Hello, James L. Branch here, spent a little over 32 1/2 years on the Frisco,BN,& BNSF. The ATSF mess everything up, by cutting off all the Clerks. There will never be one like the FRISCO. Some of the places I have work in Oklahoma are, Afton, Sapulpa, Beggs, Francis, Stroud, Chandler, Oklahoma City, Tuttle, and Lawton. In Texas, Fort Worth and Sherman, most of these were off the Extra board. Regular jobs Fort Worth, Oklahoma City and Lawton from 1966 until 1998.
James, it's been a while since you posted the note below (10/2/02), but I just found it. Is there any chance you have any photos or other information about the old Frisco depot in Sapulpa, from the days you worked there? Sapulpa is my home town, and I used to watch those great old Frisco trains down by the depot when I was a kid. Now I'd like to build a model of the depot for my layout, but need more information, since the thing has been torn down for many years. If you have anything I could use, or just a good story or two, email me at pastor@gardenhills.org. Thanks! Steve Diehl
Hello James - Our paths must have crossed. I worked as a brakeman out of OKC from about Nov '68 until Aug '69, then again during wheat harvest of '70. I took the 444 to Tulsa and the 31 to Quannah, and all the through freight back and forth as well. In the summer of '69, I switched in Lawton while somebody was on vacation, and slept in the yard office, or the locker room attached. God, was it hot. I watched them lay the welded rail east and lost 4 co-workers in the wreck in the summer of '70, west of Altus. Do you remember any details of that wreck, I'm trying to write a little piece about it for a class. - Allen Arthur
Mr. Branch had an impressive deep voice, and you always knew it was him as he was waking you up on short rest to take another train out. By the time I got to OKC we where left to operate on the worst track with the worst locomotives, and we still got the trains over the road and the switching done. He is right to say that there will never be one like the Frisco.
Allen, this post is about 8 years old but I ran across some info on this wreck and thought I would share it: 4 CREWMEN DIE IN TRAIN DERAILMENT NEAR OLUSTEE Olustee, Okla. --- Four crew members of a Frisco freight train were killed early today when the train derailed near this southwest Oklahoma community.The Highway Patrol reported the 86-car train rounded a curve and smashed into seven freight cars that escaped a sidetrack in Olustee sometime during the night and rolled about 1-1/2 miles northward down the track.The Highway Patrol identified the victims as James Willard Health, 60, Oklahoma City, the engineer; Robert Ray Thornton, 30, of Moore, the fireman; Jerry Arthur Howard, 23, Oklahoma City, a brakeman, and Terry L. Lober, 23, Harrah, also a brakeman.All four were in the front engine of three diesels pulling the mile-long train.Altus police reported the train was en route from Quanah, Tex., to Oklahoma City. About 25 of the 86 cars were derailed, and some overturned.The accident occurred about 1-1/2 miles north of Olustee about 1:45 a.m.The crash knocked out telephone service to the small towns of Olustee and Eldorado, about 14 miles to the southwest."It looked like the boxcars on the siding rolled downhill about a mile and a half," a trooper said. "The car's broke through a derail and went onto the main line."The freight train hit them a it rounded a curve and the lead engine was completely demolished."A six-inch segment was sliced out of one rail "like two karate chops had cut it," at the point of the collision, one person at the scene reported. (Lawton Constitution ~ June 3, 1970)
