COTTON BELT RAILROAD WILL SOON FADE INTO HISTORY

SCOTT CITY -- The St. Louis-Southwestern "Cotton Belt" Railroad is headed down the track into history, along with other railroads that have gone on before it - the Missouri Pacific, Frisco, Pennsylvania, and New York Central railroads.

At its peak, the Cotton Belt employed between 400 and 500 workers in the Illmo-Fornfelt-Ancel area. The railroad also spurred development of many area towns.

Earlier this year, Southern Pacific Lines announced it was restructuring its operations into a single, 15-state railroad to improve customer service and safety, and reduce operating costs.

That merger will mean the end of the Cotton Belt and the Rio Grande railroads. The restructuring will leave the Southern Pacific Railroad as the lone survivor of the trio of historic railroads that once served the west and mid-southern area of the United States for over 100 years.

Marshal Hamil, 80, of Tyler, Texas, is one of many former Cotton Belt Railroad employees that mourn the passing of the Cotton Belt.

A native of St. Louis, he was the Cotton Belt's public affairs manager, first in St. Louis, then in Tyler, Texas, at the railroad's corporate headquarters, from 1940 until his retirement in 1975. In 1947, Hamil took a leave of absence from the railroad when he purchased Illmo's weekly newspaper, The Jimplicute, in 1947. He returned to the Cotton Belt in 1951 after he sold the paper. Hamil was also the last editor of the railroad's employee newsletter, The Cotton Belt News.

"The Cotton Belt was a family railroad. It was a tremendous organization with a great deal of corporate patriotism among all of its officers and operating employees," said Hamil, during a telephone interview last week from his home in Tyler, Texas.

"There was a feeling of comradeship among the officers and the operating people that worked the line. It was a sense of pride among all of the employees that you didn't find on the larger railroads."

Hamil said the only other railroad that was like the Cotton Belt in that respect was the St. Louis-San Francisco "Frisco" Railroad, which had its corporate headquarters in St. Louis.

Looking back on his career with the Cotton Belt, Hamil noted, "In a sense, we were part of the development of America. We drained the swamps in northeast Arkansas and Southeast Missouri in order to extend the railroad northeastward into those states, and helped create of many of the towns that now exist along the right-of-way." That was particularly true in northeast Scott County.

To understand how all of this came about, a little history of the Cotton Belt is necessary. The Tyler Tap Railroad, which over a period of decades would evolve into the Cotton Belt, was created in 1877, and extended 40 miles between Tyler and Big Sandy, Texas, where it connected with another railroad.

In 1882, the railroad was extended northeastward into Pine Bluff, Ark., Jonesboro, Ark., and Malden, Mo. From there the line ran to Wyatt, Mo., where a Cotton Belt Railroad ferry carried the trains across the Mississippi River from Byrd's Point to Cairo.

In 1889, the railroad was extended northeastward from Jonesboro, Ark. to Delta, to connect with the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad. In 1898, the line was extended east from Delta to Gray's Point, on the Mississippi River, where the trains were ferried across the river at Thebes.

A decision by the Cotton Belt, and a consortium of other railroads, to build a railroad bridge across the river at Thebes was the catalyst that led to the creation and growth of the north Scott County towns of Illmo, Fornfelt, Edna, Burger, and Ancel. Illmo was named after Illinois and Missouri. The town was surveyed and laid off in July 1904. All of these smaller towns have since merged into the town of Scott City.

Hamil said after the Thebes bridge was opened, the railroad established Illmo as a division terminal and crew change point. In addition, the railroad dispatcher's office, located on the second floor of the division office building, controlled the movement of all Cotton Belt passenger and freight trains between Illmo and Pine Bluff.

A 25-track railroad yard that stretched from Illmo westward into Fornfelt was used by through freight trains to pick up or set out freight cars destined for locations along the tracks between Illmo and Malden.

Also located in Fornfelt was the railroad's locomotive roundhouse and engine servicing facilities. The large RIP (repair-in-place) Shed located near the Oak Street crossing in Fornfelt made repairs on freight cars and cabooses.

"The golden age of the Cotton Belt was between 1950 and 1969," he said. "During a part of that period, H.J. McKenzie was the president of the railroad. He was a most remarkable man, to whom everybody gave their loyalty. He was interested in the employees of the railroad."

Hamil, and other retired Cotton Belt railroaders, all say that had it not been for the money-making Cotton Belt Railroad, its parent, the Southern Pacific Railroad, would have lost money during a number of years since the 1930s. "The Cotton Belt always made more money, mile for mile, as a corporation," he said. "It was a constant source of embarrassment to the larger Southern Pacific, which acquired the Cotton Belt in the 1930s."

Hamil said the Cotton Belt was an innovative railroad, far ahead of its time in many of its ventures. It was the first railroad with piggyback service as early as 1930. "We were the first railroad to have CTC (Centralized Traffic Control) on the entire main line from Illmo southward to Texas," he noted. "We were also the first to burn oil instead of coal."

Hamil said the Cotton Belt was the first railroad to develop the concept of "run-through" fast freight trains, under the guidance of Harry Hutson, vice president of operations. From that concept came the Cotton Belt's famous "Blue Streak Merchandise" expedited freight train that left each day from the Florida Street station in St. Louis, enroute to Illmo, Jonesboro, and Pine Bluff, terminating at Dallas-Forth Worth, often only a day later.

Today the Cotton Belt's BSM lives on as the Southern Pacific BSM run-through train that leaves East St. Louis each afternoon, racing westward to Los Angeles, via Kansas City and Tucumcari, N.M. The MBSM leaves each day enroute from Memphis, Tenn. to the west coast, via Pine Bluff and Houston, Texas.

Hamil says the Cotton Belt was also well known for its fast passenger trains that operated between St. Louis, Illmo, and Texas. "The southbound passenger train to Dallas-Fort Worth was called the Lone Star. The northbound train was the Morning Star. Both made stops at the passenger station in Illmo," he said. "The dining car service on these trains and our other local passenger trains was a good, if not better than that on the big roads."

While regretting the passing of the Cotton Belt, Hamil sees the need for a single, 15,000-mile railroad, the Southern Pacific, in order to compete with the other big railroads that have been created through similar mergers, such as the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern.