St. Louis Southwestern Railway

St. Louis Southwestern Railway
Cotton Belt system as of 1918
Reporting mark	SSW
Locale	Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas
Dates of operation	1891–1992
Successor	Southern Pacific
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters	St. Louis, Missouri

The St. Louis Southwestern Railway (reporting mark SSW), known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply Cotton Belt, was organized on January 15, 1891, although it had its origins in a series of short lines founded in Tyler, Texas, in 1870 that connected northeastern Texas to Arkansas and southeastern Missouri. Construction of the original Tyler Tap Railroad commenced in the Summer of 1875.

The company gained trackage rights on October 18,1903 over the Missouri Pacific Railroad to reach East St Louis, Illinois and then used Terminal Railroad Association trackage rights into the St. Louis, Missouri, area. SSW also operated a yard and locomotive servicing facility in East St. Louis, Illinois, just east of Valley Junction, and south of Alton and Southern Railroad's Gateway Yard, and north of Kansas City Southern's East St. Louis Yard. They also had a freight station in Downtown St. Louis. Union Pacific Railroad now operates the yard (still named "Cotton Belt Yard"), but the engine servicing facilities have been demolished.

The St. Louis Southwestern and its subsidiaries operated a total of 1,607 miles of track in 1945; 1,555 miles of track in 1965; and 2,115 miles of track in 1981 after taking over the Rock Island's Golden State Route.

The Southern Pacific Company gained Interstate Commerce Commission approval to control the Cotton Belt system on April 14, 1932 but continued to operate it as a separate company until 1992, when the SP consolidated the Cotton Belt's operations into the parent company. Cotton Belt diesel locomotives from 1959 on were painted in Southern Pacific's "bloody nose" scheme - dark gray locomotive body with a red "winged" nose. The letters "SSW" were painted on the nose and "Cotton Belt" on the sides.

In 1996, the Union Pacific Railroad finished the acquisition that was effectively begun almost a century before with the purchase of the Southern Pacific by UP in 1901, until divestiture was ordered in 1913. The merged company retains the name "Union Pacific" for all railroad operations. Many examples of former SSW locomotives are still utilized by Union Pacific today, although only a small number continue to sport unmodified "Cotton Belt" paint. Most of the remaining units have been repainted into the UP scheme, while others wear 'patched' SSW paint with a UP shield logo and new numbers applied over the SSW number. [1]

Cotton Belt Passenger Service

The St. Louis Southwestern operated passenger service from St. Louis to Texas points and from Memphis to Shreveport and Dallas. Cotton Belt's Lone Star operated from Memphis Union Station to Dallas Union Terminal with a branch from Lewisville, Arkansas to Shreveport, Louisiana. The Morning Star was the second named train over much of this route, operating out of St. Louis Union Station.

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 last Cotton Belt passenger train, #8 operated on November 30, 1959 from Pine Bluff, Arkansas to East St. Louis, Illinois.

Predecessor and subsidiary Railroads and Terminal Companies

Arkansas and Memphis Railway Bridge and Terminal Company 20%

Arkansas and Southern Railway 1887 predecessor of SLA&T line to Shreveport

Arkansas Short Line

Blytheville, Leachville and Arkansas Southern Railroad

Cairo, Trumann and Southern Railroad

Central Arkansas and Eastern Railroad Company

Dallas Terminal Railway and Union Depot Company

Deering Southwestern Railway

Eastern Texas Railroad

Gideon and North Island Railway

Gray’s Point Terminal Railway Company

Kansas and Gulf Short Line Railroad Company

Little River Valley and Arkansas Railroad Company

Manila and Southwestern

Memphis Union Station Company 20%

Paragould Southeastern Railway Company

Pine Bluff Arkansas River Railway

St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas Railway

St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas Terminal Railway

St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company of Texas

Shreveport Bridge and Terminal Company

Southern Illinois and Missouri Bridge Company 40%

Southwest Greyhound Lines, Inc. 16.7%

Southwestern Transportation Company

Stephenville North and South Texas Railway

Stuttgart and Arkansas River Railroad Company

Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis 6.25%

Texarkana Union Station Trust 21%

Texas and Louisiana Railroad

Texas and St. Louis Railway

Texas and St. Louis Railway Company of Arkansas

Tyler Southeastern Railway Company

Tyler Tap Railroad

Union Terminal Company (Dallas, Texas) 12.5%

Valley Terminal Railway

Cotton Belt 819

St. Louis Southwestern 819 is maintained at the Arkansas Railway Museum in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, by the Cotton Belt Rail Historical Society. The #819 was the last new steam locomotive acquired by the Cotton Belt in 1943. It was built in the Pine Bluff Shops.

St. Louis Southwestern 819 on an early excursion run in 1986.

Louisiana politician Andrew R. Johnson (1856-1933) was once a depot agent for the Cotton Belt Railroad.^[1]

External links

• St. Louis Southwestern Railway from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Facts on the Cotton Belt 4-8-4's, Including the 819
• Cotton Belt website
• Cotton Belt Rail Historical Society
• Cotton Belt Railroad Symposium, annual event hosted by Texas A&M University-Commerce

References

• Moody's Steam Railroads 1949
• Moody's Transportation Manual 9/1968
• Goen, Steve Allen (1999), 'Cotton Belt Color Pictorial', Four Ways West Publications. ISBN 1-885614-25-X
• 80 Years of Transportation Progress: A History of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway (Cotton Belt Public Relations Department, 1957) as published in the October 1957 issue of The Cotton Belt News.

1. ^ "Mike Miller, "Andrew R. Johnson," from Henry E. Chambers, A History of Louisiana, Vol. II, Chicago and New York City, 1925, pp. 147-148". usgarchives.rog. http://files.usgwarchives.org/la/claiborne/bios/johnsar.txt. Retrieved May 25, 2010.