Mid 70's Frisco video

Discussion in 'General' started by Iantha_Branch, Dec 28, 2022.

  1. Iantha_Branch

    Iantha_Branch Member

    I happened upon a recently added video on youtube. It's 14 minutes worth of mid 70's Frisco footage with sound from the Valley Park area.



    No F units, so its post 1974.

    No SD40-2's or GP40-2's, so its pre 1978.
     
  2. geep07

    geep07 Member

    Wow! This is great. Just a couple miles from my house.
    Recognize the track alignment at Valley Park easily. The ole depot is now gone, a lot has changed in the 50 years, although some of the other landmarks and buildings are still there.
    Thanks Ethan!
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2022
  3. kenmc

    kenmc KenMc Frisco.org Supporter

    I agree. No F boosters with the SD45s, lots of clean PC cars and even a few NYC boxcars, many open sided auto cars, and even a good number of two level auto cars point to early/mid 1970s, about 1974.

    Ken McElreath
     
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  4. gstout

    gstout Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Interesting to see both open auto racks and graffiti-free freight cars from an era before idiots decided that vandalism was a worthwhile pastime.

    GS
     
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  5. frisco1522

    frisco1522 Staff Member Staff Member

    Valley Park and Pacific depots were still standing.
     
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  6. qaprr

    qaprr Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Very interesting!
    Mike L
     
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  7. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member Staff Member

    Thats a great video. Some of those trains were hi steppin right along.
     
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  8. Coonskin

    Coonskin Member

    I noticed that too.

    At first I thought it was poor speed matching during the digitizing... but the auto traffic and Engineer waves weren't comically fast which is typically the case when the original film speed gets muffed when digitized. Then the lady appeared holding the mic, talking, then sound recording the action... and sure 'nuf... those trains were indeed ballin' the jack!
     
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  9. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member Staff Member

    Roger that. All those hogheads would be fired nowadays for running their trains like that, blatantly applying throttle to keep their trains on speed..... I mean how dare they, take pride in their job and all.
    Heads will roll. Just as soon as we can schedule an investigation.
     
  10. dwoomer

    dwoomer Member

    LOVE this stuff!!! I came of age in the '70's, though not in this area. Open racks, cabins on every train (guess where I grew up!), and Run 8 all the way! Brings back many memories of the good ole days when men ran trains for railroads worth working for. Your job was to get trains over the road in the most expeditious way possible. Long live the Frisco (and the Reading & PRR), at least in our memories!
     
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  11. tmfrisco

    tmfrisco Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Train 39 was mentioned a couple of times. That train was a hot shot evening train into Tulsa. The out bound cars already in the yard for Irving would be set when the inbound train arrived. We had 30 minutes to switch the head end cars and engine onto the pre set cut and have the train leaving. It was as hot a train as the QLA which arrived in the morning. The QLA was humped in Tulsa, so it was in the yard longer. Both trains were watched closely by the officials to be sure they left on time.
     
  12. klrwhizkid

    klrwhizkid Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    Frisco Faster Freight, hauling A$$.
     
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  13. kenmc

    kenmc KenMc Frisco.org Supporter

    It is amazing to me how many times the Frisco's management flip-flopped on the issue of lean-and-fast versus long-and-slow, weighing customer service against operating costs. First came the dinosaurs of the 1910s, with their knuckle-breaking tractive effort and ten mph maximum speeds. In the 1920s, the marketing people discovered that trucks were eating their lunch, so they retired the drag queens and embraced the faster and leaner Mikados and magnificent Mountains of the late 1930s. This led to the slogan of "Frisco Faster Freight" during the 1940s. But then came the diesels, more efficient at low speeds and able to multiple for long trains, and the slogan was rapidly retired and changed to "Ship it..." Again appeared the improved highway competition of the 1960s, which saw the Frisco's love affair with high horsepower SD45s and U30Bs, which needed F-unit boosters just to start and get over the hills of Missouri with any reasonably-sized train. Clearly a bad decision based on chasing shiny objects. Later they seemed to finally find a reasonable balance with a boat-load of GP38-2s and GEs just before the BN merger.

