St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway

St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway

Locale	Missouri and Arkansas, United States
Dates of operation	1874–1917
Successor	Missouri Pacific Railroad
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

File:Pacific Coast Limited 1898.jpg

An 1898 ad for the Pacific Coast Limited, which the railway operated jointly with the Chicago and Alton Railroad, Texas and Pacific Railway, and Southern Pacific Railroad.

The St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway was a historic railroad that operated in Missouri, and Arkansas during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

It ran from St. Louis, Missouri, to Texarkana, Arkansas, as well as to southeast Missouri. The line was initially established to deliver iron ore from Iron Mountain, Missouri to St. Louis. The company was frequently referred to as the St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern (StLIM&S) or shortened to simply the Iron Mountain Railway.

The railroad was robbed twice, once by the James-Younger Gang on January 31, 1874, at Gad's Hill, Missouri, and once by the Dalton Gang on November 3, 1893, at Olyphant, Arkansas.

In 1883 the StLIM&S was acquired by Jay Gould, becoming part of a system. On May 12, 1917, it was formally merged into the Missouri Pacific Railroad, which in turn was merged into the Union Pacific Railroad in 1982.

Folklore

The railroad is famous for giving its name to the Iron Mountain Baby, and the railroad is reported to have paid for the child's education.

Heritage railroad

The name has been resurrected by a modern short line railroad based in Jackson, Missouri. The St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway operates a heritage railroad in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.

External links

• Historic map from the David Rumsey Collection

• History of the StLIM&S from mopac.org
• Official homepage of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, operating a heritage railroad in Jackson