does anyone know if the missouri central railroad which took over rock island’s line across the state is in operation or did it give up operating? have not heard anything on it in years
The Missouri Central was sold to the Indiana Railroad who operates the line as the Central Midland Railroad. The line is in service as far as Pacific. If the IRR can come up with some substantial funding, they will be able to rebuild to Sedalia, however the line goes as far as Labide, MO, which sees service only 1 time a week. This could be a well utilized overflow route between KC and STL if ever fully restored, and would make it the third STL/KC line, the other two being the former MP and the former Wabash, now UP and NS. Everything that installed for operations when the Rock Island owned the route is still there, from 1/2 signs, to W signs, even the old searchlight signals, sans light, are still in place. However, it may never again see a train, as in Many places, Large oak trees have grown between the rails…
Indiana RR is a contract operator. The owner is AMEREN (power company). The station is LaBadie. LaBadie to Union has not been out of service that long, could resume limited service at 10mph with about 15000 ties.
The line in actually in operation to Union and has been for several years. There is a new alignment and bridge being built in Labadie to remove the old Hwy T tunnel. I’m curious as to why you used “LaBadie” instead or “Labadie”, Was this the railroads use of the name?
(1) My Missouri Central TT said LaBadie as do several maps. (We worked for Missouri Central… While AMEREN owns most of MCRR, General Railways still owns R/W land on the out-of-service west end…)
(2) And because somebody asked, Union to Owensville is in no condition to run on. (Union to the east got the ties put in by MCRR and later INRD)
MC:
You seem to have a certain level of familiarity with this line… At one time there was a website that seemed to be full of info on this, but have seen noting on it lately. I suspect that the Utility[AMERN] that owns the ROW uses the east end to service a coal fired power plant? It seems to be a bit of overkill to buy the entire line when they only needed a relatively short segment. Was there some grand plan to come out of KC and run east to get to the area of Labadie[sic] ? It seems to be a shame that it cannot be utilized, in particular when there are traffic problems on the other two existing routes, across Missouri. The rate that other lines have been abandoned, and scrapped in the Midwest, leads me to have asked the previous question about potential uses for this route and causes me to wonder why it was not also scrapped. Any ideas ?
Thanks,
The line was in pretty terrible shape and basically out of service even before Rock Island filed for bankruptcy in 1974. Formal abandonment of the line beyond the immediate environs of St. Louis and Kansas City was probably more bother than it was worth since abandonment proceedings had a way of dragging on for a few years.
A question that has been overlooked is who actually owns the line? CSX and Iowa Interstate operate their former Rock Island lines by way of long-term lease and the ownership situation with this line may be similar.
Amaren does indeed own it. It’s their investment in MC that got them there after the Canadian investment venture capital backed out.
Sam: Will answer you sometime (multiple paragraphs)- It’s a squirrel factory here now. That said, AMAREN owns it as leverage, they don’t want to upgrade (MC did and had started) and the trails bozos are foolishly whistling in the dark right now about a trail on the west end.
MC:
At your convience! Looking forward to your take on the whole deal…It seems to be one of those things that no one wants to talk about [or really knows anything about it]…
Thanks,
Would also be important to note that there are multiple tunnels on this line- all of which I was told are in very poor to failing health- would that also be a serious roadblock to any full resurgance of this line KC to STL? From what I recall the tunnels were in pretty sorry shape even when the RI was still running it- and these same tunnels were one of the main reasons why even after the SSW purchased this portion in the Golden State deal, that they eventually settled on MP/UP trackage rights rather than run the track they owned???
After the Rock Island bypassed the Split Rock tunnel in Illinois back in the 1950s, the only 4 tunnels on the CRI&P were on this line.
Who did the SP/SSW serve in Owensville ?
Does anyone know when UP stopped using the west end, between Leeds Jct and Pleasant Hill ?
Concrete company (bulk cement) & a lumber yard
There is a large industry with a set of Blue steel buildings (Tenneco packaging plant, IIRC) on the east side of town, north of the track, that had a rail spur that was never used for plastic pellet delivery.