The Missouri Pacific, "Route of the Eagles"

The Missouri Pacific, like many now-fallen flags, was actually a hodgepodge of over smaller railroads put together throughout the years, even after the Missouri Pacific name was born. The MoPac's original predecessor was the Pacific Railroad, chartered in 1849 by the state of Missouri to connect St. Louis with the Missouri River. Construction on the railroad began just three years later but due to the topography (which was quite rugged west of St. Louis) and the Civil War it was not able to reach present-day Kansas City until 1865.

The Pacific Railroad, however, struggled after completing its original main line and was leased by the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in 1872, which would later come under the control of Jay Gould after it defaulted, and the mogul purchased controlling interest in the company. Gould would in turn reorganize all of the railroads into simply the Missouri Pacific, which would quickly stretch throughout the west with acquisitions in Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas. After Gould was also able to snatch up a somewhat parallel route of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern the Missouri Pacific stretched into Texas.

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 MoPac’s fleet of passenger trains are also well remembered. The railroad operated a significant number of popular trains but perhaps is most renowned for its fleet of Eagles; the Aztec Eagle, Colorado Eagle, Missouri River Eagle, Valley Eagle, Louisiana Eagle, and most famous of all the Texas Eagle. These trains and others reached across all stretches of the system but like most other Class I railroads many had been downgraded or discontinued altogether by the 1960s. Even the MoPac’s famous Texas Eagle was reduced to a coach-only operation by the very early 1970s, although Amtrak revived the train and continues to operate it today.

Being that the railroad was always short on cash the Missouri Pacific was constantly looking for ways to cut costs. With the advent of diesel power and the efficiencies it provided the MP was quick to purchase the new motive power and had completely dieselized by 1953. Likewise, the railroad ended the beautiful blue and gray passenger livery in the 1960s instead opting for a much simpler solid blue with white trim although locomotives continued to adorn an adaptation of the MoPac’s famous eagle. Interestingly for railfans the railroad purchased a wide variety of early diesel power from Geeps (EMDs) to the handsome Alco PAs although it would eventually settle on EMDs for its second-generation diesels.

Due to the railroad’s financial situation it is not surprising that it would be purchased by another railroad, which happened in 1982 when the Union Pacific merged the railroad into its system. Interestingly when the UP purchased the MoPac the latter was much larger in both terms of route miles and locomotives. Similarly, for years the Missouri Pacific name continued to flank locomotives albeit in the Armour Yellow and Gray of Union Pacific, and the MoPac’s corporate identity was not officially dissolved until as late as 1997.

Notable Missouri Pacific Railroad Passenger Trains

Colorado Eagle

Texas Eagle

The Eagle

Aztec Eagle: (San Antonio - Mexico City)

Houstonian: (New Orleans - Houston)

Louisiana Sunshine Special: (Little Rock - Lake Charles)

Missouri River Eagle: (St. Louis - Omaha)

Missourian: (St. Louis - Kansas City/Wichita)

Orleanean: (Houston - New Orleans)

Ozarker: (St. Louis - Little Rock)

Pioneer: (Houston - Brownsville)

Rainbow Special: (Kansas City - Little Rock)

Royal Gorge: (Kansas City - Pueblo)

Southerner: (St. Louis - El Paso/San Antonio/New Orleans)

Southern Scenic: (Kansas City - Memphis)

Sunflower: (St. Louis - Kansas City/Wichita)

Sunshine Special: (St. Louis - Hot Springs/San Antonio)

Texan: (St. Louis - Fort Worth)

Valley Eagle: (Houston - Brownsville)

Although the Missouri Pacific was just one of several railroads to eventually be merged into Union Pacific its legacy will certainly forever be remembered. Along with Amtrak continuing to operate its Texas Eagle, the Union Pacific recently paid homage to several of its predecessors, including the MoPac, by painting one of its new EMD SD70ACe locomotives into a version of the railroad’s famous blue and gray passenger livery complete with an eagle adorning the locomotive’s nose. The unit debuted during the summer of 2005 and it received a number recognizing the Missouri Pacific’s final year of independence, 1982.

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.