Hello Frisco Folks, Here is a photo that I came across of the Frisco depot in Sort Scott, KS. Take care, Rich Ship it on the Frisco!
Fort Scott, KS depot site. Frisco-BNSF replacement metal employee depot 2009. Frisco Freight Depot, which has been moved up the hill from it's original location right across the street from the Ft. Scott Welcome Center. Edit 3/19/2024: The freight house in the photographs is the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT or Katy) freight house, not the Frisco freight house. MKD
The freight house is actually the MK&T's built in 1870. The Frisco freight house, built in 1884, was torn down in early 1975.
I asked several people about that today, and they swore up and down that it was the Frisco freight house, but I guess they are wrong.
My father, Bill Hemmingway, worked for the Frisco 1938-1953. I was born in 1938. The only Ft. Scott Frisco depot I remember is the one without the cupola. Gary Hemmingway
Hi Gary. As soon as I can find a photograph of it, I will post it. No luck as of yet. There is a photo of the redesign depot in a book at the tourism office. In tourism office across the street from the old freight depot, they do have some nice prints of the old depot for sale for only $30.00.
In Joe Collias' book Frisco Power, pages 282 and 283 are before and after pictures of the Ft. Scott, KS depot. I particularly liked the original design. Those were the days! Fred Clem
I was disappointed when I ran 4-8-2 SLSF 1522 into Ft. Scott, KS from Kansas City, MO. I had been looking at the Banwart book Rails, Rivalry and Romance and when we got there, I could find no signs of what was there once. Roundhouse, depot, freight house and all were gone. Sad. Now it looks like all other railroad towns. Sterile, unkempt and abandoned. Meh!
Of all the intermediate Frisco engine facilities at St. Smith, AR, Amory, MS, Chaffee and Thayer, MO, Afton, Enid and Hugo OK, and perhaps even Newburg, MO, I would wager a malted adult beverage none were larger than the facilities at Ft Scott, KS.
Ft. Scott, KS was bigger than any of them. Newburg, MO had 11 stalls. I do not think I have ever seen a picture of the Afton, OK facilities.
I have always thought it was interesting what is and what is not still there. The last railroad to build into Ft Scott, the Missouri pacific (MP), was the first to depart, yet the first floor of their passenger depot survives and the freight house is almost in mint condition. And they had a shop almost as large as the Frisco's, and there is not a trace today. The second railroad to arrive, the MKT, was also the second to leave. The passenger depot is long gone and that is really sad, but their freight house, though relocated, is well preserved. The first railroad to arrive, the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf (KCFS&G) is still there, but both passenger depot and freight house are long gone. As far as any surviving Frisco presence goes, probably the Marmaton River bridge and the bridge over 3rd Street are about it.
My dad was Trainmaster in Kansas when I was in high school. One of the earlier photographs in this thread shows a feature of the town that I remember well from 1966. There was brick paving on many city streets in Ft. Scott. Very slick in rain, worse in snow and mom hated driving on them, wrecked the family Ford. There was a "victory bell" in front of the Ft. Scott High School that I believe came from a Frisco locomotive. Woke the whole town on a few late Friday nights.