The Missouri-Illinois Railroad Co. shops have been closed and the employees and machinery have been transferred to other points on the line, Ste. Genevieve, Mo., Sparta and Dupo, Ill. During the past few years the employees at the Bonne Terre shop have been gradually reduced and when closed only a few men were employed there.

     For many years during the time the road was owned and operated by the M.R. & B.T. Ry., a subsidiary of St. Joe Lead Co., 200 or more men were employed, the road owned and operated some forty steam locomotives and a large number of passenger and freight cars all of which were repaired and rebuilt in the Bonne Terre shops. At times 35 or more railroad crews were used which meant some 200 men. Today there are only two or three crews on the line. Also in those days at least eighteen stations were on the line from Riverside to Doe Run and some 150 men were engaged in station work. The company now has only six stations in operation, Herculaneum, Festus, Bonne Terre, Desloge, Flat River, Rivermines, and less than a dozen men are engaged in that work. The Leadwood station was closed last week.

     The late John F. Kerhmann of Bonne Terre was for many years Master Mechanic for the M.R. & B.T. Ry. and Harry Hoskings of Bonne Terre was shop foreman. Among other oldtimers who were connected with the shops were Ferd Turley, Marsh Chandler, Harry Claywell, Frank Marchand, the late Chas. Deggendorf, the late Ben Pigg, John Davis, Albert Davis, Ed McClain, Elisha Cloud, Earl McDaniel, A. R. McKenzie, Matt Townsend, A. E. Jinkerson, Henry Bouchard, J. D. Berry, Wm. Cundiff, Wilbur Mitchell, Wm. Burns, John Barker, C. R. Williams and many others.

Published by THE LEAD BELT NEWS, Flat River, St. Francois Co. MO, Wed. Feb. 13, 1963.

Group of Railroad Yard Workers @ Bonne Terre (circa 1911). 
*Please email us if you can identify any of the workers in the above photograph.  Thanks!