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.svg) Cotton Belt system as of 1918 | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | St. Louis |
| Reporting mark | SSW |
| Locale | Arkansas,Illinois,Kansas,Louisiana,Missouri,New Mexico,Oklahoma,Tennessee andTexas |
| Dates of operation | 1891–1992 |
| Successor | Southern Pacific Railroad Union Pacific Railroad |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)standard gauge |
TheSt. Louis Southwestern Railway Company (reporting markSSW), known by its nickname of"The Cotton Belt Route" or simply"Cotton Belt", was aClass I railroad that operated betweenSt. Louis,Missouri, and various points in the U.S. states ofArkansas,Tennessee,Louisiana, andTexas from 1891 to 1980, when the system added theRock Island's Golden State Route and operations inKansas,Oklahoma, andNew Mexico. The Cotton Belt operated as a Southern Pacific subsidiary from 1932 until 1992, when its operation was assumed bySouthern Pacific Transportation Company.
The Cotton Belt was part of the railroad empire acquired by financierJay Gould in the last quarter of the 19th century. "By 1890 Gould owned theMissouri Pacific, theTexas and Pacific, the St. Louis Southwestern, and theInternational-Great Northern, one-half of the mileage in the Southwest", theHandbook of Texas wrote.[1]
The railroad was organized on January 15, 1891, although it had its origins in a line founded inTyler, Texas, in 1871. Construction of the originalTyler Tap Railroad began in the summer of 1875, and the first 21 miles out of Tyler toBig Sandy, Texas were constructed by early October 1887.[2][3] The line became theTexas and St. Louis Railway, and was completed betweenGatesville, Texas andBird's Point, Missouri by August 12, 1883, creating a continuous 725-mile system.[2] However, that line promptly went into receivership, and was purchased by the St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas Railway in 1886.[4][5] The assets of that company were acquired out of foreclosure by the St. Louis-Southwestern Railway in 1891.[4]
On October 18, 1903, the Cotton Belt gained trackage rights over theMissouri Pacific Railroad along the eastern shore of theMississippi River to reachEast St. Louis, Illinois, and then usedTerminal Railroad Association trackage rights into St. Louis. The Cotton Belt operated a freight station in downtown St. Louis, but its main base of operations in the area was its yard and a locomotive servicing facility in East St. Louis, just east of Valley Junction, and south ofAlton and Southern Railroad's Gateway Yard, and north ofKansas City Southern's East St. Louis Yard.Union Pacific Railroad now operates Cotton Belt Yard, although the engine servicing facilities have been demolished.
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The Cotton Belt and its subsidiarySt. Louis Southwestern Railway of Texas operated 1,607 miles of road in 1945; 1,555 miles in 1965; and 2,115 miles in 1981 after taking over theRock Island's Golden State Route. In 1925, SSW and SSW of Texas reported a total of 1,474 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 75 million passenger-miles; in 1970 it carried 8,650 million ton-miles and no passengers.
TheSouthern Pacific Railroad (SP) assumed control of the SSW on April 14, 1932[6] and operated it as a subsidiary of SP until 1992, when the Southern Pacific consolidated the Cotton Belt's operations into the parent company.[7] Southern Pacific merged withUnion Pacific Railroad in 1996.[6]
The Cotton Belt ran passenger trains from St. Louis to Texas and from Memphis to Dallas andShreveport, Louisiana. Cotton Belt'sLone Star operated fromMemphis Union Station toDallas Union Terminal with a connecting section fromLewisville, Arkansas, to Shreveport. TheMorning Star was the second named train over much of this route, operating out ofSt. Louis Union Station to Dallas, with a separate Memphis section inaugurated in 1941 to provide a convenient connection with theSouthern Railway'sTennessean to and fromWashington, D.C., andNew York City. The Cotton Belt also operated passenger trains between Mt. Pleasant, Tyler and Waco, and adoodlebug between Tyler and Lufkin.
The Cotton Belt began a series of passenger train cutbacks in the early 1950s. The railroad had 25 steam engines and four gas-electric motor cars available for passenger service in 1949. By late 1952 nine diesels had replaced the steam locomotives and motorcars and passenger train mileage had been trimmed considerably. The final operations in Texas involved overnight service between St. Louis and Dallas, with major intermediate stops in Jonesboro, Pine Bluff, Texarkana and Tyler.[8] The Cotton Belt was one of the first Class 1 lines in the southwest to discontinue passenger service. The last Cotton Belt passenger train, #8, operated on November 30, 1959, fromPine Bluff, Arkansas, to East St. Louis, Illinois.
The following railroads were acquired or merged into the Cotton Belt Route:
