This weekend “Rails Around Missouri” will be in LaPlata, MO for the Silver Rails train show at the Depot Inn. To commemorate that, here is a series of shots that are in and not in the book.

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway built through Missouri in 1887 on its way from Kansas City to Chicago. In the diesel era, the Santa Fe operated a fleet of premier, stainless steel, streamlined passenger trains from Chicago to Los Angeles. One such train, the El Capitan, was a bi-level coach class train, offered in counterpart to the all-Pullman Super Chief. The “El Cap” is seen stopped in LaPlata in this undated shot above.

Like almost every US railroad, the Santa Fe in 1971 handed over all passenger operations to the new federal carrier known as Amtrak. Originally working with ATSF-heritage “El Cap” bi-levels on ATSF lines, Amtrak supplemented and eventually replaced all of these cars with Superliner cars built by Pullman Standard. Seen from the N&W overpass, eastbound train #4, the Southwest Chief, departs LaPlata for Chicago on November 27, 1981. (Dale Hearn)

LaPlata is on the northern border of Macon County, and was host to the Santa Fe and the N&W. The Santa Fe was by far the busier of the two, seeing as many as 60 trains per day. On the same day as the previous shot, ATSF SD45 #5674 speeds an eastbound trailer train through town, assisted by three other EMDs and a GE. (Dale Hearn)

Dropping down the N&W line to Macon, we find high-hood GP38 #4131 leading train DM08 south on April 26, 1978. The train originated in Des Moines, Iowa, and was heading for Moberly. The line itself was built by Wabash predecessors in the 1870s and at one time hosted daily St Louis-Des Moines passenger trains. (Gary Roe)

Moving back to LaPlata, in a scene that is not in Rails Around Missouri, a set of Sante Fe passenger F-units lead a westbound freight under the Wabash line and through town on New Years Eve, 1962. (Photographer unknown) Finally below, present-day operator BNSF runs an Office Car Special eastbound through town on October 2, 2008. The Wabash/N&W/Norfolk Southern line is now gone, and the bridge removed. The railfan shed on the right sits on the former N&W right-of-way. (Mike Kelly)

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