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The Trip to St Louis for the Transportation Museum and Metrolink Light Rail 4/8/2008



by Chris Guenzler



As part of the Amtrak Million Mile Trip we put together a trip to St Louis to visit the Museum of Transportation and ride the entire St Louis Metrolink Light Rail. Joining me on this trip would be Ray Ivy driving the van, Chris Parker, Jeff Hartmann, Larry Boerio, Winston and Christy Walker, Larry of La Plata, Mr. and Mrs. Starkey along with Bob McMillan. We all woke up to the sound of thunder and flashes of lightning. At 6:45 AM we all headed down US Highway 63 through the pouring rain in a Chevy Van.





It rained all the way down to Interstate 70 which we took east. It stopped raining just before we stopped at a rest area. We took I 70 into the St Louis Metro area where we turned south onto I 170 to Exit 8 which took us to our first destination of the day.

Museum of Transportation>



Since we had eleven people in our group we got the group rate and I told everyone we would leave at Noon and be back before that. Everyone went off on their own. I headed out to this unique museum on my second visit.





Milwaukee Road American Refrigerator Transit 52461 and BN Wide Vision Caboose.





Georgia Railroad 0-6-0 724.





Missouri Pacific Caboose 13889





United States Army Davenport/1954 Gas turbine-mechanical Experimental unit 1149





Milwaukee Road bi-polar E2





Illinois Terminal B-B-B-B Freight Box Motor 1575





New York Central 2-D-2 113





Joplin-Pittsburg 70 Toner 1





Baltimore & Ohio 50.





Sabine River and Northern NC 408 built 1937.





St Louis-San Francisco Eagle Picher 2-10-0 1621.





Chicago and Illinois Midlands 2-8-2 551





Chicago Burlington And Quincy Silver Charger 9988





Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range 2-10-2 502





Erie Lackawanna SD-45 3607





Norfolk and Western YA 4-8-8-4 2156





Santa Fe 2-10-4 5011





Chesapeake & Ohio K4 {Kanawha} 2-8-4 2727





New York, Chicago and St Louis {Nickel Plate} 4-6-4 176





Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 4006





Union Pacific Rotary Snowplow 90081





Missouri Pacific R-3 4502





Missouri Pacific 4-6-0 635





GM Ex Southern Railway 6100 and C&O 2727





Lake Street {Chicago} Elevated 0-4-4T 9, Delaware and Lackawanna 4-4-0 952 and Boston & Providence 4-4-0 "Daniel Nason" built 1858.





Boston & Providence 4-4-0 "Daniel Nason" built 1858.





St Louis-San Francisco 4-8-2 1522, one museum piece that I rode two trips behind at the NRHS 2001 Convention in St Louis.





Chicago, Burlington and Quincy E9A 9939A





Southern Pacific GS6 4-8-4 4460.





New York Central 4-8-2 2933.





Arkansas & Missouri RS-1 27





Terminal Railroad Association of St Louis 0-6-0 146





Illinois Central 2-8-0 764





Minneapolis & St Louis RS-1 546





Illinois Terminal 410 and Chicago CTA





Manufacturers Railway S-2 211





Union Pacific DD40AX 6944





United States Army SW-8 2002





American Steel Foundries Whitcomb 65 Toner 8





Alton and Southern 0-8-0 12





USA Army MRS1 2069





The Union Pacific Mainline behind the museum.





An overview of the engines you see when you pull into the parking lot.





Illinois Terminal B-B-B-B 1595.





Canadian National 4-6-2 5529





Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Aerotrain 5





Wabash 2-6-0 573.





Canadian Pacific {Boston T} RDC 1 54





Scullin Steel 0-6-0 3659





Missouri-Kansas-Texas {Katy} 4-4-0 311.





A look at the engines under cover at the west end of the open air building.





Pennsylvania Railroad 4700





West Barretts Tunnel





Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 4918





Reading "Black Diamond" 2-2-2 Inspection Locomotive





Baltimore & Ohio 4-6-0 Camelback 173.





