Ok folks, I need some suggestions on rolling stock and motive power for my layout as I have, for the most part, run out of Frisco stuff to buy. First, for motive power, what railroads had pooled power agreements with the Frisco? I remember Seaboard Coast Line's olive green locomotives, so I'm looking for EMD SCL units to add to my Frisco power. What about non-olive Seaboard locomotives? What other locomotives would I find on Frisco rails during the 70s? UP? MOP? MKT? SF? I kind of remember my father having a strong sense of "competitive opposition" with Missouri Pacific and the Katy, so my thought on those two railroads would be no. However, I'd love to hear your comments and could be convinced otherwise. Now for rolling stock... If I would be sitting at a railroad crossing in Springfield in the mid-70s watching a Frisco train roll past, what railroad heralds would I see other than the Frisco? Clients of the Frisco? Thanks in advance! John Moore
John, regarding the motive power question, Frisco and MoP power were pooled on coal train between St. Louis and Union Electric's Rush Island Power Plant along the Frisco's River Division-St. Louis Subdivision. Page 92 of Marre & Sommers' Frisco in Color shows photos of this arrangement: one shows GP-38-2 #637 and 642 paired with MoP U23B #2260 in 1977, and GP38-2 #409 paired with an unidentified pair of U23Bs in 1978. The authors noted that GP38-2 numbers 426-433 were apparently equipped with additional appliances with this pooling arrangement in mind. I remember some of the engineers in Chaffee discussing how they'd go to St. Louis to handle the "coal train," but by then, I"m sure they were BN engineers pooling with the UP. Further, in regarding to your SCL question, the same book shows GP38-2 #674 on Train QLA in Birmingham 5-28-1972 with two SCL-lettered green units and an ACL unit in black (page 85). Best Regards,
Addendum: As I'm trying to clean-up and fix links in the "Operations" section, I noticed this item from Ted Ferkenhoff a few years ago: Train UPL - Unit coal Kansas City/UP-Rush Tower Best Regards,
In the middle 1960's, the Frisco and Santa Fe had a run-through arrangement. They sometimes changed crews at Springfield without coming to a complete stop. One occasion I remember a PERFECT set of six Santa Fe F-7's in an A-B-B-B-B-A lash-up rolled through. They were absolutely spit shined and had very melodius air horns. Sorry to say the Frisco equipment at the time didn't look very well kept... Tom G.
Tom, I"m not ever sure I've seen the Frisco's covered wagons in that type of configuration - it would have been a sight to see if they had, and even in ATSF colors, that would have been most impressive. Others might be able to offer more, but in regard to your question about foreign lines rolling stock in Springfield, I'd guess the most predominant types would be: MoP KCS MKT ATSF And, I think you could probably thrown in a plentiful helping of other more-distant but really big hitters like NYC, PRR, SP, UP. With Springfield's connections to both KC and St. Louis and their connections to more western-oriented and eastern-oriented roads, respectively, nearly anything would be plausible. Best Regards,
Other Rolling Stock: You could look through the "Freight Operations" sub-forum under the "Operations" forum and find all manner of ideas. While not a direct quote, Meteor910 pointed out somewhere on this site that the Pennsylvania Railroad owned about 20 percent of all the railroad cars in the country at one time. A freight car lettered for PRR would be entirely plausible on a Frisco train. SOU, SP, NYC and some others (ACL, SAL...) would also be reasonable in a consist.
What would you recommend for UP power in such a consist. The MoPac stuff I'm looking for happens to be U23B units that were purchased specifically to run pooled with Frisco. To my knowledge, Atlas had a U23B but no MoPac. Will I have any luck with UP? JFM
For cars in the 70's? Any and all railroads come to mind. Pennsy had a train that hauled Texas traffic at one point. So a couple of the north east roads could be a good bet. Adding in cars like that would be good to break up the monotony of " home road" or neighboring railroads. As for the U23b in Mopac? You may have to do that yourself or find someone to paint one up.
John, Atlas has made several MoP U23b. I have Atlas #8682 MoP #2254 for use on my layout, with Tsunami sound installed. Also from April 2006: 8291 Missouri Pacific†(Blue/White) (1980s scheme) 4512 8292 Missouri Pacific†(Blue/White) (1980s scheme) 4525 8293 Missouri Pacific†(Blue/White) (1980s scheme) 4530: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Atlas-Train...214217?hash=item5691238f49:g:3uYAAOSwOyJX5XbK
