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FAMOUS HOT SPOT ON THE UNION PACIFIC



Jim Tiroch (with help from Scott Nauert)

KIRKWOOD RAILROADS

Two railroads pass through the heart of Kirkwood, the Union Pacific Jefferson City Sub and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe's Cuba sub. On the UP's Jefferson City Sub at milepost 13.46 lies the famous Kirkwood Station. This beautiful station sees 4 passenger trains a day that operate between St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri. The Union Pacific Jeff City Sub sees approximately 30 trains a day while the BNSF Cuba Sub, located about a mile to the south of the station on Kirkwood Road (see getting to Kirkwood below), sees around 10 trains a day.
GETTING TO KIRKWOOD

Finding Kirkwood Station is easy. You can reach Kirkwood from highway 40 by taking the Lindbergh exit and heading south approximately 5 miles, or from highway 44 taking the Lindbergh exit and heading north approximately 3 miles (the BNSF line will be crossed FIRST in a little over a mile if you are travelling from highway 44). Note that Lindbergh becomes Kirkwood road in the Kirkwood city limits.
JEFF CITY SUB ACTION

With approximately 30 trains a day, this is the hottest spot west of St. Louis city. The station is just west of the crest of the hill, which has over a 1.0 percent ruling grade which is quite a chore for loaded eastbound coal trains.
PHOTOGRAPHY

For the photographer, the Kirkwood Area is packed with areas to shoot trains. The Clay Avenue bridge, Station Platform, the small park across from the station, Taylor Avenue, Leffingwell Avenue, the Harrison St. overpass, and the station parking lot.
TRAINS

Kirkwood sees a variety of train traffic, including radioactive trains, the 4 car Amtrak trains, general merchandisers, numerous coal drags, intermodals, autoracks, and (occasionally) military movements pass through. On rare occasions, unit locomotive trains, sometimes with 15 or more locomotives pass by. Spending a full day at Kirkwood is a unforgetable experience, and there you will meet many friendly railfans, locals, and railroad employees. Traffic in the daytime varies. One day you may see several moves while the next maybe only a few. Two trains that are guaranteed to pass through during daylight are the Amtrak trains, one from Kansas City and the other from Chicago. These trains typically have a Genesis unit and four coaches. For freight trains, because of the heavy tonnage on this transcontinental main line, freight motive power must accomodate this traffic. SD9043MACs, SD70Ms, SD60Ms, C40-8s, AC6000s, AC4400CWs, C44-9Ws and SD40-2s are quite common. Sometimes, you will see foriegn power pass by. The occasional locomotives owned by BNSF, CSX, and NS make appearances (FERROMEX units have even been spotted). If you spend an entire day in Kirkwood chances are you will see at least one unit not painted in Union Pacific colors (CNW, SP, CSX, NS, etc.). Kirkwood originally had a small frieght yard that served as storage for cars bound for local industries. Over the years the yard was gradually downsize before being downgraded to just a storage siding into the 1970s and by 1989 it too was ripped out. Interesting fact: the road bed for those two tracks is now a city owned parking lot while the small park across from the station was also a part of this yard trackage many years ago; on the station side of the tracks, there was also a freight depot with spur track and was demolished/torn up in the early 1960s. About a half mile east of the station is the former Carondelet Branch which diverges from the main line. Until the late 1980s, this route was used by westbound trains out of MP/UP's Lesperance and Ivory yards located in south St. Louis, as well as Gads Hill granite rock ballast trains coming from the Gads Hill quarry located in southern Missouri. Due to a change in traffic patterns, this line was severed in the early 1990s and today only a few thousand feet exist on the north end in Kirkwood for equipment storage while the southern two miles are used to serve a chemical plant and recycling center in South St. Louis. More recently Union Pacific has expressed interest in possibly reopening the Carondelet branch as a through route if certain conditions come about, such as the proposed Chouteau Pond in St. Louis and additional traffic bound for the DeSoto Sub, particularly coal trains that go to the AmerenUE Meramec Powerplant.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

As usual, obey the rules of safety around the railroad. Railroad police, in addition to Kirkwood's police station situated just south of the train station, keep the tracks clear of trespassers so mind what you are doing. For the modeler, there is a hobby shop a block to the south of the station. The "Hobby Station" has a good selection of model trains, airplanes, cars and magazines. The video selection is a bit slim, but their book selection is among the best in the area. FOOD: For those staying all day, there's plenty of fast food and chain establishments in the area including an IMO'S Pizza just south of the station on Kirkwood Road. Their pizza is St. Louis Original Style Pizza. Just a few more blocks down the road is a McDonalds, Quiznos, Subway, Taco Bell, Einstein Brothers Bagels, Culpeppers, etc.

(C)2001-2003 Jim Tiroch-Scott Nauart