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St. Louis–San Francisco Railway

The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway (reporting mark SLSF), commonly known as the "Frisco", was a railroad that operated in the Midwest and South Central United States from 1876 to November 21, 1980. At the end of 1970, it operated 4,547 miles (7,318 km) of road on 6,574 miles (10,580 km) of track, not including subsidiaries Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway and the Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad; that year, it reported 12,795 million ton-miles of revenue freight and no passengers. In 1980 it was purchased by and absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad. [2] Despite its name, it never came close to San Francisco.

History

Preserved wooden caboose on display in Missouri
Preserved Railway Express Agency car, along with Kiamichi EMD F7 slug No. SL1, at the Frisco Depot Museum in Hugo, Oklahoma

The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, commonly called the Frisco, was incorporated in Missouri on September 7, 1876. It was formed from the Missouri Division and Central Division of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. This land grant line was one of two railroads (the other being the M-K-T) authorized by the federal government to build across Indian Territory.

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (known simply as the Santa Fe), interested in the A&P right of way across the Mojave Desert to California, took the road over but went bankrupt in 1893. The receivers retained the western right of way but divested the ATSF of the St. Louis–San Francisco mileage on the Great Plains. After bankruptcy, the Frisco emerged as the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad, incorporated on June 29, 1896.[3][4] It later also declared bankruptcy.

In 1903, Frisco executives engaged in negotiations to purchase large tracts of land in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana "up to the Orleans Parish line" as part of plans of "gigantic scope" to further the expansion of the company's rail lines and operations facilities across the state. As part of this plan, the executives proposed relocation of the residents of the historically Black community of Fazendeville to the much smaller, neighboring village of Versailles, which was described as a "settlement consist[ing] merely of a row of very small properties along a public road running at right angles from the river to the railroad track"; however, many of Fazendeville's residents resisted and then ultimately refused the railway's financial offers. According to one of the newspapers which reported on those plans, "The Frisco road cannot obtain title to the National Cemetery, but is after all the rest of the river front, and wants to cross the present public road practically at grade in many public places."[5]

In 1901, the Frisco took control of the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway, which it operated as an independent subsidiary, and constructed several extensions of the latter. However, after the Frisco entered bankruptcy in 1913, it made no further extensions of the FW&RG, which in most years failed to make a net profit.[6] In 1937 the Frisco sold the FW&RG to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway for $1.5 million, giving the latter an entry into Fort Worth from the west.

On August 24, 1916, the Frisco was reorganized as the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, though the line never went west of Texas, terminating more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from San Francisco.

The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway had two main lines: St. LouisTulsaOklahoma City-Floydada, Texas, and Kansas CityMemphisBirmingham. The junction of the two lines was in Springfield, Missouri, home to the company's main shop facility. The corporate headquarters was at 906 Olive St. St. Louis, MO. Other lines included:

The base of operations for the Frisco was Springfield, Missouri. There were three separate back shop facilities in and around the city: North Side, which handled light locomotive repairs; South Side, inherited from the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis, for heavy locomotive repairs and overhauls; and West Side, which were the primary car shops for the railroad. In 1912 a new facility was built in Memphis, Tennessee to handle the eastern section of the system, consisting of a yard, roundhouse terminal, and car shops. At Kansas City, Missouri was another substantial back shop site, consisting of a roundhouse terminal and several shop buildings served by a transfer table.[7]

From March 1917 through January 1959, the Frisco, in a joint venture with the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad, operated the Texas Special. This luxurious train, a streamliner from 1947, ran from St. Louis to Dallas, Texas, Fort Worth, Texas, and San Antonio, Texas.

The Frisco merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad on November 21, 1980.[2]

The city of Frisco, Texas, was named after the railroad and uses the former railroad's logo as its own logo. The logo is modeled after a stretched-out raccoon skin[8][9] (giving rise to Frisco High School's mascot, the Fighting Raccoons).

Passenger trains

The Sunnyland at Birmingham Alabama's Union Station on April 15, 1963

While the Texas Special may be the most famous passenger train operated by Frisco, it was just one of a fleet of named trains. These included:

Former Frisco lines today

1899 poster showing a boy and a girl in a Frisco waiting room

The core of the former Frisco system continues to be operated by BNSF Railway as high-density mainlines. Other secondary and branchlines have been sold to shortline operators or have been abandoned altogether.

