Frisco Railroad video

A neat ride. Sure shows you how much rail infrastructure was in place back in the day. I mean there were switches and industries everywhere, and that trackage into the passenger stations. Can you imagine the workforce just to maintain all those double slip switches alone?

 

At 1:27 in the video, Missouri Utilities in Cape Girardeau is on the left and the north end of the floodwall in Cape is ahead. At 1:59 the train is on the Freeze siding at Cape Rock. At 2:35 North Freeze. At 3:06 Trail of Tears State Park. At 12:38 it looks like Chaffee, MO. At 13:27 I recognize Engineer Clifford Pobst stepping out of the E8A on the Sunnyland.

 

And early on in the video, we see the "Headless Humpster", Alco S-2 SLSF 292, at work as a "booster unit" on the hump at TN Yard. Neat! I've seen and have several pics of 292, but never have seen it in action on a video. Cool!
K

 

I missed this when it originally posted - but wow. This is a real gem. Starting at 12:19, they're approaching the Chaffee yard. State Route M is the road on the right.

Spot on, Keith. That's definitely Clifford. Based on he and the other crew members posing alongside "Big Red," I believe this was 9-17-1965: the last run of Train #807, the southbound "Sunnyland." This is based on the crew members, motive power, the crowd of onlookers at the depot and the fact that the consist included 3 coaches - rather out of the ordinary for this time, but necessary for all of those who wanted one last ride.

Clifford was the fireman on that run, along with Engineer James Barnes. As they pose beside Big Red around 13:35, James Barnes is on the left, Clifford Pobst on the right.

For more information on this train on this day:

A Moment of Silence

The Sunnyland (807/808)

I am not sure who the other crew members are; there is a conductor visible but I'm not sure if that is John Montgomery, who was conductor on the last #807. I'll show this to Mom and Dad and see if they recognize any of the crew or spectators.

I would assume that the last train shown might be #808 pulling into Chaffee?

Best Regards,

 

I definitely recognize Cape Rock Park area and Trail of Tears campground. Hasn’t changed too awfully much.

 

That is fun to see, Ken. I've never seen any actual film of the Frisco's two hump yards. I'm going to have to find or re-download a map of Tennessee Yard and try to get a feel for for the switching moves.

Thanks to all for providing the time-keys of various portions of this one. John, thanks for the heads-up, too. Didn't Bill Wirtel used to be a member on this site? I can't find his handle anywhere.

I have a feeling I'm going to be watching and re-watching quite a bit.

Best Regards,

 

The "Headless Humpster" was another example of the Frisco cleverly making use of a cab-end wrecked switcher (S-2 SLSF 292) that still had some useful operating time on it. They ran it as a booster on the hump at TY for quite some time until its crankshaft broke.
K