SECTION OF RAIL LINE TARGET FOR REMOVAL

DELTA - Another section of the former St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad's historic Belmont Branch Line between Delta and Oran will fade into history this year when its tracks are removed and the right-of-way turned back to adjoining landowners.

The branch line, once the mainline of the Iron Mountain, and later a branch line of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, was the first built into Southeast Missouri. At one time the line extended from Bismark, north of the Lead Belt, to Belmont, on the Mississippi River south of Charleston.

By the end of the year, only a small portion of track between Allenville and Delta will remain. That section of track is now owned by the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. Inc., of Jackson, which uses the tracks between Delta, Allenville and Jackson for its tourist steam passenger train operations.

The branch line tracks between Delta and a point just south of Oran in Scott County will be torn out this year, said John Gugino, director of manufacturing for the Golden Cat Corp.'s Cape Girardeau office.

The Golden Cat Corp., formerly known as Ed Lowes Industries Inc., purchased the Delta-to-Oran section of the old Belmont Branch in 1987 from Union Pacific Railroad, which merged in the 1980s with Missouri Pacific. Lowes purchased the track to provide a rail link from Delta to its clay granules manufacturing plant at the former Missouri Utilities H.B. Newman power plant south of Oran. The plant was closed this spring.

Gugino said the track has sold for its salvage value.

"The sale took place about one month ago, and is subject to approval of abandonment proceedings now before the Interstate Commerce Commission," he explained. "I expect the contractor will have removed all of the railroad ties and rail by December or January. At that point, the railroad right-of-way will revert to the adjoining property owners."

Gugino said a one-half-mile section of the track south of Delta will be saved. He said it was sold to the Jackson-Gordonville-Delta Railroad Co. of Jackson. The company was formed in July 1990 by a group of investors. The investors are also involved in the operation of the steam railroad to purchase the railroad tracks between Jackson and Delta from the Jackson Industrial Development Authority.

John Lorberg, president of the Jackson-Gordonville-Delta Railroad Co., said acquisition of the one-half mile of track at Delta will permit the Iron Mountain Railroad to maintain its rail crossing over the mainline Southern Pacific Railroad tracks at Delta.

"With the track we purchased from the Golden Cat Corp., we'll have enough room to cross the Southern Pacific's "diamond" crossing and switch our freight cars in and out of the Iron Mountain's interchange track with the Southern Pacific," said Lorberg.

There hasn't been any freight business on the Iron Mountain's Delta-to-Jackson track for several years, but Lorberg says that may be about to change. "We have been in contact with several industries that have expressed an interest in using our railroad to connect with the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific interchange at Delta," he said. "We're very excited about the prospect of getting freight business back again on the track between Delta and Jackson."

With the abandonment and removal of the Golden Cat Railroad tracks south of Delta, all railroad crossings and warning signals along the track will be removed, including those on Route A south of Delta and several crossings in Oran.