Surviving equipment

Steam locomotives

Diesel locomotives

Buildings and structures

Multiple surviving buildings, structures and locations associated with the Frisco are on the National Register of Historic Places, including the St. Louis - San Francisco Railway Corporate Headquarters building;Frisco Building, 908 Olive St, St. Louis, Mo, St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad Building in Joplin, Missouri, the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad Depot in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Depot in Comanche, Texas, the Beaumont St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad Retention Pond, and the Beaumont St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad Water Tank. Frisco Lake, a small lake in Rolla, Phelps County, Missouri, was named for and owned by the Frisco.[63] The Frisco Building, being the former Frisco Operating Headquarters in Springfield built in 1910 and now known as the Landmark Building, is an official City of Springfield counsel-approved landmark.[64][65] The Frisco Bridge at Memphis was the first bridge over the Mississippi River south of St. Louis, and the third longest bridge in the world at the time of its dedication on May 12, 1892;[66] it is now listed as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

Doodlebugs

Frisco-series 2100 equipment consisted of self-propelled rail motor-cars, mostly gas-electric models,[67] with a few gas-mechanical models given 3000-series numbers.[68][69][70] These railway vehicles were commonly known as "Doodlebugs" for their insect-like appearance and the slow speeds at which they would doddle or "doodle" down the tracks.[67] These were used to service various low-volume branch lines in the Frisco organization.[67][71] An initial order for ten was placed in 1910, with seven more arriving by 1913, putting Frisco in the forefront of gas-electric operation at that time.[67] The initial batch, numbered 2100 to 2109, included nine baggage-coach combinations, as well as one baggage-mail-coach unit.[67] Frisco's peak year for motor-car mileage was 1931, and its fleet at that time included twenty-three gas-electrics, five gas-mechanical cars, four trailer coaches, and six mail-baggage units.[67] The final Frisco run of a Doodlebug was on November 8, 1953, when No. 2128 traveled from Ardmore, Oklahoma, for the four hour trip to Hugo, Oklahoma.[67]

Dieselization

Frisco’s first acquisition of diesel locomotives came in November 1941, when the line received five Baldwin VO-1000 switchers of a thousand-horsepower each.[72][73] Frisco started a serious dieselization program in 1947, which took about five years.[74] When the period of steam power ended for Frisco in February, 1952 with the last run of steam engine 4018, the Frisco’s diesel fleet included seventeen 2,250-HP passenger, six 2,000-HP passenger, twelve 1,500-HP combination freight and passenger, one hundred and twenty-three 1,500-HP freight, one hundred and thirty-three 1,500-HP general purpose, eleven 1,000-HP general purpose, and one hundred and five yard-switcher units, for a total of 407 diesel locomotives.[75] At that time, the Frisco became the largest Class I railroad in the U.S. to be operating strictly with diesel power.[74]

The Frisco gave names to its 2000-series diesel passenger locomotives, EMD E7 and (mostly) EMD E8 units,[76] using the theme of famous horses.[77] These included racehorses such as Gallant Fox (#2011), Sea Biscuit (#2013), and Citation (#2016).[77] However, other horses also made the list: for instance, when #2022 was rebuilt after a wreck, it was given the name of Champion, after ex-Frisco-employee Gene Autry’s trusty steed in the movies.[77]

Predecessors

The following companies were predecessors of the Frisco:

Acquisitions

Frisco 1522 has been preserved and restored. In this picture, the locomotive is sitting in Arkansas City, Kansas.

The following railroads were acquired or merged into the Frisco:

Asset absorptions

The following is a list of partial or full asset absorptions, many times through bankruptcy courts or creditors. In some cases the Frisco was a creditor. Assets can include mineral rights, property, track and right of way, trains, bonds, mortgages, etc.

Frisco 1621 on display at the National Museum of Transportation outside St. Louis, Missouri

