St. Joseph's train already left the station

Oct. 5—John Wolfe walks out his front door and sees a brick building next to a worn path that leads to corn fields and a distant tree line.

A century ago, he would have seen something else near the unincorporated Buchanan County village of Willowbrook. An electric train would have rattled along that old path, taking passengers from St. Joseph to Kansas City. The brick building, used to store stock trailers and other farm equipment, once served as a transmission station during the heyday of train service known as the Interurban.

"I've lived here since '45," said Wolfe, now 86. "It was all closed out before then."

Today, the Missouri Department of Transportation seeks federal grants to explore a possible expansion of Amtrak rail service between St. Joseph and Kansas City. The news was greeted with enthusiasm among those who like the idea of climbing on a comfortable train in St. Joseph and arriving at the Power & Light district a little later. Passenger rail service would generate excitement in these parts, but it wouldn't necessarily be new.

"These were all over the country at one time, a very popular way to travel from city to city," said Carole Johnson, a volunteer with the Andrew County Museum in Savannah. "The car was a luxury and the roads were not very good."

In the early 20th century, it was possible to take an electric train from St. Joseph to surrounding communities. The Interurban service operated between St. Joseph and Kansas City from 1913 to 1933 and included stops at Sparta Road, Faucett, Dearborn and Camden Point on the way to Kansas City. The St. Joseph-to-Savannah line was started in 1911 and lasted until 1939.

"The St. Joe one left Eighth and Edmond at 6 in the morning," Johnson said. "It ran every hour."

The Andrew County Museum features an exhibit on the route from St. Joseph to Savannah, which took 45 minutes. Johnson recounts information on students and teachers paying 25 cents to take the train between Savannah and St. Joseph.

"In Savannah, if you wanted them to stop, you just stood on the street corner and waved and they would stop," Johnson said.

Wolfe said he never rode the St. Joseph-to-Kansas City Interurban, but memories were still fresh when he was young. Wolfe recalls his father removing large rocks from the rail line that ran through the family farm. Prior to that, he heard stories of an uncle with a disability who took the Interurban to see a doctor.

"They'd bring him here from Agency to ride the train to Kansas City to the doctor," Wolfe said. "They brought him over here somehow. A fella over there had a Model T. They used it for a bus."

Today, all that remains of the Interurban are a few old buildings like the Willowbrook transmission station, a depot that's marked for restoration in Savannah and the occasional "Interurban Road" in rural areas. The demise of the Interurban could serve as a cautionary tale to those who want to see expanded Amtrak service. The problems that plagued the Interurban — lack of population density, failure to reach consensus on a public subsidy and the ubiquity of the automobile — still exist today.

As recently as 2022, Amtrak limited its Missouri River Runner service from Kansas City to St. Louis to once daily due to funding cuts and equipment shortages.

In the 1930s, there were reports of budget deficits when the Kansas City, Clay County and St. Joseph Railway pulled the plug in 1933, followed by the St. Joseph Railway, Light, Heat and Power Company shutting down the Savannah line a few years later. The closures roughly coincided with the Highway Department's "Get Out of the Mud" campaign, which brought paved roads to rural Missouri and increased the ease and popularity of driving.

In Willowbrook, Wolfe has lived a life that serves as a bridge between faint echoes of the Interurban and the hopeful promise of Amtrak. When asked if he envisions a new era of rail service between St. Joseph and Kansas City, he chuckles.

"I doubt it will ever happen," he said. "It costs a lot of money. They put the highway in. It's a lot faster."

Greg Kozol can be reached at greg.kozol@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter: @NPNowKozol.