In From The Lurk

Greetings, Fellow Frisco Fans {FFF}!!!

After a full decade lurking in the shadows here, I figured the time was finally right to "step into the daylight," as it were. Like many others here, I too grew up within a stone's throw of the good ol' Coonskin. My childhood home was exactly one half-mile from the Springfield sub mainline - and a quarter mile from the MoPac Sedalia sub mainline! To be precise, my family lived in the Barrett Brae subdivision in Kirkwood, so either a walk of 10 minutes, or a bike ride of five would see me at trackside {or frequently at the Transport Museum}.

I could fill several volumes with my Frisco experiences, but for this introductory post I'll just toss out a few random anecdotes. First off is my screen name and avatar - the "High-Top" GE U25B has always been a favorite of mine, and my earliest Frisco memory is being stopped with my Dad one Saturday morning at the Geyer Road / Windsor Springs crossing as a westbound piggyback hotshot came blasting through. A freshly painted High-Top was on the point, complete with a full complement of absolutely gleaming "scare stripes" on its' massive nose. Whilst I'm sure the train probably wasn't cruising much above 40-45 mph {as per timetable instructions still in force on the BNSF Cuba Sub to this day}, but in my four-year-old brain at the time, he seemed to be rolling faster than the wind itself!

Several years later, I caught yet another High-Top in the unlikeliest of places - on the point of a westbound auto / auto parts hotshot, once again roaring through Kirkwood, but this time on the MoPac. Turns out that Conrail leased several traded-in High Tops from GE for a year or so, and the one I encountered had obviously wandered all the way across CR's system, where it was briefly utilized in the MoP / CR run-through auto train to KC. Whilst the lettering had been patched over with a modest GE logo, the unit still retained a full set of scare-stripes, albeit well-faded ones.

Regarding Windsor Springs, I did my 11th grade term paper on the Meramec Highlands spa, and the various rail networks that helped expedite the traffic to and from. During the course of my research at the County Library {Grand Glaze / Headquarters}, I came across some fascinating material about the commuter service Frisco ran until the late 1930's. The info was contained in several newspaper articles from both the "Pravda Despatch," and the "Globe Demo-rat." IIRC, one Globe article had an amazingly clear shot of the Windsor Springs station. "Station" it most assuredly was not - Windsor Springs was a three-sided wooden shelter, with a simple wall-to-wall bench; think overgrown Bi-State bus stop. Another article made mention that the shelter was due to be dismantled to make room for a brand new Shell Oil gas station, which places the shelter location north of the tracks, and west of Geyer, facing away from Big Bend. There's still a gas station there, but it's not the original Shell building.

And finally, I'll never forget lying in bed during the spring and summer months, windows wide open, and hearing the nighttime sounds of a couple Frisco VO 1000m's as they fought up the Keyes Summit grade, with a heavy Chrysler Turn. "Listen to them - Children of the Night. What beautiful music they make!" Don't know if it was the roaring 567c's, or the "wounded frog" horns that initially captivated me; perhaps it was both. Either way, it truly was a beautiful experience.

And that's enough for my "Hello."

Much more to come........

 

Thanks for sharing with is that the Windsor Springs station was a 3-sided shelter. My recent contributions to the Meramec Highlands station thread were informed by a typewritten article with footnotes that seemed authoritative and well-researched. There was no author listed, however.

 

Welcome to the Frisco website Chris!!!
Thank you for sharing your experience with Frisco railfan fun. Looking forward to hearing more stories.

Joe

 

Welcome!

 

Friendly bunch here, I must say! Does the Frisco proud to have such good folk keeping the torch aflame....
You're entirely welcome about the Windsor Springs info - if any of you current St. Louisans want to have an easier time with the research, I would suggest a membership to the Mercantile Library / Archives downtown. They secured the morgues of all the defunct St. Louis papers {and they keep current with the PD-rag}, plus they have such other goodies as a huge cache of John Walker Barriger III ephemera {he took some lovely steam-era photos of both the Frisco and MoPac}. Well worth the annual dues, IMHO - I'm waiting for them to start putting some or all of it online!

Windsor Springs, I can't claim the author's credit for your research material, but I'm glad it shed some light for you, nonetheless. If anyone's interested, my most recent published material is the story "Molly The Mallet," which appeared in the summer 2013 issue of Classic Trains magazine. Yeah, I know it's a MoPac subject, but doing the research for that one is how I got to meet and befriend one Joe G. Collias, before we lost him. And yes, over the course of things we did talk a LOT about the SLSF - stay tuned!!!