Information
Sheet
R South-West Railroad.
516 Papers, ca. 1914-1916.
One folder.
These are notes, maps, and draft of a
pamphlet concerning construction of a railroad from St.
Louis, Missouri, to Lewisville in Lafayette
County, Arkansas. Included are notes on grades, mileage, prominent individuals, and
Congressional lands available along the proposed line. There are also notes on the Ozark Railroad,
proposed from Liberty, Arkansas,
on the White River, to St. Louis.
The South-West Railroad was projected to
run from St. Louis mid-way between the Frisco
and Iron Mountain
lines to the headwaters of the Current
River, thence to crossings of the
White River near Batesville and the Arkansas River near Dardanelle,
Arkansas, and concluding at Lewisville
in Lafayette County.
From Lewisville the line was to connect
with the railroad network linking Shreveport, Louisiana, and Houston and
Galveston, Texas.
The ultimate destination may have been Acapulco, Mexico,
as indicated by a sketch map in the collection.
Robert J. Rombauer of St. Louis drafted the text of the pamphlet
describing the South-West Railroad in 1916.
The handwriting on all but one of the other documents indicates he
authored those as well. The line was
planned just after railroad construction had peaked in the United States,
and there is no indication that the South-West Railroad ever reached more than
the initial planning stage. Other
proposed lines for the same region included the Ozark Short Line, projected
from Rolla to Willow Springs in Howell
County, Missouri. This line, construction of which was begun
but never finished, is noted in a memoranda as a possible competitor with the
South-West Railroad.
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