When smoke spewing Big Boy #4014 blasted through Maplewood on August 30 thrilling hundreds of steam engine buffs, railroad fans and curious onlookers; it was a reenactment of an evolution of an event that probably first occurred 167 years ago. I don’t know yet exactly when the first steam engine passed through James Sutton’s farm as the Pacific Railroad pushed west. It may have been 1854.
According to the Summer 1994 issue of the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis, Historical and Technical Society, Inc., “the Pacific Railroad built through the area” (meaning the Sutton farm) in 1853. According to information from Joe Sonderman’s Facebook page, Vintage St. Louis & Route 66, this first engine reached “Sulphur Springs, (Cheltenham) … present day Hampton and Manchester” on December 9, 1853. It was the first train west of the Mississippi. It had gone 5 miles, ending at what today we call Dogtown.
I was in that crowd last Monday. It turned out to be much more exciting than I expected. And loud!
Summer has passed way too fast to my way of thinking. 78 degrees sends me after a long sleeve shirt. There will be more hot days. There always is. Then I’ll gradually acclimate to the decreasing temperatures. I always do. I have no choice. Or do I? Australia?
Thanks to everyone for your interest and support.
Doug Houser September 4, 2021
September 6, 2021
After I had posted the above, I discovered the following ad in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat published on April 7, 1853. This is at odds with the December 9 date mentioned on Mr. Sonderman’s Facebook page above. If the route to Cheltenham (only a mile or a little over east of Maplewood) was complete in April, then I would speculate that the first train may have made it to Sunnen’s farm sometime in 1853. It is hard to imagine what sort of folks were in the crowd that gathered to watch that. Sunnen and Rannells both were slave holders.
Greetings Doug, Gary here, I grew up in Dogtown. It was also known as Cheltenham and not too many years ago there was still a small depot along the tracks on the south side of Manchester with a large sign with “Cheltenham” on it. That building had been there for many years. Scullin Steel and the brick kilns along Manchester still were there, as was the Winkler Terra Cotta works until the 1950’s. Winkler made most of the terra cotta seen on buildings all around the St. Louis area. Enclosed in a separate email is a photo from their early days of operation. My old neighbor, Maxine Fellhauer, took the train, pulled by steam engines, every week day to travel to work in downtown St. Louis. She boarded at the Maplewood station one block west of our homes.
Hey Gary, I’d love to see a photograph of the Cheltenham depot and sign should you ever come across one. I have a copy of the image of the workers, staff and products of the Winkler company that you mention. I believe the original is in the collection of the National building Arts Center in Sauget. As you are aware, Ms. Fellhauer let us copy some very interesting photographs of her very early school days that we reproduced in my first book of Maplewood History. As always, I enjoy your comments.
From 1988-2002 we ran Frisco steam locomotive 1522 from the Museum of Transportation to downtown to couple up with cars for excursions we pulled. We went to Galesburg, IL, Centralia over the former Burlington Route and several times on excursion trains to Newburg and back on the old Frisco.
In 1994 we ran over various lines to Atlanta, GA for Historical Society excursions and in 2001 ran down through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.
Our Federal boiler time ran out and we made our final trips in September to Newburg and back.
For various reasons (cost of insurance, passenger car lease cost, less ridership and a huge cost to meet new Federal regs)
I was usually the engineer when we backed the train out to the Museum. So if you were awakened late at night by the deep whistle, blame me.
1522 is under cover on display at the Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood. We put in the neighborhood of 15,000 miles on her. Engineer time was split by 3 of us who were Federally licensed I miss that.
Don, Wow! I had no idea that you had been an engineer. Even though you have shared some with us, surely you have a lot more stories and photographs from the years you spent on the railroad. I welcome you to share as many as you like anytime you care to. I know the readers will enjoy them.
In your current photo of the group of spectators, it looks like they’re holding flattened pennies. A little bit of fun, maybe?
Well, maybe? Who can say? Thanks for your comment, Patty.
Could there have been a big boy train that came through around 1970-1972? My aunt seems to remember one ?
I don’t remember the exact year, but it was about that time I saw it on display in the 39th Street yard (Chouteau and 39th Street). It had steam up and rumbled and hissed. Probably would have gone through Maplewood as it would likely want to stay on UP tracks when it moved.
Todd, I can’t help you on this. I have no knowledge of a previous visit. Maybe one of my readers will.
Doug, you came to mind yesterday. My husband removed the plaster wall from our family room. We found that a window used to be a door. And we found a tiny newspaper clipping from 1923. Old homes like ours yield so many surprises.
I stood where the old Maplewood Station was to get my photos. They are not as great as yours were. It was a delightful day. I met a gentleman who’s father had worked for the Union Pacific as a cook. We had a great conversation about cooking on a train. My older brother had been a cook on the Ringling Brother’s Red Unit train.
Hey Margaret, I remember once, many years ago, seeing the circus train sitting idle on the tracks. I had no camera with me at the time. Too bad. Could have made some good photographs. Thanks for your report.
Hi Doug, Big Boy made it through Kansas as well and we enjoyed seeing it again. Thanks for the post with pictures of Big Boy going through Maplewood. I can’t remember Railroad Tracks in Maplewood.
You’re welcome, Nancy. I’m glad you got to see Big Boy as well. The tracks were here when you were. You’ve just been gone a long time. It’s always good to hear from you.