Central Midland

Company History: CMR runs the 60 mile former Rock Island line from Overland, Missouri (a suburb of St. Louis) west to Union, Missouri. This line had been part of Rock Island’s St. Louis – Kansas City – Tucumcari mainline that had been purchased by Cotton Belt following Rock’s collapse. Cotton Belt found the Kansas City to St. Louis segment to be in no condition for through service and opted for trackage rights on the generally parallel ex-MoPac line. The former RI line was demoted to local service worked from both ends. In 1996, the middle segment was sold to Ameren (an electric utility company) who established the Missouri Central to operate it. After that, Union Pacific (Cotton Belt’s successor) invited Central Midland Railway to takeover operation from Overland to the Missouri Central connection in Vigus. Ameren then turned over operation of the Missouri Central from Vigus to Union to the CMR.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.