Does anyone know when they quit running trains over the mine spur from Cuba, MO south thru Steelville, Cherryville, Viburnum, MO into the mines at Boss, MO?
I could find a “mid-2000s” date, which I presume means around 2005 or thereabouts.
My brother-in-law lives in Steelville, but he moved back there more recently than that. The tracks still go through the town. I’m sure some crossings have been paved over, there may be some washouts, etc. It it weren’t for those minor details, your forum name would give me an exciting, albeit illegal, idea.
Cuba to Buick (45.8 miles) was embargoed in December 2002.
The line is not abandoned (yet), but rather has a discontinuance of service on it, effective 8/17/2011…until the issue of lead contamination is resolved with shipper Doe Run resources (STB Docket AB6-476; Docket # 41621) … The docket and the filing for the “Lead Line” make some interesting reading. Also explains why the track structure and bridges remain. BNSF is stuck with a problem that has no simple solution.(The Sligo & Eastern RR and other SLSF branches in the lead country spiderweb all vanished pre-WW2. UP has a similar MoP legacy issue in that country.
Found this while ‘Searching’ @ http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=866
“BNSF sues Doe Run over lead”
Published by MAC on 2005-05-17
[As mudchicken indicated it is also an interesting read as it was a case of the BNSF suing its customers and in courts that it had historically shied away from as they were usually not a good venue for the railroads.]
The end of the line at Boss, Mo was where there was a large lead smelter… So the traffic in refined lead products would be heavy freight.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mostfran/railroad/railroad_index.htm
The link is to a history of the railroads of Missouri and those of the Old Lead Belt region . There was a pretty complete railroad net connecting the mines, and smelters of the Lead Region in Missouri. One of the last lines was from the area of Viburnum, Mo to the Doe Run Lead Smelter at Herculaneum, Mo. South of St. Louis…
I can remember riding a special passenger train over this route in 1960’s with my parents on a special Illini Railroad Club. There had not been a passenger train on that route for years. Mom’s parents grew up between Cuba & St. James so the area was very familiar to us. The train left St. Louis and then went onto the spur line at Cuba running all the way to Steelville and back. So these names bring back memories.
Doe Run was a big name in our local news when they got in trouble for toxic waste etc. Didn’t know BNSF had sued them.