Back in 1945, the St. Louis Post Dispatch ran an article in their Rorogravure section about CTC on the Frisco. One of the shots was taken over the engineer's shoulder as the 4500 he was running was about to reach the west switch at Newburg. On our last run with the 1522, we had just turned the train at Bundy Jct. wye and were heading back into Newburg to do photo runbys and load the passengers. One of our crewmen took the photo looking over my shoulder as we came up on the west switch. Too bad Newburg didn't look now like it did then. Oh well............
Don, What do you make of the reference to "lighted numerals farther back of the mainline" telling the engineer which track to take. This was before the days of the radio, so do you think they have some kind of lighted board to direct the engineer? I'm sure there is a lot of folks that wish Newburg looked like it did back in the 40's. Brad
Brad, If it was like the ones I've seen before, it was a box on a post with a bunch of lights on it with each light representing a track number. I would think the Newburg operator, or perhaps the dispatcher, who was at Newburg then, would light up the right number for the yard track. I guess everyone has their favorite place on the Frisco, but Newburg would have been hard to beat, especially during the building and operating of Ft. Leonard Wood during WWII. Busy, busy!
Don/Brad: Looking at p. 237 of "Frisco Power." See the thingys in front of the new concrete coaling tower at North Yard. Are these the lighted numerals to which you refer? If so, many thanks for solving a mystery for me. From a model operational standpoint, I wonder where these were used, and better yet, how to model them!
What I think they mean by lighted number signals is the approach block to Newburg. Notice the A under the signal, that means absolute or positive block, a dispatcher control point. The signal before the A block, normally about 2-miles back, is usually an intermediate or number block because of the milepost number (109.2 for example) under the signal light and is not dispatcher controlled. It merely displays information about the track ahead and what the next signal will display. In the 1940's photo, the signal is displaying a "diverging approach" (red-yellow-red) which mean take the siding, if the train was going into the yard the signal would display a restricting (red-red-white or flashing red) signal on the bottom aspect. The signal aspect before this block would display would be an approach medium (flashing yellow for a single, double yellow for a 2-headed signal). In the 1990's photo the engineer has a clear signal so his last signal would be clear or "high green"). It sure is rare to see a steam engine using CTC on the Frisco, back then it was used on a small portion of the system. Another thing, did the railroads do a better job of clearing the brush back from the right-of way back then? You go to these locations today and it is so overgrown you can't get a decent picture. Nice photos though, 2 thumbs up!
Chris, I found the lighted number boards shown on page 237, good eye! I bet I've looked through that book a 100 times and never noticed them. Of course, I probably wouldn't have known what they where anyway. Brad
I'm trying to locate anyone that might remember Elmer Taylor who worked for the Frisco Line between STL and Newburg, MO back in the late 1940's and/or early 1950s you can contact me @ slakajs2002@yahoo.com Best regards, Steve Lenox
Who else is modeling Newburg and surroundings? Let's cooperate on design issues. Doug Hughes Ann Arbor w3ho@aol.com