T.G.'s Photography Blog

In the spring of 2004, I came across Railroad Switching Service of Missouri's (RSM) newsprint train, which delivered boxcars of newsprint to the St. Louis Post Dispatch in downtown St. Louis. This switching operation utilized the Illinois Terminal's (ITS) former Highline Bridge in North St. Louis, as well as the former ITS subway tunnel under the northern edge of downtown. I was lucky to come across this operation and capture the few images that I did because a few months after I took these images, the delivery of newsprint to the St. Louis Post Dispatch ended in June 2004. I was able to photograph the newsprint delivery operation on a couple of different days, but the following photographs are from only one of those days. RSM 2020 South of Branch Street In the first image, above, RSM 2020 (sometimes referred to as RSSM 2020) shoves a pair of empty boxcars south from Branch Street. The crew would set out the empty boxcars at the southern end of this small rail yard, a...

ITS McKinley Bridge Approach - St. Louis, MO This view is looking north up the old Illinois Terminal (IT/ITS) approach to the McKinley Bridge from Branch Street, in North St. Louis, MO. The former railway bridge approach is now a hiking and biking trail. The Illinois Terminal was originally an electrified railway, and the old catenary wire supports are still standing above the pathway. Up until June 2004, this approach was still used for railroad operations , though the trains that used it only went up the approach a little ways. Railroad Switching Services of Missouri (RSM/RSSM) operated a train on the old Illinois Terminal Highline Bridge over North St. Louis that delivered newsprint to the St. Louis Post Dispatch. RSM trains would back out of a small rail yard to the south of Branch Street (behind where this photograph was taken from) and move up the approach a short distance, then switch to the track that accessed the Highline Bridge. The McKinley Bridge crosses the ...

Illinois Terminal Highline Bridge - St. Louis, MO An old railroad signal still stands on the former Illinois Traction System (ITS)/Illinois Terminal System (ITC) bridge in North St. Louis, at Chambers Street and North 10th Street. The railroad bridge originally carried electric interurban passenger trains from the McKinley Bridge's railroad approach at Branch Street to the Illinois Terminal train station (the former Globe Democrat newspaper building) in downtown St. Louis. At the time this photograph was taken, the bridge had been unused for many years. However, up until the June of 2004, the bridge was used to bring in newsprint by boxcars for delivery to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, St. Louis' biggest daily newspaper. I was able to capture some photographs of the newsprint delivery in the spring of 2004 , just a few months before the operation ended. The final railroad move over the bridge occurred a few years later in the winter of 2006 when the switching locomotiv...