Missouri Pacific (MoPac; AAR reporting mark MP) was the first American railroad west of the Mississippi River. The company merged with Union Pacific in 1982.

History

On July 4 1851 at St. Louis, Missouri, ground-breaking for the Pacific Railroad Company, chartered in 1849, marked the beginning of what would later be known as the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company,. 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 & 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 Company (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 & 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 St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern (SLIMS), Texas & Pacific (TP), Chicago & Eastern Illinois (C&EI), St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico (SLBM), Kansas Oklahoma & Gulf (KO&G), Midland Valley (MV), Gulf Coast Lines (GC), International-Great Northern (IGN), New Orleans, Texas and Mexico (NOTM), Missouri-Illinois (MI), as well as the small Central Branch Union Pacific (an early predecessor of MP in Kansas & south central Nebraska), and joint ventures such as the Alton & Southern (AS).

The line's passenger operations, popularly known as the Eagle, became part of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) in 1971.

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 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.

References

• based on article at Screaming Eagles

External links

• Screaming Eagles
• Missouri Pacific Historical Society