Tracks were extended through Springfield 48 miles to Pierce City, Mo. Fremont, the latter became the Southwest Pacific Railroad. Wartime damage led to the first bankruptcy, and sale by the state of Missouri of both the Pacific Railroad (later Missouri Pacific) and its Southwest Branch. During the Civil War, Rolla, Mo., served as a supply depot and base for Union troops. Frisco’s humble beginning was as the Southwest Branch of the Pacific Railroad, leaving the main line at Franklin, Mo. Humble beginnings and steamįrisco traces its ancestry to other routes which would become keystones of two much bigger systems: Santa Fe and Missouri Pacific. Those friendships lasted many years they led to exciting times riding the cabs of passenger, freight, and switch engines. As soon as the train stopped, I was on the engine talking to the crew. During my freshman year at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, I made sure to see the passenger train - the Meteo r ’s Fort Smith section - every night. My only memories of Class I railroad steam are visions of Frisco engines on the front of passenger trains seen from a coach window as we rounded curves. Until I completed graduate school, I lived no farther than five or six blocks from Frisco tracks. The Frisco was a great system, and I am a Frisco fanatic and proud of it. After pulling past the tower, the train will use the tracks in the foreground to back into Union Station. In this view from April 7, 1956, E8 2020 Big Red and an unidentified E7 arrive in St. Frisco was noted for naming its E units after famous horses. It was the first large road to consolidate its train dispatching into a central office, in Springfield, Mo. It developed the tri-level auto-rack, which helped recapture much of the nation’s automobile traffic from the truckers. It ordered some of the first pioneering U25B diesels from General Electric. It was one of the first to be in a coast-to-coast run-through freight-train operation, with Santa Fe and Seaboard Coast Line. It was among the first big railroads to dieselize, in 1952. It helped move Texas and Oklahoma oil east during World War II. It started running unit coal trains from Fort Smith, Ark., the city across the Arkansas River from my hometown of Van Buren, in the 1930s. It weathered some very rough times, including at least five bankruptcies. Louis-San Francisco Railroad was a survivor and an innovator.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |