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MoPac Divisions

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The Missouri Pacifc system was divided into divisions and subdivisions governed by four major districts.

To help give you a general feel of things, we'll map ot the region going by MoPac's April 15, 1973 employee's timetable. First, MoPac divided its system into four districts; Eastern, Western, Texas, and Gulf; Nebraska and Kansas come under the Western District.

Secondly, each district was itself divided into four divisions; for example the Western District consisted of the Northern, Kansas City Terminal, Kansas, and Central divisions.

Finally, these divisions were divided into subdivisions or 'subs'; such as the Hastings, Louisville, Lincoln, Crete, and Omaha sub.

The following was taken from the company's April 15, 1973 Employees Time Table No. 4.



EASTERN DISTRICT
Divisions
  1. Chicago
  2. Illinois
  3. Arkansas
  4. Louisiana
  5. St. Louis Terminal
  6. Little Rock Terminal
  7. Missouri-Illinois Railroad
WESTERN DISTRICT
Divisions
  1. Northern
  2. Kansas City Terminal
  3. Kansas
  4. Central
TEXAS DISTRICT
Divisions
  1. Red River
  2. Rio Grande
  3. Dallas- Ft. Worth Terminal
GULF DISTRICT
Divisions
  1. Palestine
  2. Kingsville
  3. DeQuincy
  4. New Orleans Terminal
  5. New Orleans & Lower Coast R.R.

EASTERN DISTRICT

The Chicago Division

  • Chicago Subdivision

The Illinois Division

  • Pana Subdivision
  • Chicago Sub.
  • Chester Sub.
  • Joppa Sub.
  • Thebes Sub.
  • Cairo Sub.
  • Cape Girardeau Sub.
  • Westville Sub.
  • Pinckneyville Sub.
  • Sparta Sub.
  • Ste. Genevieve Sub.

The St. Louis Terminal Division

  • Carondelet Subdivision
  • Lesperance Sub.

The Arkansas Division

  • DeSoto Subdivision
  • Pea Ridge Sub. (see below)
  • Hoxie Sub.
  • Doniphan Sub.
  • Little Rock Sub.
  • Hot Springs Sub.
  • Sheridan Sub.
  • Norman Sub.
  • Nashville Sub.
  • Gurdon Sub.
  • Charleston Sub.
  • Memphis Sub.
  • Hughes Sub.
  • Cotter Sub.

The Louisiana Division

  • Collinston Subdivision
  • Eudora Sub.
  • Lake Providence Sub.
  • Wynne Sub.
  • Monroe Sub.
  • Huttig Sub.
  • Hamburg Sub.
  • Warren Sub.

The Little Rock Terminal Division

The Missouri-Illinois RR

 

WESTERN DISTRICT

The Northern Division

  • River Subdivision
  • Lexington Sub.
  • Sedalia Sub.
  • Carthage Sub.
  • Springfield Sub.
  • Webb City Sub.
  • Concordia Sub.
  • Hastings Sub.
  • Burr Oak Sub.
  • Lenora Sub.
  • St. Joseph Sub.
  • Louisville Sub.
  • Lincoln Sub.
  • Crete Sub.
  • Omaha Sub.

The Kansas City Terminal Division

The Kansas Division

  • Kansas City Subdivision
  • Osawatomie Sub.
  • Council Grove Sub.
  • Topeka Sub.
  • Hoisington Sub.
  • Salina Sub.
  • Horace Sub.
  • Hutchinson Sub.
  • Hardtner Sub.
  • Stafford Sub.

Originally known as the Central Branch Union Pacific in the 1800's, the Kansas Division was a major line feeding the Omaha Sub (Omaha to Kansas City), connecting at Atchison. The line runs about 320 miles westward to the westernmost point at Lenora, Kansas.

The Central Division

  • Pittsburg Subdivision
  • Conway Sub.
  • Arkansas City Sub.
  • Wichita Sub.
  • McPherson Sub.
  • Coffeyville Sub.
  • Wagoner Sub.
  • Van Buren Sub.
  • Paris Sub.

