The St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company , known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply "Cotton Belt", is a former

Class I railroad In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$ ...

that operated between

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, and various points in the U.S. states of

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

from 1891 to 1980, when the system added the Rock Island's Golden State Route and operations in

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

, and

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

. The Cotton Belt operated as a Southern Pacific subsidiary from 1932 until 1992, when its operation was assumed by

Southern Pacific Transportation Company The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

Corporate history

The Cotton Belt was part of the railroad empire acquired by financier

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made hi ...

in the last quarter of the 19th century. "By 1890 Gould owned the

Missouri Pacific The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad o ...

, the Texas and Pacific, the St. Louis Southwestern, and the International-Great Northern, one-half of the mileage in the Southwest", the ''Handbook of Texas'' wrote. The railroad was organized on January 15, 1891, although it had its origins in a series of short lines founded in

Tyler, Texas Tyler is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the largest city and county seat of Smith County, Texas, Smith County. It is also the largest city in Northeast Texas. With a 2020 census population of 105,995, Tyler was the List of cities in Texa ...

, in 1870 that connected northeastern

and southeastern

. Construction of the original Tyler Tap Railroad began in the summer of 1875. On October 18, 1903, the Cotton Belt gained trackage rights over the

Missouri Pacific Railroad The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad ...

along the eastern shore of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

to reach

East St. Louis, Illinois East St. Louis is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois. It is directly across the Mississippi River from Downtown St. Louis, Missouri and the Gateway Arch National Park. East St. Louis is in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. Once a b ...

, and then used Terminal 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 of

Alton and Southern Railroad The Alton and Southern Railway is a switching railroad in the Greater St. Louis area in Illinois. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad. Overview The Alton and Southern ''Railroad'' was formed in 1910, and in 1913 it ...

's Gateway Yard, and north of Kansas City Southern's East St. Louis Yard.

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

now operates Cotton Belt Yard, although the engine servicing facilities have been demolished. (Seatrain Louisiana, St

The Cotton Belt and its subsidiary

St. Louis Southwestern Railway of Texas The St. Louis Southwestern Railway of Texas , operated the lines of its parent company, the St. Louis Southwestern Railway within the state of Texas. The St. Louis Southwestern, known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply the Cotton ...

operated 1,607 miles of road in 1945; 1,555 miles in 1965; and 2,115 miles in 1981 after taking over the Rock 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. The

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

(SP) assumed control of the SSW on April 14, 1932 and operated as a subsidiary of SP until 1992, when the Southern Pacific consolidated the Cotton Belt's operations into the parent company. Southern Pacific merged with

in 1996.

Passenger service

The Cotton Belt ran passenger trains from St. Louis to Texas and from Memphis to Dallas and

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is t ...

. Cotton Belt's '' Lone Star'' operated from

Memphis Union Station Memphis Union Station was a passenger terminal in Memphis, Tennessee. It served as a hub between railroads of the Southwest, the Missouri Pacific Railroad and the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, and railroads of the Southeast, the Louisville an ...

to Dallas Union Terminal with a connecting section from

Lewisville, Arkansas Lewisville is a city in Lafayette County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 1,280 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Lafayette County. Geography Lewisville is located in northern Lafayette County at (33.360636, -93.579317). ...

, to Shreveport. The ''

Morning Star Morning Star, morning star, or Morningstar may refer to: Astronomy * Morning star, most commonly used as a name for the planet Venus when it appears in the east before sunrise ** See also Venus in culture * Morning star, a name for the star Siri ...

'' was the second named train over much of this route, operating out of

St. Louis Union Station St. Louis Union Station is a National Historic Landmark train station in St. Louis, Missouri. At its 1894 opening, the station was the largest in the world that had tracks and passenger service areas all on one level. Traffic peaked at 100,000 ...

to Dallas, with a separate Memphis section inaugurated in 1941 to provide a convenient connection with the Southern Railway's ''

Tennessean Tennessean refers to someone or something of, from, or related to the state of Tennessee, including: * ''The Tennessean'' newspaper * Tennessean (train) See also * List of people from Tennessee * Tennessine Tennessine is a synthetic chemic ...

'' to and from

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The Cotton Belt also operated passenger trains between Mt. Pleasant, Tyler and Waco, and a doodlebug 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. 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, from

Pine Bluff, Arkansas Pine Bluff is the eleventh-largest city in the state of Arkansas and the county seat of Jefferson County. It is the principal city of the Pine Bluff Metropolitan Statistical Area and part of the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Pine Bluff Combin ...

, to East St. Louis, Illinois. Colton_junction

Notable employees

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

Andrew R. Johnson (1856–1933) was once a depot agent for the Cotton Belt railroad. *Railroad official

Robert Krebs Robert D. Krebs is an American railroad executive who has headed three major United States railroads in succession, leading the Southern Pacific (SP) when it was acquired by Santa Fe Industries, rising to lead the resulting Santa Fe Pacific Corpo ...

worked for Cotton Belt in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a trainmaster and terminal superintendent. Krebs became superintendent of the Cotton Belt at age 29.

References

External links

*
Cotton Belt Depot Museum (Tyler, Texas)Facts on the Cotton Belt 4-8-4's, Including the 819Cotton Belt Railroad Symposium
annual event hosted by Texas A&M University-Commerce

Bibliography

* ''Moody's Steam Railroads'', 1949. * ''Moody's Transportation Manual'', 1968. * Goen, Steve Allen. ''Cotton Belt Color Pictorial'', Four Ways West Publications, 1999, . * ''Eighty 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''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Louis Southwestern Railway Predecessors of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company Defunct Arkansas railroads Defunct Missouri railroads Defunct Texas railroads Defunct Illinois railroads Former Class I railroads in the United States Companies based in St. Louis Railway companies established in 1891 Railway companies disestablished in 1997 Defunct Tennessee railroads Defunct New Mexico railroads Defunct Louisiana railroads Defunct Kansas railroads Defunct Oklahoma railroads 1891 establishments in the United States 1997 disestablishments in the United States