The Eagle, The Beginning Of The Missouri Pacific's Eagle Fleet

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. 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.

Being only regional in nature (it covered almost 500 miles connecting the three cities) the original Eagle was a six-car consist (with an EMD E3 diesel locomotive on the point for power), built by American Car & Foundry, made up of only diners, lounges, and a parlor-observation. What the MoPac began as just the Eagle in March 1940 blossomed into entire fleet of Eagles including the Aztec Eagle, Colorado Eagle, Missouri River Eagle (which was the original Eagle renamed), Valley Eagle, Louisiana Eagle, Delta Eagle, and most famous of all the Texas Eagle.

While the Texas Eagle and Colorado Eagle were Missouri Pacific’s only long distance Eagles, for over twenty years their regional services proved to be quite successful. Part of what made the Eagle a success was its eye-catching and beautiful livery on the outside and classy decorations and creature comforts on the inside. 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 one of the all time classic liveries, which was an intricate design of dark blue, silver, and yellow trim.

The regional 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 a loss of ridership due to outside competition by the late 1950s. In the early 1960s with loses 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. Today, Amtrak’s Ann Rutledge and Kansas City Mule are virtually reborn versions of the original Eagle connecting passengers with St. Louis, Kansas City, and Omaha and growing in popularity and success, an interesting twist to its disinterest and eventual discontinuance in the 1950s and 1960s.

For more reading on streamliners like the MoPac’s Eagle fleet you might want to also consider the book Streamliners: History of a 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.