Railroad Switching Service of Missouri Freight Train on Illinois Terminal St. Louis Line

This is a rare video of the Railroad Switching Service of Missouri operating a freight train over the former Illinois Terminal System's line into St. Louis, MO, taken in June 2002 by a Mr. Kent Kloos of St. Louis, MO. RSM Engineer Scott Nauert (myself) and Conductor Jeffrey Woods are seen on #2020 as it climbs out of the subway and onto "street running" via Hadley Street at the beginning of the video. We invited Mr. Kloos along that day so that he could capture some video of our unique operation. Today, this scene is completely different as the tracks have since been abandoned and the subway tunnel filled in. This trackage originated at Illinois Terminal's large downtown, St. Louis, passenger station and ran via an underground subway for several city blocks before rising up to ground level near the intersection of Cass and Hadley Streets. From there, the line ran down the middle of Hadley Street for about 3 blocks, and then entered the ramp for a 1.5 mile long elevated trestle that carried it above the North St. Louis industrial district and Produce Row for 2 miles. The trackage then dropped back down to ground level via a ramp, where a small interchange freight yard was located at Branch St., just east of Produce Row. The line then continued up another ramp which carried the rails across the McKinley Bridge spanning the Mississippi River, and on east into Madison, Illinois, for points north such as Decatur and Peoria. Passenger service into St. Louis evaporated in the late 1950s. The Illinois Terminal continued to use this trackage to provide freight service for customers located in downtown St. Louis. The Globe Democrat newspaper was a primary one, receiving boxcars of newsprint for its presses. The Illinois Terminal was merged into the Norfolk Western Railway in the early 80s, which later merged with the Southern Railway, forming today's Norfolk Southern system (NS). Although the trackage north of the Branch St. Yard into Illinois via the McKinley bridge was abandoned in the late 1970s, from Branch St. into downtown St. Louis, the trackage was kept in operation to serve the newspaper. In 1989, NS sold this segment of the former IT to Ironhorse Resources, Inc., of O'Fallon, IL, at which I was employed as a locomotive engineer from March 2001 to the final run on June 21, 2004. The remaining customer by this point was the St. Louis Post-Dispatch - the successor to the Globe Democrat's St. Louis headquarters building, which received boxcars of newsprint spools by rail in the basement which were used in the production of its daily circulation newspaper. Ironhorse purchased an EMD SW-8 switching locomotive #2020 which was stationed under Tucker Blvd. in the subway, at the foot of the Post-Dispatch building. Freight cars destined for Ironhorse's RSM operation were interchanged to RSSM by the NS at the Branch St. Yard in North St. Louis. Shortly after, an RSM crew would be dispatched and would arrive at the Post Dispatch building and report to their small office located in the Sub Basement. After signing in, the crew would start the locomotive, pick up any empty boxcars spotted at the docks, and transport them over the old IT St. Louis Line to the Branch St. Yard for interchange to the NS. This operation continued until June 21, 2004, when the last empty boxcar was pulled from the Post-Dispatch. The Post, like many newspapers across the country, is facing increasing competition from electronic media. With production down, the decision was made to consolidate most of its printing operations to its Maryland Heights, MO, press, eliminating the need for continued freight rail service to its St. Louis facility. With the last remaining customer on this IT Missouri trackage gone, Ironhorse Resources applied - and was granted - permission from the US Surface Transportation Board to abandon the line and pull up the rails. The rail was removed and relocated to Ironhorse's rapidly-expanding Rio Valley Switching Railroad in McAllen, TX. The locomotive, which sat dormant in the subway tunnel until President's Day 2006, was sold to a rail switching operation in Pinckneyville, IL, in 2006. Thus, President's Day 2006 marks the very final movement on this former Trestle / subway trackage in St. Louis. An organization known as "Great Rivers Greenway" purchased much of the railroad right-of-way and plans to construct a bicycle and pedestrian path over the right-of-way known as "The Trestle." I hope you enjoy this historic video, and I am proud to have been a part of this line's rich history. Many thanks to Kent Kloos for keeping a moving memory of this trackage alive. Regards, -Scott Nauert