My Missouri Pacific experience began about 10 months after the shutdown of the Rock Island and Milwaukee Road lines in early 1981. The MoPac came to the University of Wisconsin – Platteville looking for engineers for Jenk’s management training program and I managed a campus interview. They flew me down from Oshkosh, Wi to St. Louis for an interview and I came back with a Management Trainee job with the Maintenance of Way Department in June. 

After growing up around dying, cash starved railroads in Wisconsin, the MoPac was truly amazing. TCS had just been implemented and the Milw still used ticker tape. Jenks had us visit virtually every department and learn how they contributed. We rode trains, hi-railed hundreds of miles of rail and learned the people that we’d have to interact with down the road.  MoPac was trying to be innovative with piggyback, welded rail, high tech dispatching, new cars and locomotives. 

The MoPac was an extremely unappreciated and little known railroad among railfans.  Then came the UP and WP which added some excitement.  I worked from late ’81 to mid-86 in St. Louis and Dupo, thereafter I was transferred to Nevada, MO as Asst. Roadmaster and later Roadmaster. That territory had miles and miles of fence line to maintain, floods and train order territory.  When we absorbed the MKT, we had to teach them the “UP” and “MoPac” way, which meant fewer short cuts and lets do it right attitude.

After the road trains were moved from the Carthage sub to MKT and Coffeyville sub trackage, they moved me to Branson where I had the tunnels, bridges and curve upon curve to maintain. Early ’92 the hand writing was on the wall, the Carthage sub would not survive, how about a Trainmaster job in Texas? No, not interested and they gave me a year’s salary to leave.

Three years after leaving the UP/Mopac I joined the Wisconsin Central as a conductor. The WC treated their employees better than the MoPac ever had, until the CN arrived. We have Management Trainees that aren’t near as qualified as Jenks Training Program had been. They teach now to be a clerk with a little authority.  My class, produced Matt Rose who when on to the BNSF CEO and seeing UP Timetables you see other trainee successes. Jenks got it and was able to improve, innovate and had money to spend on his railroad, I had hell of a ride. 

Craig Shaw

Wisconsin Rapids, WI

Originally posted by Charlie Duckworth, 11 April, 2015