E8A SLSF 2009 "Jet Pilot" on the "Firefly" This is MY favorite "Redbird" Date and location unknown. Any help?
To resurrect an old thread, does anyone know when the Firefly equipment was repainted Pullman Green rather than blue and white? Has anyone ever seen a photograph of a diesel pulling it when it was still blue and white? Gordon
According to the Frisco Museum leaflet "War Years Blue and Gray Passenger Equipment Roster," the Firefly cars were repainted to Pullman Green as follows: SLSF 82 - Baggage-RPO-Coach Combination - May 1951 SLSF 83 - Baggage-RPO-Coach Combination - September 1947 SLSF 752 - Chair Car - August 1953 SLSF 754 - Chair Car - August 1950 SLSF 757 - Chair Car - 1948 SLSF 1501 - Cafe'-Lounge - February 1952 SLSF 1502 - Cafe'-Lounge - April 1953 I believe that leaflet has been scanned on this website, but I cannot locate it right now. It shows all the Blue-Gray cars and their repainting dates. Tom
Where did this photograph originate? Is it in some kind of form that could be reproduced in the new Frisco in Color book, or is it a scan of a print? Greg Stout
Greg, It is a scan from a print that I purchased on e-Bay. It is a "clean" photograph with no markings on either front or back.
With the painting dates you show, Tom, it is entirely possible that photographs exist of the train with at least some of the cars still blue and gray being hauled by a diesel. Has anyone ever seen one? Judging from the excellent photograph that started this thread it appears that the original equipment stayed with the train until fairly late. Gordon
Gordon, My main railfanning pastime is looking at photographs and trying to squeeze any morsel of information from them. I cannot remember ever seeing any of the Firefly equipment pulled by a diesel. That is not to say it never happened though. The only picture I recall of a diesel pulling any blue and gray cars was that photograph that has been posted here before a couple of times. It is the one where you noticed the class lights. Sorry, I do not know how to link it here, I have trouble finding anything on the chat board since it was updated. Tom
Thanks. No sooner did I post the question than I stumbled across that photograph and a bunch more like it on an e-bay site. Wonder who actually holds the rights to those photographs. The deeper I get into my book project the more iterations of the same photographs I am seeing, all claimed to be owned by different individuals. GS
I believe the picture that started this post is train No 108, not train No 118. The train is entering the Fort Scott, KS depot from the south. If you look 4 cars behind the engine you will notice a buffet. Number 108 had a buffet between Springfield, MO and Kansas City, MO. Train No 108 usually ran with 2 head end cars, chair car, and buffet. When traffic was heavy or there was a movement of soldiers out of Fort Leonard Wood, MO, No 108 would have two chair cars. In later years Nos 108/118 were consolidated at Ft. Scott, KS. Number 118 picked up the buffet at Ft. Scott from No 108.
This train is not No 108. It is train No 118 arriving at Ft. Scott, KS yet to be combined with train No 104, which was the Springfield-Kansas City local of the period. Numbers 107/108 was not running between Springfield and Kansas City during this period. The picture is circa 1951-1952, the engine still has single air horns. The air chime horn clusters were not added until about 1952. The Kansas City-Birmingham local trains during that period, 1950-1955, were: trains No 103-104 (Kansas City-Springfield); trains No 101-102 (Springfield to Memphis - "The Sunnyland") and trains No 107-108 (Memphis to Birmingham, also "The Sunnyland"). The Firefly photographs of the day show two RPOs, one from the original steam era train, a baggage-RPO-coach combination, SLSF 82 and SLSF 83, and a 201-220 class RPO-baggage car. The Firefly also carried a buffet car. The mystery of the Firefly photographs is what two RPOs were doing on the train south of Ft. Scott. The photograph Karl Brand referenced a few days ago in the Kalmbach book on modeling railroad junctions, has a photograph of the Firefly at the Tulsa Interlocker, also with two RPOs and a buffet. Tom