Baltimore & Ohio BB 1





Conrail ex Central Railway of New Jersey GP-7 5677.

Earl C. Lindburg Automobile Center



I will take you on a tour through this auto museum of the Museum of Transportation.















Now we will go see what is upstairs in this unique auto museum.







With all these auto displays in this building, guess what else I found?





In two cases were a locomotive and passenger car model. I went out to the parking lot to see what else I had not seen on this visit.





Two views of the locomotive line up.





Tug Boat and a C47 airplane.





Laclede & Christy 0-4-0T 30'' gauge 2





Panama Canal Lock Towing Locomotive US 642. I returned to the gift shop and passed out my business cards to the two workers inside. I went back out to the van where Ray and I went over our plan for the next event of this trip. The group started to filter back and then a downpour of rain took place. After everyone was back onboard we left the Museum of Transportation for our next event, a ride over the entire St Louis Metrolink Light Rail System.

Metrolink Light Rail



Ray drove us to the Shrewsbury Landsdown I-44 Station where we all got our day passes for the ride. We all then got up to trackside to a waiting Metrolink Train.




Our first train at the Landsdown I-44 Station.





Our group aboard the train. We left the Landsdown I-44 Station and headed down this new part of Metrolink for me. I rode the original Metrolink Line back at the St Louis NRHS Convention in 2001. Our first stop was at Sunnen followed by Maplewood - Manchester, Brentwood I-64, Richmond Heights, Clayton, Forsyth, University City - Big Bend and then Skinker before we joined the original route just before the Forest Park - DeBaliviere Station. With everyone else taking pictures over this new route for me I just sat back and enjoyed the views from my new mileage. I suggested we all get off to change trains at East Riverfront. As we traveled through downtown St Louis I noticed all of the changes over the last seven years. New Amtrak Station and a new Bush Staduim for the St Louis Cardinals. We then entered the tunnel under downtown St Louis that would take us to the Eads Bridge.




The view if the Gateway Arch from the Arch - Laclede's Landing Station before we crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois. We all detrained at the East Riverfront Station.




The Gateway Arch from the East Riverfront Station.




Our train for Emerson Park leaving the East Riverfront Station.




Our next train for the Shiloh - Scott Station at the east end of the line arrived into the East Riverfront Station. We all boarded this train and took it to the east end of the Metrolink Light Rail at the Shiloh - Scott Station as it lightly rained on the way there.




At the Shiloh - Scott we switched to the forward car and soon we were off to the Lambert Airport. I had Ray meet us at the North Hanley Station so that Chris, Larry and Bob could get their luggage. Bob and Chris would be flying out tonight while Larry would fly home tomorrow. The rest of us would ride out to the west end at the Lambert Airport then doubleback to North Hanley. We said our goodbyes to Bob and Chris before they left us at North Hanley where Larry also got off. The rest of us finished up riding the entire St Louis Metrolink System when we arrived at Lambert Airport.




Our train at Lambert Airport. We had to wait for another arriving train since this last section between the two airport stations is single track. We returned east to North Hanley and got off of Metrolink.




Our train at North Hanley.




We said our goodbye first to Metrolink then to Larry as we loaded up the van for our return to La Plata.

The Drive Back to La Plata.

The van had more room on the trip back to La Plata with three less people. We made a needed bathroom, food and gas stop before we left St Louis. We headed west out on Interstate 70 before we turned off onto US Highway 61 which we took north to Hannibal in order to see more of the Show Me State of Missouri. We hit a few rain showers on the road but when we neared Hannibal they stopped. We turned west on US Highway 36 along the old CB&Q Line. We saw one train with a CN unit leading a BNSF GP60B. At Macon we turned north onto Highway 63 that returned us to La Plata and the Depot Inn. A special thank you to Ray Ivy for the great job of driving us to and from St Louis in not the most perfect weather conditions. We ate dinner with the Winstons at the Red Rooster. We returned to the Depot Inn & Suites for another relaxing night followed by a free day of just hanging out at this excellent hotel. We would be leaving Thursday morning on our return trip but that is another story.



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