Missouri Pacific Railroad
Missouri Pacific (
MoPac;
AAR reporting mark MP) was one of the
first railroads in the United States west of the
Mississippi River. The company merged with
Union Pacific in
1982.
On
July 4,
1851 at
St. Louis, Missouri, ground-breaking for the
Pacific Railroad, chartered in
1849, marked the beginning of what would later be known as the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The first section of track was completed in
1852. In
1865, it became the first railroad to serve
Kansas City, after construction was interrupted by the
American Civil War.
In
1871, the
Texas and Pacific Railway, which merged with the Missouri Pacific in
1928, set plans to build a line from
Marshall, Texas to
San Diego, CA. In
1872, the Pacific Railroad was reorganized as the
Missouri Pacific Railway by new investors after a railroad debt crisis. From
1879 to
1915, it was under the control of controversial New York financier
Jay Gould. Gould developed a system extending through
Colorado,
Nebraska,
Arkansas,
Texas, and
Louisiana. In
1917 the line was merged with the
St Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway (SLIMS) and reorganized as the
Missouri Pacific Railroad. Later it acquired and controlled other lines near the
Gulf of Mexico and in Texas, including the Texas and Pacific, extending its operating area to several midwestern and southwestern states.
The Missouri Pacific was a
Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers, including the
St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway (SLIMS),
Texas and Pacific Railway (TP),
Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad (C&EI),
St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway (SLBM),
Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway (KO&G),
Midland Valley Railroad (MV),
Gulf Coast Lines (GC),
International-Great Northern Railroad (IGN),
New Orleans, Texas and Mexico Railway (NOTM),
Missouri-Illinois Railroad (MI), as well as the small
Central Branch Railway (an early predecessor of MP in Kansas and south central Nebraska), and joint ventures such as the
Alton and Southern Railroad (AS).
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. MoPac operated a fleet of over 1,500
diesel locomotives, most all purchased within the previous 10 years. The company was a pioneer in the early days of computer-guided rail technology. It was a major hauler of grain, TOFC (Trailer on Flat Car), coal, ore, autos and dry goods. At the time of their mega-merger in 1982, the MoPac owned newer locomotives, more locomotives and operated more track than partner
Union Pacific Railroad.
On
December 22 1982 the Missouri Pacific merged with Union Pacific and
Western Pacific Railroad companies to create the largest system in its day, the "Union Pacific System", under the
holding company Union Pacific Corporation, but maintained its own corporate and commercial identity until
January 1,
1997. Union Pacific continued to use the MoPac headquarters building at 210 N. 13th St. in downtown
St. Louis, MO for its customer service center until
February 15,
2005. Union Pacific now has about 50 employees remaining at the St. Louis office. The MoPac building is slated for rehabilitation as offices, condominiums, and/or retail space.
On
July 30 2005, Union Pacific unveiled a brand new
EMD SD70ACe locomotive,
Union Pacific 1982, with Missouri Pacific paint and logos, as part of a new heritage program.
In the early years of the
20th Century, most Missouri Pacific and St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern passenger trains were designated by number only, with little emphasis on premier
name trains. This changed in May, 1915 with the inauguration of the
Scenic Limited between
St. Louis,
Kansas City, and
Pueblo, Colorado. Between
Pueblo and
Salt Lake City, the
Scenic Limited operated through the
Royal Gorge over the tracks of the
Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. From
Salt Lake City to
San Francisco, the
Scenic Limited operated over the
Western Pacific Railroad. A second premier train, the
Sunshine Special began operating on December 5,
1915 between
St. Louis,
Little Rock,
Austin and
San Antonio. Another named train, the
Rainbow Special was placed in service in July
1921 between
Kansas City and
Little Rock, Arkansas. The
Sunshine Special soon eclipsed the other trains in travel volume, becoming the signature train of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. An advertising slogan in
1933 proclaimed:
"It's 70-degrees in the Sunshine when its 100-degrees in the shade," referring to the fact that the
Sunshine Special was one of the first air-conditioned trains in the southwest. When new streamlined trains were delivered, the
Scenic Limited and
Rainbow Special names faded, but the
Sunshine Special had sufficient name recognition to co-exist along with the new
streamliners into the late
1950s.
In the
streamliner era, the Missouri Pacific's premier passenger trains were collectively known as the
Eagles. A variety of
Eagle trains were operated, with the first such train inaugurated in 1940. Eagle routes included the
Missouri River Eagle (
St. Louis to
Kansas City and
Omaha), the
Delta Eagle (
Memphis to
Tallulah, Louisiana), the
Colorado Eagle (
St. Louis, Missouri to
Pueblo and
Denver, the
Texas Eagle (
St. Louis to
Texas), and the
Valley Eagle (
Houston to
Corpus Christi and
Brownsville, Texas). Missouri Pacific gained a reputation for aggressively discontinuing passenger trains after the mid-1960s, and when the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (
Amtrak) assumed passenger train operations on May 1
1971, the
St. Louis to
Kansas City route was the only Missouri Pacific route to be included as part of
Amtrak's basic system. On March 13, 1974,
Amtrak restored passenger train service over segments of Missouri Pacific-
Texas and Pacific's original
Texas Eagle route between
St. Louis,
Little Rock,
Dallas,
Austin,
San Antonio, and
Laredo.
* based on article at
Screaming Eagles*Goen, Steve Allen (1997)
Texas & Pacific Color Pictorial, Four Ways West Publications,
La Mirada,
CA. ISBN 1885614179
*Stout, Greg (1995)
Route of the Eagles, Missouri Pacific in the Streamlined Era, White River Productions,
Bucklin,
MO. ISBN 089745991
*
Screaming Eagles*
Missouri Pacific Historical Society*
Sunshine Special
