{"id":439,"date":"2021-04-30T11:19:03","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T16:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/laiben.com\/wordpress1\/?page_id=439"},"modified":"2025-11-30T19:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T01:27:07","slug":"weingarten","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/laiben.com\/wordpress1\/weingarten\/","title":{"rendered":"Weingarten"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Prototype…<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During the early and mid-20th century, Weingarten was a small rural community of 99 residents, supported by two stores, a bank, and a hotel. Surrounding the town were family farms, orchards, and extensive timberlands. For the railroad, Weingarten offered a modest but useful set of facilities: a depot, a passing siding, a team track, and a water tank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steam crews departing Ste. Genevieve were especially fond of the Weingarten tank. Its supply came from a clear, spring-fed creek about a mile downhill, producing some of the purest water on the line. One employee was tasked solely with tending the pump, ensuring the tank was always full and ready for the next locomotive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anna Hogenmiller served as station agent during the 1950s. In an unusual move for the era, the M-I installed a railroad telephone line directly to her home, allowing her to tend to household work while remaining on duty\u2014an early form of working remotely.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Weingarten was originally served by the Illinois Southern, hence its first depot was built in the I-S style. Lindell Marler Collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The I-S depot was eventually razed and replaced by a smaller, rather plain structure built in the standard MoPac style. This depot met its fate in 1963, when it was also razed. William Bunch Collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Few Missourians realize that Weingarten was also the site of a major World War II prisoner-of-war camp. Through eminent domain, the federal government acquired several large farms and constructed hundreds of buildings to house nearly 5,000 Italian POWs. They arrived by passenger coach via the MoPac interchange at Bismarck. Liberty ships carrying supplies to Europe returned empty, making them ideal for transporting POWs to the United States. Of the roughly 500 camps established nationwide, most were placed in the rural South to minimize heating demands. At Weingarten, many Italian prisoners earned wages and assisted local farmers, filling the void left by young men serving overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Italian soldiers returning home between August and October 1945 after the end of WW II. Photo by Thomas M. Todaro; sourced online at GenTracer<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Note the Milwaukee Road heavyweights and reefers at the head end. Photo by Thomas M. Todaro; sourced online at GenTracer<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Layout adaptation…<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The scratch-built depot reflects the mid-century MoPac style\u2014simple lines, practical proportions, and Colonial Yellow paint with brown trim. Because opposing trains are a rarity on the M-I, the passing siding has been omitted to save layout space. As a result, all switching at Weingarten is handled by southbound trains only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the surrounding timber country, Weingarten generates a steady flow of wood products: cross ties, cordwood, mine props, and even pine stumps bound for turpentine plants in Louisiana. Passenger service remains minimal but consistent, with the occasional traveler boarding or alighting at this rural stop.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Anna’s farm just up the hill and across the tracks from the depot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Here we see Extra #7002 southbound waiting at Weingarten on its return trip to St. Louis. MoPac ran this special train to Ste. Genevieve during the summer 1961 in an effort to generate interest in passenger travel. Despite their effort, passenger revenues continued to decline. Also note the telephone lineman above & behind the observation car – he must be checking the line from the depot to Anna’s house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Track schematic for Weingarten<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

—–NEXT (Millers)—–<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prototype… During the early and mid-20th century, Weingarten was a small rural community of 99 residents, supported by two stores, a bank, and a hotel. Surrounding the town were family farms, orchards, and extensive timberlands. For the railroad, Weingarten offered … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-439","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/laiben.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/laiben.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/laiben.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/laiben.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/laiben.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"http:\/\/laiben.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2152,"href":"http:\/\/laiben.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/439\/revisions\/2152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/laiben.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}