The St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company , known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply "Cotton Belt", was a Class I railroad that operated between St. Louis, Missouri, and various points in the U.S. states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas from 1891 to 1980, when the system added the Rock Island's Golden State Route and operations in Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The Cotton Belt operated as a Southern Pacific subsidiary from 1932 until 1992, when its operation was assumed by Southern Pacific Transportation Company.

Corporate history

left|thumb|upright|Bond of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company, issued 12. February 1891

The Cotton Belt was part of the railroad empire acquired by financier Jay Gould in the last quarter of the 19th century. "By 1890 Gould owned the Missouri Pacific, 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 line founded in Tyler, Texas, in 1871. Construction of the original Tyler Tap Railroad began in the summer of 1875, and the first 21 miles out of Tyler to Big Sandy, Texas were constructed by early October 1887. The line became the Texas and St. Louis Railway, and was completed between Gatesville, Texas and Bird's Point, Missouri by August 12, 1883, creating a continuous 725-mile system. The assets of that company were acquired out of foreclosure by the St. Louis-Southwestern Railway in 1891. and operated it 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 Union Pacific Railroad in 1996. 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, to East St. Louis, Illinois.

Acquisitions

The following railroads were acquired or merged into the Cotton Belt Route:

  • Blytheville, Leachville & Arkansas Southern Railroad - Basically an industrial line bringing timber to the Chicago Mill & Lumber Company near Blytheville AR. Operated 17 miles of owned track from a logging location known as Shaw AR to Leachville AR, from there had running rights 8 miles over the Frisco to Arbyrd, MO, from thereto had running rights over the Paragould Southeastern Railway for 22 miles to Chickasawba AR, then ran on 2.5 miles of owned track to the mill.
  • Gideon & North Island Railroad
  • Little River Valley & Arkansas Railroad
  • Paragould Southeastern Railway - Incorporated October 11, 1887 as a tramway, it was reorganized as a standard gauge line in 1893 and by 1907 the line ran from Paragould, Arkansas to Blytheville, Arkansas. The St. Louis & Southwestern Railroad fully absorbed the line in January 1914.
  • St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas Railway
  • Stuttgart & Arkansas River Railroad
  • Texas & St. Louis Railway

thumb|right|SSW [[GE B40-8 8067 in Colton, California]]

Notable employees

  • Louisiana politician Andrew R. Johnson (1856–1933) was once a depot agent for the Cotton Belt railroad.
  • Railroad official Robert Krebs 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 in 1971.

See also

  • Cotton Belt Depot Train Museum
  • St. Louis Southwestern Railway of Texas
  • Arkansas Railroad Museum

thumb|[[St. Louis Southwestern 819|St. Louis Southwestern No. 819 on an excursion run in 1986|left]]

References

  • Cotton Belt Depot Museum (Tyler, Texas)
  • 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

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.