Home of the St. Louis, Leadville, & Rosetta Railroad, my model railroad layout project.
The Rosetta Railroad rostered a variety of equipment. The railroad focused on a mix of express traffic, less-than-carload freight, and unit freight during the early years. It had early interchange contracts with the surrounding routes; foreign equipment was often seen on the railroad from the early days onward, becoming more common as the Rosetta Railroad's own fleet aged and was not replaced.
The locomotives were seen as a special part of the railroad, well-loved and well-maintained even through hard times. The early days saw frequent service with short trains, while later advances allowed freight to carry longer trains. With the popularity boom of automobiles and decline of rail traffic, passenger trains were consolidated, replaced by railbuses, or removed entirely when the ICC allowed.
When possible, the Rosetta Railroad preferred to order from its two favorite suppliers, Schnenectady Locomotive Works and St. Charles Car Company. As these were rolled up into American Locomotive Works and American Car & Foundry, the Rosetta Railroad also ordered from other shops within those companies, but preferred to maintain relationships with those builders until it ceased ordering new equipment. However, the railroad also purchased much of its equipment used, and built some of its own rolling stock at the small erecting shops in Rosetta when needed.
As the railroad slowly declined in traffic from the 1920s onward, it converted its erecting shops into contract maintenance shops. They would perform everything from emergency repairs to full overhauls for the local railroads, which brought in some much-needed cash. A reputation for quality work sustained the Rosetta Railroad through the Great Depression and up to WWII, when a demand for lead and food goods created a small boom for the railroad and surrounding communities. The postwar years saw the Rosetta Railroad purchase its last orders of new rolling stock in 1949: a pair of Alco RS-1 diesels, two Budd RDCs (an RDC-2 and an RDC-3), and some new steel box cars.
The Missouri Pacific bought the Rosetta Railroad in 1962. They allowed the tiny shortline to retain its corporate identity as a subsidiary while it worked on incorporating much larger railroads into its system. The Alcos held their own as locals, though the occasional Missouri Pacific or Missouri-Illinois locomotive could be found running.
The lead bust hit the region hard. The brunt of it occurred in the 1960s and culminated in 1972; global demand for lead shrank while the Old Lead Belt depleted its orebodies. Many of the major mines shuttered, including the Chalmers mines at Leadville (long owned by St. Joe Lead Company). Business shrank in the region, too, as workers migrated away or found lower-paying jobs and no longer had the money they did.
The Missouri Pacific filed to abandon the northern part of the Belmont Branch in 1972, and the Rosetta Railroad quickly followed suit later that year. The county courts attempted to block the abandonment, but the 1973 oil crisis came like a reaper to the short line. It shuttered by spring of 1974.
Upset and dismayed by the turn of events, a group of local businesses who had relied on the railroad for profitability worked with local railfans and previous employees to form the Friends of the Rosetta Railroad. They formed the Rosetta Scenic Railroad and purchased the rails from Rosetta to Fredericktown for a low scrap price and went to work restoring L&RR #29, a former Atlantic Coast Line light mikado. They completed the work in 1975, and ran #29 up to St. Louis for the Bicentennial to promote the Rosetta Scenic Railroad and the businesses in Southeast Missouri.
The plan worked. By 1977, a growing interest in the region had drummed up just enough businesses, investments, subsidies, and tourism tickets to bring the Rosetta Railroad back to life.
A surprising number of Rosetta Railroad locomotives survive into preservation, mostly in static display but some operational. The Alco diesels served unflinchingly through into preservation. The pair were supposed to go to a quarry in 1972 and were paid for, but the quarry backed out due to the oil crisis and never picked up the locomotives. They were both overhauled by the Friends of the Rosetta Railroad for the newly-revived Rosetta Scenic Railroad and run today, pulling tourist trains and serving the handful of freight customers on the line.
As of the present day, the Rosetta Railroad operates a scenic passenger route along the original mainline from Fredericktown to Rosetta. The passeger trains typically operate with the heritage diesels, but frequently operate steam locomotives, sometimes up to three a day during the busy season. The newer diesels move manifest freight to and from the interchanges with BNSF in Rosetta and Cape Girardeau and Union Pacific in Bismarck.
