’s classic GG1 electric locomotive into a thing of beauty) who gave the Eagle fleet one of the all time classic liveries, which was an intricate design of dark blue, silver, and yellow with a chromed eagle flanking the nose of diesel locomotives. The interior of the train featured similar colors, particularly the train’s noted dark blue in a consist featuring diner-lounges, parlor-observations, coaches with reclining chairs, and of course Pullman service (sleepers). In the case of the Colorado Eagle the train also featured dome cars, known on the MoPac as “Planetarium Domes.”

The Colorado Eagle served another of the ultra-competitive Western corridors, St. Louis to Denver. No less than four other trains also served this region; the Rock Island’s Rocky Mountain Rocket, Union Pacific’s City of Denver, and Burlington’s Denver Zephyr and California Zephyr (although the latter was a through train to California operated in conjunction with the Denver & Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific). The MoPac did not actually reach Denver via its own rails so to do so worked with the Rio Grande, who carried the Colorado between Pueblo and Denver.

Along with the Colorado Eagle the entire Eagle fleet reached across all stretches of the system and enabled passengers to connect to virtually any city in the Southwest or Midwest including Houston, Brownsville, San Antonio, Mexico City (yes, Mexico City!), Memphis, Tallulah (Mississippi), Denver, and Marshall, Texas (along with the aforementioned St. Louis, Kansas City, and Omaha). However, despite this vast network, the MoPac was plagued, like the rest of the railroad industry, with loss of ridership due to outside competition. In the early 1960s with losses mounting the MoPac had no choice but to downgrade or discontinue many of its regional services although fragments of them limped on until Amtrak took over intercity passenger operations in 1971.

While most of the MoPac’s Eagle was discontinued or significantly cut back during the late 1960s the Colorado Eagle was one of the first to see reductions in services. In early 1964 the train lost all-Pullman status and likewise had its dining services yanked. Just a few years later it had completely lost its name and was cut back to just Kansas City, no more than a regional run, and remained this way until the startup of Amtrak in 1971. The slow decline of the Colorado Eagle can certainly be attributed to outside competition in the way of automobiles and airplanes although another major factor in the train’s decline was the hotly contested market it served.

For more reading on streamliners like the MoPac’s Eagle fleet you might want to also consider the book Streamliners: A History of the Railroad Icon from renowned author Mike Schafer who covers in detail most of the well-known and remembered “classic” passenger trains to operate in the country. If you have any interest in such you should very much enjoy Mr. Schafer’s book.

Also, for more reading and background on the MoPac consider the book Missouri Pacific Lines from Patrick Dorin, which gives a very well done general history of the railroad (up until its merger with UP) with plenty of photographs to boot. Anyone with an interest in the MoPac will almost surely enjoy the book. If you're interested in perhaps purchasing these books please visit The Railroad Diamond by clicking the tab in the menu to your left marked "TRD Store".