 

TEXAS DISTRICT

The Red River Division

  • Longview Subdivision
  • Tyler Subdivision
  • Henderson Subdivision
  • Dallas Subdivision
  • Oklahoma Sub.
  • Midland Valley Sub.
  • Bonham Sub.
  • Shreveport Sub.
  • Hosston Sub.

The Rio Grand Division

  • Ft. Worth Subdivision
  • A. & S. Sub.
  • T.-N. M. Sub.
  • Baird Sub.
  • W. M. W. & N. W. Sub.
  • Toyah Sub.

The Dallas - Ft. Worth Terminal Division

  • Dallas Subdivision

 

GULF DISTRICT

The Palestine Division

  • Trinity Subdivision
  • Huntsville Sub.
  • Sugarland Sub.
  • Baytown Sub.
  • Austin Sub.
  • Laredo Sub.
  • Crystal City Sub.

The Kingsville Division

  • Brownsville Subdivision
  • Mission Sub.
  • Freeport Sub.
  • Victoria Sub.
  • Corpus Christi Sub.

The DeQuincy Division

  • Beaumont Subdivision
  • Alexandria Sub.
  • Avoyelles Sub.
  • Marksville Sub.
  • Church Point Sub.
  • Lake Charles Sub.
  • Crowley Sub.
  • Orange Sub.
  • New Iberia Sub.
  • Thiboaux Sub.

The New Orleans Terminal Division

The New Orleans & Lower Coast R.R.

 

FAMOUS ROUTES

The White River Route

The White River Route held much promise when it was built to reach local mines, but these mines never panned out. By 1915, the timber supply that raveled here itself played out, so it was up to the traffic between Kansas City and Memphis that kept the line open. Eventually, even the local business disappeared for the railroad as highway system developed. By the 80's there was little left. Silica was still strong at Guion, and there was frozen poultry out of Batesville, otherwise there was essentially no local traffic between Cotter and Branson.

Still, Arkansas Power & Light has a large generating station at Newark, just north of Newport. MoPac's coal trains used this route and the railroad upgraded the line with heavy rail and improved bridges.

The bridge line had a through connection to the Southern (later Norfolk Southern), a road that MP was interested in merging with. Had the NS-MoPac merger actually happened the White River Line would be much different than it is today.But the MP and Southern didn't make sense; Southern decided that the two roads covered too much of the same territory and not much would have been gained from such a union. But one can still wonder ;)

The Pea Ridge Sub

Appeared on the St. Louis railfans list: "Route of the Heavy Haulers shut down"

Union Pacific ran the final train over the Pea Ridge Subdivision yesterday, one of the youngest (40 years old) rail lines in North America.

The Pea Ridge Sub runs from Cadet Missouri, roughly 57 miles to the south of St. Louis, to the Pea Ridge Iron Mine located 30 miles to the west of Cadet in Sullivan, Missouri. The signs of a declining U.S. steel market and the continuous reduction of what was the former Missouri Pacific Lines has become reality.

It started early (6AM) yesterday morning when UP Omaha train managers sent a firm order to the crew of the southbound train that this would be the last run and to have all cars off the Pea Ridge Subdivision with the exception of the ones spotted at a small minerals company known as CIMBAR, located on the very first mile of the line at New Fountain Farms (it will likely continue to see service after the western 26 miles are taken out of service). In the next couple of weeks, UP will be busy deactivating the approach signal to the main line at New Fountain Farms, taking down crossbucks and crossing signal heads, and spiking inactive switches.

