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Route of the Eagles
by Greg Stout

Now you can order this book for either your own library or as a gift at the MPHS Store.

Route of the Eagles - Missouri Pacific in the streamlined era covers the Streamliners of the MoPac in detail. This is a chronicle of the streamlined era on the Missouri Pacific, its predecessors and subsidiaries. The Missouri Pacific hosted an array of spectacular blue and mist gray streamliners that began with the delivery of the original Eagle designed by Raymond Loewy. Delivered by American Car & Foundry, the two lightweight six-car trainsets with the beautiful E3s up front left an unforgettable impression on those who watched them glide by. The new streamlined equipment began the streamlined era for the MoPac, and soon the heavyweights were falling to newer lightweight equipment. New Eagles were birthed including the famed Colorado Eagle, the Texas Eagle, the Missouri River Eagle, the Aztec Eagle, the Valley Eagle, the Delta Eagle, the Louisiana Eagle, and even the "Pacific Eagle." Economics eventually forced the passengers off the rails in America, and the MoPac was not a lot different than other roads who chose to slowly rid themselves of the passenger business, long in the red on the ledger books. The usual methods were employed, first making the service inconvenient, then reducing the schedules, missing important connections, and finally demonstrating the burden of carrying the trains. In the end the decay was inevitable, as America took to the air and the family car rather than a ride on the rails. By the late 1960s the end had only to be physically played out, as it was obvious that the passenger business could not go on as it had before. The once-proud members of the MoPac's Eagle fleet eventually vanished into oblivion. Little was saved. Join us for a trip back to the glory years of passenger action on MoPac's high iron, indeed the Route of the Eagles.

This book belongs in the library of ever MoPac fan and follower.