Pacific, MO

What’s happening at this stop

This is a brief whistle-stop, not a display: 4014 is scheduled to pause at the First St. crossing in Pacific for only about fifteen minutes in late morning, one of the shorter stops on this stretch, as it continues west from the St. Louis area. There is no organized viewing area, no ticketing, and no cab or up-close access — it is a quick trackside view, not a walk-up one. Times can shift with the day's operations.

Why this stop matters

The town of Pacific took its name from the railroad that made it. The Pacific Railroad of Missouri — the first railroad built west of the Mississippi — laid out a townsite here in the early 1850s as its line pushed west from St. Louis, and residents renamed the place Pacific in the railroad's honor. The road's first locomotive had made the inaugural run out of St. Louis in December 1852.

The Pacific Railroad grew into the Missouri Pacific and, in 1982, became part of Union Pacific. A Big Boy passing through Pacific is running the descendant of the very first railroad in the trans-Mississippi West.