There is some interesting history about this line that you all may be interested in: back in the heydey these trains were known as the "Heavy Haulers," aptly named by Missouri Pacific crews as they were among one of the heaviest trains the railroad ever handled, hoisting millions of tons of iron ore out of Pea Ridge in Sullivan, Missouri destined for numerous steel mills across the U.S. This train would travel from the mine 27 miles on the Pea Ridge Sub to reach the St. Louis to Poplar Bluff DeSoto Sub mainline. The Pea Ridge Sub, complete with heavy ballast and 112 lb code 25 rail (some of which is welded), with a 30 mile per hour max speed, was constructed in 1961 to reach a joint Bethlehem Steel/Meramec Mining Co. iron mine in Sullivan, Missouri, making it only 40 years old to date, one of the youngest rail lines to be constructed in the United States. In order to move the ore, MP purchased a fleet of ore jennies in order to move the ore north to common locations such as Granite City Steel in Granite City, Illinois or south, towards Texas. In recent years, however, the ore moved in conventional PS-2 or ACF covered hoppers, while slag moved out in gondolas. Additionally, the original Heavy Haulers usually ran up to 80 or 90 cars but that number has dwindled to just a weekly 15-30 or so in the last couple of years. Bethlehem/Meramec closed the mine in 1977 and it and the Pea Ridge Sub sat dormant for 2 years. In 1979 Woodridge Resources purchased it, fired the pelletizing operation back up, and the rail line was reactivated. The cause of the latest shutdown was that the company couldn't find enough business to justify keeping the mine and it's 117 member workforce operating.

Today I followed the train, as I have been doing for the past several months, up the entire branch. As if U.P. was making a statement about the falling of the flags, the last train was powered by a duo of Speed Lettered SP GP-40s already sporting the yellow renumber patch job (in the 1400 series) over the pre-existing SP unit numbers. Of interest, I noticed it contained several empty covered hoppers that appeared to be destined for the mine; what I later found out that there was an error made in redirecting the cars away from the closed mine, creating a backlog of over 50 empties PLUS the ones on today's train which were never loaded at Pea Ridge.

After leaving Pea Ridge for St. Louis around 1 PM the train consisted of 57 empty covered hoppers, which snaked through the rolling Ozarks almost unnoticed. The only glimmer of hope for future runs across the Pea Ridge Sub lies with Woodridge Resources--only if it sells the mine, or if it lands a contract that is substantial enough to show a profit will the trains ever come back. If the decision is made to seal the mine and dismantle the pelletizing system, the Pea Ridge will go down as being one of the shortest lived rail lines in the U.S. There no doubt that this week one thing WILL prevail among the tracks through the forests of Washington County: the sound of silence.


The T-NM Sub

The Texas-New Mexico, it became known as the T-NM Sub after the line was fully merged into the MoPac. It was part of the Rio Grande Division and broke off the Toyah Sub (part of the line between Dallas and El Paso) at Monahans, TX (MP609.4). It was 105 miles in length heading north out of Monahans. Monahans is about 249 miles east of El Paso. UP has since spun this line off to a shortline operator. (Tuch Santucci)

 

The Evansville Sub

What MoPac would name the Evansville Sub (between Woodland Jct and Evansville, IN), the line between Chicago and Danville, IL was called the Danville Sub by the C&EI, and where the track split at Woodland Jct and headed towards Salem and St Louis was called the St Louis Sub. From Danville to Evansville was called the Evansville Sub in pre-merger C&EI days. (Tuch Santucci)


The Northern Kansas Division

The Northern Kansas Division, originally the Central Branch Union Pacific R.R. before joining the Missouri Pacific system, had a total of 74 depots along approximately 400 miles of line. (Doug Brush)




The Prosser Division

The Prosser Division which ran out of Concordia, KS west five miles to Yuma Jct. and then north through several rural elevator towns into Nebraska.The line's most promising traffic came from the Hastings Naval Ammunition Depot. This little line, known as the "Million Dollar Line" carried components into and finished munitions out of the plant to the ports of eastern and southern U.S. The Burlington and Union Pacific both served the Naval Depot at Hastings, but since neither went east or south, the Missouri Pacific got a lot of traffic. Just one of those unusual situations where the big guys couldn't offer the service needed. The entire line was relaid with 90lb. rail and bridges strengthened for heavier trains. It is said that many heavy trains resulted. (D. Brush)

NOTE: Mr. Brush is currentling authoring a book on the Northern Kansas Division, featuring photos of depots from this area. If anyone has photos of depots from the Prosser or Northern Kansas Division, please contact Doug at dkbrush@nckcn.com, he is very interested in making the book as complete as possible.

 

 

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