Nostalgia & History > A Missouri Pacific scene from 33 years ago

Attached is a picture of an eastbound Missouri Pacific Railroad mixed manifest freight at Herington, KS, during the first week of February, 1976. The train was making a trip across the entire width of Kansas on a run from Pueblo, Colo., to Kansas City, Mo. The track on the right side of the train was a short siding track, which brings up the question: Did the Missouri Pacific have any lengthy stretches of double main track anywhere in its widespread operating system?

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Looking at the 1976 system timetable, there appear to be several stretches of double mains:

Yard Center to Woodland Jct, about 42 miles
Valley Jct (East St Louis) to Reily Jct (towards Poplar Bluff), about 56 miles
Russell Jct (east of NLR) to Saline Jct (west of NLR), about 84 miles
St. Louis to Gasconade Jct (on the KC line), about 86 miles
and a few other, shorter stretches.

The attached system map isn't a lot of help, as they use the same designation for 2 main tracks and CTC.

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The MoPac had quite a bit of doubletrack, but not as much as say the original UP or Santa Fe. Quite a bit of their St. Louis-Texarkana and most of their St. Louis-Jefferson City lines were doubletrack.