The Missouri Southern Railroad (Updated by Brisan Comstock March 2025)

I have once again received more information on this line thanks to the generous help of Brisan Comstock! If anyone has more information on some of our other articles, we are always accepting help towards making each post as accurate as possible!

The Missouri Southern Railroad ran an approximately 53 mile line between Bunker, MO, and Leeper, MO, where it connected with the St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad. (Right of way)

Image: A Missouri Southern Railroad engine and cars are stopped at the Ellington Depot. The Masonic Hall (left), Bales Brothers Store (middle) and Dr. Chilton's home (right) are visible behind the train. A man walks on a wood plank footbridge in the foreground. Missouri State Archives, copied from original held by N.J. Shocklette, 1907

The Missouri Southern had its beginnings on January 18, 1884, when five businessmen, two from Oil City, Pennsylvania and three from Ironton, Missouri, met in the small Missouri community of Colemanville in Carter County - W. S. McMullan, D. Goetel, W. H. Mowris, C. McLae, A. Martindale - to discuss the feasibility of constructing a lumber road to develop the large stands of Virgin Pines and hardwoods in neighboring Reynolds County. At this meeting they drew up the original charter for the Mill Spring, Current River and Barnesville Railroad Company which went west into Carter County and then north towards Barnesville in Reynolds County, roughly 30 miles in length. 

Missouri Southern Railroad Company General Offices

This route would not be used however as the group decided Leeper, Missouri would be a better starting location.

Two aerial images from 1933 showing the right of way near Ellington, MO. (Brisan Comstock contribution)

The line was built in stages beginning in 1884 as the Mill Spring Current River and Barnesville Railroad Company, changing to the MS name the next year. It incorporated the right of way of an earlier narrow-gauge logging line into its route west of Leeper.

Image: Paul Wobus, via Missouri Southern: History of a short-line

The new company planned to acquire an existing narrow gauge line which served the Clarkson Sawmill near the Wayne County community of Leeper on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern in order to not build a fresh line from Mill Spring and to extend it in a northwesterly direction directly into the heart of Reynolds County. 

Brisan Comstock contribution

Construction began at once. Within a year the line was in operation to Keystone, about 9 miles from Leeper; six months later the MSCR&B was running to Penn, giving the road 12 miles of trackage ; and by 1887 the line had been extended an additional 2 miles to Carter. It took the road another nine years before it reached Barnesville, now named Ellington

When all of the work was finished and regular passenger service to Bunker began May 2nd, 1909 the railroad was in much better condition, unusually so for such a remote operation. The earnings from 1907 to 1926 provided the owners with a comfortable operating surplus. This allowed the railroad to properly maintain the right-of-way and the new trestles / bridges. 

 The only color “photo”, a postcard of a Missouri Southern locomotive, narrow gauge 2-6-0 #5 or #6 in Cuba in the 1920s. (Brisan Comstock contribution)

While most railroads were falling  apart during the beginning stages of the Great Depression, the Missouri Southern was leading the way in innovation. In 1935 the MS received a 44-ton Plymouth Hydro-Diesel locomotive and immediately put it to work on the lines between Leeper and Bunker and the Current River/Brushy Creek Spur. By early 1937 all steam power was abolished on the railroad, making the MS not only the first railroad in the country to use diesel power on the mainline, but also the first railroad in Missouri to completely dieselize.

All of its spur track was abandoned by 1914. The main-line would continue running until 1941, being abandoned in sections until May 20th of that year. (Thanks to Nick Walker for providing this information!)

Reynolds County, MO 1904 Map, showing the Missouri Southern Railroad running through the county. (My Genealogy Hound)

Through the 1930’s the railroad suffered but in 1937 the section of tracks between Leeper and Ellington were completely refurbished in a desperate attempt to stay in business. The line between Ellington and Bunker was torn up in 1938, limiting income even more with the fall of the Bunker Culler Lumber Company. 

Missouri Southern Railroad 1 (Brian Comstock contirbution)

Despite doing everything that they could to hang on, the I.C.C. authorized the Missouri Southern to abandon its railroad on April 24th, 1941. Through desperate pleas from the Ellington School District, the MS stuck around until May 20th so that their Brill Motorcar, famously known as “The Bull Moose”, could take the students from Leeper to Ellington for the rest of the school year. 

Gasoline Motor Coach on the Missouri Southern during the later years of its operation. (Brisan Comstock contribution)

Missouri Southern: History of a short-line explores this road in depth. The first page of the book summarizes the early history of the line as follows, "One of the last frontiers in the United States to be settled and developed was the Ozark region of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. 

During the decades following the Civil War, Eastern capital moved into the region to exploit its vast wealth in minerals and timber. To develop the Ozarks good transportation was needed. Since the area had no navigable rivers, developers turned to railroads. While several trunk roads such as the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern, and the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis were either constructed or extended during the years of the Ozark boom, a plethora of short lines were also built. 

Bunker, MO depot (Brisan Comstock contribution)

Although a majority of these new roads were designed to serve a mine or sawmill, several became sizeable operations. The Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad, for example, by the first decade of the 20th century had nearly 400 miles of trackage. One road, built during the period of early Ozark growth and destined to become more than a sawmill industrial line, was the Missouri Southern Railroad, a road located in the timbered region of southeast Missouri.

The new road, whose name had been changed to the Missouri Southern Railroad Company in 1887, was poorly constructed." From H. Roger Grant The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin No. 123 (OCTOBER 1970), pp. 44-51 (11 pages in total)

Missouri Southern train near Ellington, Missouri in about 1903.  Paul Wobus photo

Unfortunately, despite the innovations that the company would implement, it nonetheless fell victim to similar fates which plagued many short-line railroads of its time, initially suffering from poor construction, something that would plague the route throughout its days as a narrow-gauge operation, although it would be re-gauged in 1907. 

UPDATE: I received the following information on the Missouri Southern from reader Nick Walker:

"When the line was standard gauged in 1907, a significant portion between the communities of Garwood and Ruble was rerouted and the old narrow gauge right-of-way was abandoned. Many other sections of the railroad were re-graded, stabilized, and older trestles replaced with new ones of better construction. There were even a handful of steel bridges constructed.

When all of the work was finished and regular passenger service to Bunker began May 2nd, 1909 the railroad was in much better condition, unusually so for such a remote operation. The earnings from 1907 to 1930 provided the owners with a comfortable operating surplus. This allowed the railroad to properly maintain the right-of-way and the new trestles / bridges. Through the depression the railroad suffered and by the late 1930's the condition of the tracks became dangerous in some areas. Despite doing everything the company could do to hang on, the I.C.C. authorized the Missouri Southern to abandon its railroad on April 24th, 1941. The last train was on May 20th, 1941. 

Missouri Southern Railroad Pass (Sample). Image provided by Nick Walker.

Steam locomotive roster:

       #1   4-4-0   Alco-Rogers, #42321, 1-1907, destroyed by fire.

       #2   2-6-0   Alco-Rogers, #42322, 2-1907.

       #3   2-6-0   Alco-Rogers, #42323, 2-1907. 

       #4   Shay   Lima, #2025, 12-1907, sold around 1917-1921.

2nd #4   2-6-0   Purchased from the Terminal Railroad, originally an 0-6-0.

Motorcars & Diesels : 

M-100    Brill 33-Passenger Gas Motor Car, purchased new 11-1924, sold to National Railways of Mexico 1941. 

2nd #1   Plymouth Oil-Electric Locomotive, purchased new 3-1935."

Thanks as always for reading!