Manufacturers Railway Company (MRS) - Anheuser-Busch Shuts Down Railroad Service - RIP - 4/4/2011

Anheuser-Busch announced they would seek to "shut down" the Manufacturers Railway (MRS).

Here is a link to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, April 4, 2011.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_6d9edf78-e39c-5676-99e4-b799a7518ccd.html

This has a minor relevance because MRS facilitated traffic contribution to many St. Louis area railroads including the Frisco. Inbound loads included grain and other materials, while beer was the obvious outbound load. As recently as five years ago visitors were told 35 carloads of beer left the plant each day. Much of it went west on the Cuba Subdivision.

The attachment photographs were taken a couple decades late, February 7, 2009, and show empty cars returning. Equally long outbound strings were common until a few months ago.

MRS kept their equipment in good shape in Frisco style. I recall daily fresh wax jobs on their switchers in the '70's when similar railroad equipment resembled rolling junk yards.

George Nelson

 

During my 1961 summer railfanning in Carrollton, Texas, MRS cars were regulars on Ft. Worth bound Frisco freights.

They were even on the Katy´s Denton Local that ran from Denton to Dallas behind rebuilt Baldwin #29 and Sloan Yellow wood caboose #823! In vintage photos one can see a special car assigned from A-B in St. Louis to the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas.

Anyone have a photo or know the routing?

Another fallen flag at any rate. Mismanagement? Are there no industrial sites for new rail customers? It wasn´t too cool when A-B tore down the Tampa Brewery either.

More 21st Century progress brought to you by a bunch of college trained idiots!

Joe Toth

 

The special car Joseph Toth mentions may have been Anheuser-Busch private railroad car "Adolphus."

It was last kept at the MRS car building near the foot of Arsenal Street in St. Louis. With A-B divestiture of rail assets, I do not know its current location.

Desperately trying to stay on topic, it certainly could have been part of one of the Frisco Texas-bound trains when in use.

George

 

Greeings from Germany, George,

The car I am referring to was a reefer or boxcar I believe.

It was probably painted white but did have fancy lettering with the message it was destined for the hotel in Dallas.

What happened to the private car?

It, plus the special freight car, most probably followed a Frisco/Katy routing from St. Louis to Dallas.

Perhaps Ken and the TRRA boys know more?

Also, the TRRA site only lists their magazines after issue #39.

Has the MRS or Anheuser-Busch been covered to date?

If yes perhaps an updated reprint would be in order.

Hope the MRS gets a good operator. This is one carrier I never thought would become a fallen flag.

You are already missed!

Joe Toth

 

The brewery, MRS yards and buildings were located about 2.5 to 3.0 miles south of the bridges in St. Louis on the Missouri Pacific (MP), former St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern.

The first post in this thread clearly shows a former Frisco routing for southwest-bound beer cars. However, the proximity of the MP line suggests it likely got a lot of the traffic as well, including possibly conveyance of the private car to Union Station.

By "vintage photos," I assume you possibly mean from the 1890-1920 era. Those routing records would be tough to find.

George

 

George,

I do mean the "Gay 1890s to the WWI" era regarding vintage photos.

It seems that there has been an HO model done of this special freight car, either craftsman or plastic, but memory starts to go when you get "Oldtimers". I´m also pretty sure there have even been decals done for this car.

I encourage all members to help me locate this car, please! It is not one of my many "dreams"!

It would be interesting to know if Anheuser-Busch owned any stock in the carriers they used. Indeed, the MoPac´s Iron Mountain competed with the Frisco and Cotton Belt for the St. Louis-Texas traffic.

I mentioned on another thread that Fred Frailey´s excellent book on the SSW/SP Blue Steaks (Kalmbach) is a good read even for non-Frisco fans who are interested in rail traffic between St. Louis and Texas. This was probably about the same time when the Frisco Fast Freight program was created but I need to refresh my memory that is full of cobwebs. Historians feel free to comment!

Consider that we are talking about the 1930s with steam power and brass journals and not diesels and roller bearings! Those men knew how to railroad. Hand signals and brake clubs. No belly belt locomotive controls and radios. Visit www.tslb.org and read about these remote control operations. They are NOT without accidents!

Joe Toth