1966: A Railroad Milestone in the Show-Me State

February 19, 1966

It was the end of an era in train history when the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad’s steam locomotive No. 4960 departed from Union Station in St. Louis, Missouri, for a trip to the city of Hannibal in the Show-Me State. This steam locomotive was a coal burner dating back to 1923. (The accompanying photo of No. 4960 was taken in 2023 during a celebration of its centennial in the community of Grand Canyon Village, Arizona.)

The Saturday excursion from St. Louis to Hannibal in 1966 marked the final time that any steam-engine train would depart from the renowned Union Station, which opened in 1894 and had once been the world’s largest train station. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on the last historic run of No. 4960 in Missouri. “For railroad buffs it was a major event,” according to this newspaper. “About 1300 persons rode in modern double-decker passenger cars behind the old freight engine to Hannibal, Mo., and back.”  

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch also noted, “The train made several stops in the 12-hour trip to permit passengers to photograph and record the image and sounds of the steaming engine with cameras and tape recorders . . . Several hundred persons, including many children, had formed a line inside Union Station an hour before the train was to depart. Most had cameras. Some wore decorated engineer’s caps.”

These passengers, whom the St. Louis-Dispatch confirmed were from at least 20 states, included an accountant and huge railfan named John Vickers from Beaumont, Texas. “Probably one out of five are real hard core railroad enthusiasts,” Vickers said about his fellow passengers. “The rest are sort of along for the ride. We call them daisy pickers. They’re interested from the sentimental aspect.” Vickers brought two cameras and a tape recorder for the round trip between St. Louis and Hannibal. “I just love steam engines,” he asserted. “You sort of hate to see something go, without saying goodbye.”

Photo Credit: “Someone who likes train writing” (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)

For more information on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad’s steam locomotive No. 4960, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon_Railway_4960