    Ken McElreath
     
  14. yardmaster

    yardmaster Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    This brings back some fond memories! And it's unusual, for from my vantage point on East Davidson Ave. just above the Chaffee speeder house and depot, I was not accustomed to seeing orange and white trains moving at this speed. Accelerating with bell ringing, yes, but not at full tilt. Cotton Belt/MoP trains in Rockview or Delta? Yes, those looked as if they were moving at warp speed, but never Frisco trains.

    I must have been 5 or 6 when we were visiting family who live at my great-great Uncle Henry's old farm near Brooks Junction and saw a single O/W locomotive and caboose high-tailing it toward Sikeston. It made a very strong impression on my young eyes to see a Frisco locomotive moving that quickly.
     
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  15. kenmc

    kenmc KenMc Frisco.org Supporter

    The River Division from Sikeston southward was possibly the fastest running on the Frisco in the 1950s. The Memphian had some 50 mph start-to-stop times for 20 mile segments.

    Also, the video "Passenger Trains of Birmingham" shows a pacing sequence of the "Kansas City-Florida Special" running at 80 mph. Quite exciting stuff.

    Ken McElreath
     
  16. Rob R

    Rob R Member

    Wonderful video and spot on for my modelling period.
    Thank you for posting.
    One question, there are a couple of Black GP7's (535 at 00:30 and 533 at 4:19), both are single units running long nose first.
    Is that normal?
    I was under the impression that short nose first was normal, apart from switching of course.

    Happy New Year to you all from across the pond.
    Rob
     
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  17. Coonskin

    Coonskin Member

    Rob:

    If running a single unit on a turn job, then typically 50% of your shift is spent running long hood forward, either on the way out, or on the way back. (Assuming there's not a way to turn your engine at the turn around point.)

    The preferred way is to have the front of the loco facing the direction of travel. Seeing as 100% of the Frisco's GP7's were set up short hood forward, that explains why the overwhelming majority of photos showing a GP7 as the lead unit in a consist is running short hood forward. However, all bets are off when assigned a single unit for a turn job.
     
  18. tmfrisco

    tmfrisco Member Frisco.org Supporter

    On the Cherokee, Creek, and Afton Subs we would run as fast as the horsepower would allow us. Through trains to Springfield would blast through Afton at track speed. I remember once having an order to pick up at Afton west bound. I was running 60 mph and that order rack looked very small at that speed. I got the order, but I did have a welt on my arm. The fastest track segment was from the crest of Neosho hill westbound to Seneca. We usually just let the trains roll until we had to slow down for Seneca. By the time we hit the west switch at Racine we were rolling pretty good. The switch had some kind of an alignment problem as it was part of the curve. I remember I would grab the arm rests on the seat for the side to side jerk that came every time we hit the frog. The fastest I ran a train was one morning on QLA when we hit 74 mph before I slowed down for Seneca. The engine over speed warning would whistle at 72, so we would raise the top of the speed recorder and push down on the needle. That would stop the warning and allow us to let the train continue rolling until time to slow down for Seneca. Another spot that was squirrely was on the Grand Lake bridge. In the middle of the bridge we would get a side to side jerk westbound (I don't remember any issue east bound as we were not running as fast). On the Creek sub the track northbound from Henryetta to Okmulgee northbound was also a very fast track. As we left Henryetta north bound the railroad makes a large sweeping curve which would allow the engineer to see his complete train. It was cool seeing all of those cars following the engine. We would continue to accelerate through Schulter until time to slow down for Okmulgee. We would pass cars on northbound US 75 which parallels the Frisco between Okmulgee and Henryetta. I feel for the engineers of today who have to deal with monitoring in real time and speed recorder downloads to observe their train handling. During my time on the Frisco and BN, we used stretch braking for speed control. That allowed us to slow down quicker in a shorter distance so we could run faster until time to slow down. That form of train handling will get an engineer fired today.
    Terry
     
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