In researching St Louis Union Station, I find repeated references stating that "At its height, the station combined the St Louis passenger services of 22 railroads." However, no references state when that height of service occurred or the actual roadnames of the 22 railroads.
Any advice on where I can find this specific information?
Thanks,
Dave
USAF (Retired)
hi, i would suggest you contact the Terminal Railroad Assn. historical society. they should be able to help you. You might also look in some older official guides if you have any.
i am looking at the Jan. 1955 issue and it lists the following railroads as serving St Louis although some of them are freight only. a&s, b&o, cb&q, c&ei, cri&p, slsf, gm&o, ic, itc, l&m, l&n, mrs, mk&t, mp, nyc, nkp, prr, ssw, trra, and wab.
that makes a total of 21. of course not all of them operated passenger service. the a&s, mrs, and trra were switching lines although the trra did operate an employee's shop train daily but i don't know if you would consider that passenger service.
i don't know what year the c&ei stopped running passengers out of st louis and the l&m was eventually bought out by the cnw. I don't think they ever did operate passenger service.
at some point, the cotton belt quit using union station and bussed their passengers across the river to valley jct.
the itc was an electric line and never did use union station to my knowledge.
some of the other roads had other stations in the area that were scheduled stops including the mp, slsf, and wab.
i don't know where you are located but i remember union staion well as i traveled through st louis quite a bit back in the sixties and worked on the IC and Big Four around the area for many years.
today it has become a mall and hotel complex. if you ever want to visit it, go in the daylight hours or else walk sideways and try to take the bullet in the shoulder.
grizlump
The book St. Louis Union Station and it's Railroads by Norbury L. Wayman states that Union Station's busiest year in terms of trains arriving & departing was 1920, with 93,000 trains using the station. The book also states that at the time of it's construction (1893) that the trains of 22 railroads could be accomodated within the 30 track trainshed.
At the station opening in 1893 the list of railroads may have looked like this:
Missouri Pacific; St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern (later part of MP); SLSF (Frisco); MKT (Katy); SSW (Cotton Belt); Wabash; St. Louis, Kansas City & Colorado (Rock Island, after a short ownership by the Santa Fe); CB&Q (Burlington); Chicago & Alton (later part of B&O, then GM&O); Illinois Central; Chicago & Eastern Illinois; Baltimore & Ohio; NYC (CCC&StL or "Big 4"); Pennsylvania; NKP; L&N; NC&StL (via L&N); Mobile & Ohio (later GM&O); Southern.
That's 19.
Bill
"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig"
Thanks to all for your input.
Update for those who might be interested: I just finished reading "St Louis Union Station and Its Railroads, Expanded Edition" by Norbury L. Wayman, published in 1987. He provides detailed sections on each of the following 22 passenger railroads and their major predecessor/component railroads that served St. Louis Union Station:
Baltimore & Ohio (BO); Chicago & Alton (CA); Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy (CBQ); Chicago & Eastern Ilinois (CEI); Chesapeake & Ohio (CO); Illinois Central (IC); Illinois Terminal System (ITS); Louisville & Nashville (LN); Missouri, Kansas, & Texas (MKT aka KATY); Mobile & Ohio ((MO); Missouri Pacific (MP); Mississippi River & Bonne Terre (MRBT); Nashville, Chattanooga, & St. Louis (NCSL); Nickel Plate (NKP, aka New York, Chicago, & St Louis); New York Central (NYC); Pennsylvania (PRR); Rock Island (RI, aka Chicago, Rock Island, & Pacific); St. Louis, Iron Mountain, & Southern (SLIMS?); St. Louis & San Francisco (SLSF, aka Frisco); Southern (SOU); St. Louis & Southwestern (SSW aka Cotton Belt); and the Wabash (WAB).
I'm not sure this is the definitive list since it doesn't clarify if all these railroads served St. Louis at one particular time but it's close enough for me.
Best Regards and Happy New Year,