St. Louis Southwestern Railway

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. 9673 in Caliente, California|left ==Passenger service==

The Cotton Belt ran passenger trains from St. Louis to Texas and from Memphis to Dallas and Shreveport, Louisiana. Cotton Belt's Lone Star operated from Memphis Union Station to Dallas Union Terminal with a connecting section from Lewisville, Arkansas, to Shreveport. The Morning Star was the second named train over much of this route, operating out of St. Louis Union Station to Dallas, with a separate Memphis section inaugurated in 1941 to provide a convenient connection with the Southern Railway's Tennessean to and from Washington, D.C., and New York City. 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, 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 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==