Special thanks to Brian Contestabile for the pictures and information on this page.
Looking S in Kirkwood near the beginning of the Kirkwood Cut-off.
This is a Southeast to Northwest 14 mile branch
line built around 1920 -
1930 as a "release valve" for the MoPac (now UP) east-west main line
out of
St. Louis, MO to Kansas City, MO. The main cuts almost right
through the
middle of St. Louis City and the outer suburbs (known collectively as St.
Louis County) , and there were probably more grade crossings than there is
now, which are still quite a few. In the early part of the century, trains
on the main into St. Louis had to wait up to 6 hours before entering the
city, blocking many of these at-grade crossings. The city leaders at the
time therefore gathered and asked/requested the MP to build an additional
line to route trains to the south and around St. Louis to relieve this rail
congestion. It was decided that this "release-valve" line would
begin in
the town of Kirkwood, MO, about 7 miles to the west of St. Louis (thus the
surname "Kirkwood Cut-off" for the line), and snake its way south
around the
city, where it would enter into the extreme south end of the city of St.
Louis and into the neighborhood know as Carondolet, where it would hook up,
by way of a wye, with the north-south line of the MP out of St. Louis. The
line was finished around 1930, and was used as a freight train by-pass until
the early 1990's. One interesting note, this line never saw passenger rail
traffic except once, when a troop train about 1943 was loaded at Jefferson
Barracks, a former army base in south St. Louis, and headed northwest on the
branch line to the east-west MP main and out west to the Pacific rim.
By 1992, traffic on the line had diminished to only a few industries that
were being served along the route, so the line was cut in the middle and
roughly a 6 to 8 mile section was made into Grant's Trail. (Grant's Farm,
a
tourist attraction after General Grant who lived there for a time, is along
a 1 mile section of the line/trail, hence the connection) About 2.5 miles
was then left to the north and about 3.5 miles to the south. The north end
survived until about 1999, when the BNSF railroad cut the line in Kirkwood
where it crossed the BNSF's east-west double main by a double diamond about
half a mile after it leaves the UP main (the few industry sidings along this
2.5 mile section were no longer being served by that time). This two-mile
section, with no connection on either end, remarkably stayed intact for
almost another two years, until 2001 when the tracks were taken up and plans
to extend the trail were made. The trail extension, however, has hit a
snag
due to financial dealings, but will probably be completed soon.
What is left of the line is a empty half-mile section to the north, sometime
used to store MOW equipment, and the 3 mile section to the south, which is
still in use to serve a recycling plant at the end of the line, which
receives about 5 boxcars at a time.
Looking S towards the signal guarding the crossing with
BNSF (directly behind the photographer). Note the discarded diamond to the
left, and the bridge over I-44 in the distance.
Leffingwell Avenue crossing in Kirkwood, signal guarding
the main in background.
Leffingwell Avenue signal box, with crossing signal in the
background.