See also

References

  1. ^ Patrick Hiatte, Springfield, Missouri: The Heart of the Frisco, 1955, Trains magazine, December 2003
  2. ^ a b "About the Frisco Railroad". Frisco.org. October 6, 2013. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
  3. ^ "History of the Frisco". TheLibrary.org. Springfield, Missouri: Springfield-Greene County Library District.
  4. ^ "Corporate History: St. Louis – San Francisco Railway Company". The Truman Area Community Network. Henry County Library. June 2, 2008. Archived from the original on July 22, 2012.
  5. ^ "St. Bernard Progress: Gigantic Scope of the Plans of the Frisco: Buying Upland Up to the Orleans Parish Line." New Orleans, Louisiana: The Times-Democrat, July 16, 1903, p. 7 (subscription required).
  6. ^ Duncan, Patricia L. "Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved March 20, 2024.
  7. ^ Starr, Timothy. The Back Shop Illustrated, Volume 2: Midwest Region.
  8. ^ "FRISCO INTERNATIONAL WIDE VISION CABOOSE #239". Canadian Model Trains Inc. March 12, 2009. Retrieved March 18, 2012.[permanent dead link]
  9. ^ "100 Years of Service". Frisco Veterans' Reunion via Springfield-Greene County Library. Retrieved March 18, 2012.
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  11. ^ "To Texas (copy of advertisement)" (PDF). All Aboard, The Frisco Railroad Museum, May, 1990 (accessed on CondrenRails.com). Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  12. ^ a b "The Will Rogers" (PDF). All Aboard, The Frisco Railroad Museum, Aug-Sept 1990 (accessed on CondrenRails.com). Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  13. ^ "Pokin Around: Plans call for part of Chadwick Flyer spur line to become recreational trail". Steve Pokin, Springfield News-Leader, April 4, 2020.
  14. ^ a b "Pride of the Firefly" (PDF). All Aboard, The Frisco Railroad Museum, June 1989 (accessed on CondrenRails.com). Retrieved October 20, 2020.
  15. ^ "Building the Railroad to Fort Leonard Wood" (PDF). Old Settlers Gazette. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. January 1923. pp. 621–636. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
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  18. ^ "Surviving Steam Locomotives in Arkansas". SteamLocomotive.com. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  19. ^ "Historic Trains of Arkansas—Locomotives and Railcars". Julie Kohl, Only in Arkansas, February 5, 2019. February 5, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
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  21. ^ a b "Mississippian #77". HawkinsRails. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  22. ^ "Homepage". Oakland B&O Museum. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
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  24. ^ http://www.steamlocomotive.com/mikado/?page=slsf Archived 2017-06-11 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved 6-11-15.
  25. ^ "Collierville's Resident Steam Engine Gets Its Own Special Day". Town of Collierville. Retrieved February 8, 2020.
  26. ^ a b c "The Whyte System" (PDF). All Aboard, The Frisco Railroad Museum, July, 1989 (accessed on CondrenRails.com). Retrieved October 20, 2020.
  27. ^ Frisco 1352
  28. ^ "Connecticut heritage railway acquires Frisco 2-8-2". Trains.com, November 4, 2023. Retrieved November 4, 2023.
  29. ^ "SLSF 1350 #1355". rgusrail.com. Retrieved February 26, 2020.
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  33. ^ "Railroad Museum of Oklahoma, On Track for Railroad History!". Railroad Museum of Oklahoma. Retrieved February 8, 2020.
  34. ^ "Railroad Museum of Oklahoma". TravelOK.com. Retrieved February 8, 2020.
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  37. ^ "Frisco 1526 (photo)". Museum of the Great Plains. Retrieved February 8, 2020.
  38. ^ "A Walk in the Park- Langan Park, aka Municipal Park, Mobile, AL". ExperienceFineLiving.com. Retrieved February 8, 2020.
  39. ^ "Alabama, Tennessee & Northern 2-10-0 #401 -- A Locomotive Blessed with the Luck of Lindy". John B. Corns, Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
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  72. ^ "VO-1000 Switcher" (PDF). All Aboard, The Frisco Railroad Museum, January, 1989 (accessed on CondrenRails.com). Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  73. ^ "Yard Power Part Five, Three Pairs" (PDF). All Aboard, The Frisco Railroad Museum, March–April 1993 (accessed on CondrenRails.com). Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  74. ^ a b "Era of Steam Power Ends on Frisco" (PDF). All Aboard, The Frisco Railroad Museum, August 1987 (accessed on CondrenRails.com). Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  75. ^ "Frisco First Generation Diesels" (PDF). All Aboard, The Frisco Railroad Museum, September 1987 (accessed on CondrenRails.com). Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  76. ^ "The Frisco Lines, Diesel Locomotives-Racehorse Series". TheLibrary.org. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
  77. ^ a b c "The Frisco Stable" (PDF). All Aboard, The Frisco Railroad Museum, June 1987 (accessed on CondrenRails.com). Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  78. ^ "Railroad Era Resources Of Southwest Arkansas, 1870-1945". Arkansas Historic Preservation Program (a National Park Service “National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form” filing), 1996, p.19. Retrieved July 15, 2020.

External links

External links