STLToday.com

Home > Buy historic photos & newspaper pages
Look Back: St Louis Zooline
Date: 8/27/2010 Album ID: 1065014
Photos by St. Louis Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Slideshow icon View Slideshow
The St. Louis Zoo's ever-popular Zooline entered the railroad business on Aug. 29, 1963, with a ceremony at the original station near the bear pits. Zoo director Marlin Perkins and Zoo board chairman Howard Baer whacked at a "golden spike" to complete the 1.5 mile loop of track.
The St. Louis Zoo railroad under construction received its first piece of equipment, a self-propelled work car, on June 3, 1963. The car hauled gravel for ballast between the ties. Workers shown here are preparing track along the bear pits. (Lester Linck/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Zoo director Marlin Perkins (right) looks over plans for the Zooline with Robert W. Murch (center), whose company built the line, and consultant Robert Heath, along a curve on June 5, 1963. The track is ready except for gravel ballast. Murch's company, St. Louis Zoo Railroad Inc., built the 1.3-mile original line with a trestle, two tunnels and three stations for about $300,000. The company operated the line and paid the Zoo part of the profit until 1968, when the Zoo exercised its option to buy the profitable mini-railroad. (Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
An electrician wires one of the warning signals for the Zooline on July 27, 1963, one month before the line opened. He is working near the old north main entrance of the Zoo, at Vierheller Station, named for former Zoo director George P. Vierheller. The station was rebuilt in 2003 and now is called the Wild Station. (Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Lafayette Tiberghein, a security guard, looks over the Auguste Chouteau, one of the Zooline's first three locomotives, on Aug. 20, 1963, at Vierheller Station. The Zooline bought one replica of a modern diesel-electric and two of a Civil War-era steam locomotive. Built by Chance Mfg. Co. of Wichita, Kan., the locomotives were powered by automobile engines. (Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Harold Chance of Change Mfg. Co., designer and builder of the Zooline trains, at the throttle of the Spirit of St. Louis on Aug. 27, 1963, just before the grand opening. It was one of the three original trains and was designed to look like a modern streamliner. The Zooline retired the train later and replaced it with one of the more popular old-time steam-engine replicas. Passengers preferred the style and shade-providing canopies of the antique style. (Jim Rackwitz/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Howard Baer, chairman of the Zoo Board of Directors, takes a turn with the sledgehammer to pound in a golden spike during a ceremony on Aug. 29, 1963, at Vierheller Station to open the Zooline. At left is Zoo director Marlin Perkins, who also took part in the spike pounding. Afterward, VIPs and others went on the inaugural runs of the line's three trains. As with the site of the real golden spike, which linked the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah, in 1869, the exact site of the Zoo's last spike no longer is part of the line. In 2003, the Zoo moved the track a few feet to build a new station at Vierheller, now known as the Wild Station. The repair and storage shed next to the station is where the line used to run, and where Baer and Perkins hammered the spike. The transcontinental railroad bypassed Promontory Point in 1904 with a trestle across park of the Great Salt Lake. It is now a national historic site. (Jim Rackwitz/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Lawrence Barker of Kansas City (second from right) is honored on Aug. 15, 1964, as the one millionth rider on the Zooline. Holding the ticket poster is zoo director Marlin Perkins (left) and Zooline manager Robert W. Murch. With Barker is his family (from left), Larry, Bill, Teresa and Mrs. Barker. (Jim Rackwitz/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Many of the Zooline crew members were retired workers from the big railroads. Shown here on Aug. 20, 1965 are (from left) Roy Ward and Joe Steiger. Ward had worked for the Alton & Southern Railroad, Steiger for the old Missouri Pacific. (Jack January/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Hugh Protzel, 3, a regular patron of the Zooline, presents a birthday cake on Aug. 14, 1966, to his favorite engineer, Joe Foerster of Brentwood. Hugh, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Protzel of Olivette, rode the train every weekend and insisted upon having Foerster at the throttle. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Wreckage of a collision on Aug. 3, 1970, that seriously injured two Zooline workers and caused minor injuries to eight passengers. Zoo officials said one train was eastbound near today's main south gate when it lost power and began drifting backwards, colliding with the train behind it. (Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
A Zooline train pulls out of the former Vierheller Station on March 15, 1970. The train is running across the spot where the ceremonial golden spike was hammered in to open the line in 1963. (Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Two Zooline workers relax with one of their former co-workers on a sunny day in October 1974, shortly before the line closed for the winter. They are (from left) Floyd Patrylo, Barney Clark and David L. Dempsey. Clark had retired from the Zooline. (Scott Dine/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Zooline mechanic Dave Ieppert uses a grinder to smooth the surface of a track joint on March 13, 1988, shortly before the line opened for the season. (Wayne Crosslin/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
A Zooline train crosses the trestle near the Children's Zoo on March 9, 1991, to commence regular service for the season. (Wayne Crosslin/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
The Hebrons of St. Louis enjoy a ride in June 1994. In the first seat are Barbee, 7, and Bennetta Hebron. Behind them are Gerald Hebron and Germell, 11. (Jerry Naunheim Jr./Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Wreckage of a Zooline locomotive that crashed near Vierheller Station on Oct. 16, 1988, killing engineer John W. Forsythe. Witnesses said Forsythe could be heard shouting that he couldn't stop as the train gained speed downhill from the bird cage, sped through the station and derailed on the sharp turn just past the station. Forsythe, 67, of south St. Louis County, was rushed to Barnes-Jewish Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He was a retired former engineer for the Terminal Rail Road Association. Investigators hired by the Zoo couldn't pinpoint a cause, although a St. Louis police accident-reconstruction team suspected that the throttle may have been stuck open. (Wendi Fitzgerald/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
John W. Forsythe. (Family photograph)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Michael Ball, 7, of Collinsville, enjoys a great laugh during a ride on Sept. 24, 2001, with his mother and father, Crystal and Joe. (John Lok/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
Engineer Earnest Boucher helps ready one of the locomotives on April 4, 2003, for the season's first runs. I can't wait for tomorrow, Boucher said. About 525,000 ride the Zooline every year. As of Aug. 22, 2010, the total ridership since 1963 was 32,962,806. (Laurie Skrivan/Post-Dispatch)
Email Page to FriendBuy this PhotoEnlarge this Photo
MyCapture, Inc. - A Second Street Media, Inc. Solution
© MyCapture, Inc. - A Second Street Media, Inc. Solution All rights reserved.

FAQ | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Order Status