(The following appeared on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website on April 4, 2011.)
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — One day last month, a massive green locomotive and a string of railcars rolled out of the Anheuser-Busch brewery, passing the black iron gates and red brick buildings. The train was loaded with beer. It lumbered over heavy steel rails running along the St. Louis riverfront and across a bridge over the Mississippi River.
And with that, the 124-year run of “the beer railroad” was over.
A-B recently informed federal railroad regulators that it wants to shut down Manufacturers Railway Company, the rail company that has been part of A-B since 1887, when A-B co-founder Adolphus Busch turned to trains to supply his growing brewery.
The company is a shortline railroad, operating 13.5 miles of track and providing service only between the brewery and other railroads just over the river in Illinois.
A-B needs approval of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to close the railroad, which employs 37 workers. The board decides whether there will be “a serious, adverse impact” to local development from the closure.
A-B’s application to the board emphasizes the limited impact of the railroad’s closure, because the brewer is its only customer.
The full story is on the Post-Dispatch website.