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Missouri Railroading and Railfanning In "The Show Me State"
Much like Illinois, Missouri railroading is stuffed full of action and excitement with six of the seven North American Class I systems operating within the state, all of which serve either St. Louis and/or Kansas City. The Show Me State also has a rich history with the prominent, historic stations that serve Kansas City and St. Louis hosting between twelve to nineteen Class I systems during the “Golden Age” of rail travel, more than any other. Missouri can also claim a history of being home to more headquarters of Class I railroads than any other state with Kansas City Southern still calling its namesake city home. And, the Show Me State remains right at or near the top of rail tonnage moved today.
With so many celebrated systems once part of Missouri railroading operations it is hard to highlight or single out one as being most recognized to the state. However, two in particular do come to mind, the Kansas City Southern and Missouri Pacific. These railroads both took the state, or one its cities, as part of their name and both were headquartered in Missouri (the KCS at Kansas City and MP at St. Louis). The Kansas City Southern’s story is actually quite recent when compared to the railroad industry as a whole; the railroad was not charted until 1890 (long after the industry had been established) when it was originally known as the Kansas City Suburban Belt Railroad later to become the Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gulf. The railroad’s initial plan was to build to the Gulf of Mexico connecting its namesake city with the ocean in an attempt to give farmers a means of shipping their goods, as well as hauling goods inland from incoming ocean shipments. For roughly the first half of the 20th century the KCS prospered, earning considerable profits on a railroad system that was less than 1,000 total miles in length. However, beginning in the late 1950s the railroad would once again go through a period of hard times, much like its early days. Things got so bad by the early 1970s (mostly a result of deferred maintenance) that derailments became commonplace across the entire system. If it were not for record volumes of traffic continuing to pour over the KCS during this time the railroad could have faced a serious problem, similar to its northern neighbor, the Rock Island.
In any event, with plenty of traffic to keep the railroad stable it began to pull out of the mess it was in during the latter half of the 1970s, and by the 1980s it was once again earning healthy profits and running efficient operations (a result of physical plant upgrades and better train blocking and scheduling). Today, while the railroad is North America’s smallest, it continues to earn healthy profits along with its ownership of the Texas Mexican Railway and Grupo Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana, putting the railroad solidly into Mexico and giving it access to many of that country’s largest markets. 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 MP was never a profitable railroad and was always looking for ways to cut costs. With the advent of diesel power and the efficiencies it provided the railroad 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 look although locomotives continued to be adorned in an adaptation of the MoPac’s famous eagle. Interestingly for railfans the railroad purchased a wide variety of motive power early on from Geeps (EMDs) to the handsome Alco PAs although it would eventually settle on EMD 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. Today, Missouri railroading features all of North America’s Class Is save for the Canadian Pacific. Most of the state’s trackage is operated by these Class Is with the rest broken up between Regional, Iowa, Chicago & Eastern (a part of the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern system, soon to be purchased by Canadian Pacific) and shortlines such as the Alton & Southern Railway, Missouri & Northern Arkansas Railroad, Arkansas & Missouri, and Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis. In total, these railroads operate a little over 4,000 miles of trackage although at one time the state was home to much more. For a more in-depth look at Missouri railroading, in terms of route mileage throughout the years please refer to the chart below.
Missouri railroading may no longer feature famous passenger trains like the B&O’s National Limited, KCS’s Southern Belle, the Wabash Blue Bird, IC’s City of New Orleans, or the Missouri Pacific’s Colorado Eagle [just to name a very few] but Amtrak continues to operate some of these names like the City of New Orleans along with others such as the Southwest Chief, Texas Eagle, Ann Rutledge (it also operates local and regional services). Of note, Missouri railroading is also home to one commuter service, MetroLink which connects St. Louis with western Illinois suburbs on a 46-mile system.
They don’t call it the Show Me State for nothing and Missouri railroading has plenty to offer from sightseeing while visiting museums to excursion trains and main line railroading. So, have fun and with so many things to choose from, remember to pace yourself!
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