Does anyone have any info on loco assignments by type or or location. For instance, it is known that the F-M diesel units were assigned to Tulsa. How about the Baldwin diesels...were they assigned to a specific location, or could they be seen anywhere on the system? Any info on diesel assinments would be greatly appreciated. Glenn in Tulsa
The only I know about, other than the example, is kind of an assinment. Basicaly it's a list of the types of locos you would see on the Ash Groove Sub. All main line GE's, SD45, GP7, GP38-2, GP38AC, GP35, etc.
I know the Baldwins ran on the Clinton Sub, Fort Smith, AR, and I heard alittle about some in St. Louis every now and then. This is what I know, but I'm sure they popped up all over the system from time to time. Ship it on the Frisco!!! Murphy Millican
The Baldwin VO's (and the DS44-1000's) were used system wide, as they were among the very first Frisco diesel switchers. But, they were concentrated around St Louis, Springfield and Kansas City as I recall. Ken
I seem to remember listing a few assignments of the NW-2 switchers in that FMIG Newsletter devoted to them. All the major yards had a few.
Here is some info that I found NW-2s (April 1978 Assignments per 12-79 Prototype Modeler) 250 KC 251 Ft. Smith 252 Tulsa 253 St Louis 254 St Louis 255 Memphis 256 Memphis 257 KC 258 KC 259 Memphis 260 St. Louis 261 KC 262 Ft. Smith 263 Tulsa 264 St. Louis 265 Tulsa VO-1000 (Per Jan/Feb 2004 Diesel Era, no dates specified) 200 St. Louis 201 St. Louis 202 St. Louis 203 St. Louis 204 St. Louis 205 St. Louis 206 St. Louis 207 St. Louis 208 St. Louis 209 St. Louis 210 St. Louis 211 KCMO 212 KCMO 213 KCMO 214 KCMO 215 KCMO 216 KCMO 217 KCMO 218 KCMO 219 KCMO 220 Springfield 221 Springfield 222 St. Louis 223 Springfield 224 Springfield 225 Springfield 226 Springfield 227 Springfield 228 Springfield 229 Springfield 230 Monett 231 Monett 232 Monett 233 Monett 234 Ft. Scott 235 Ft. Scott 236 KCMO 237 KCMO Good luck Glenn. Rick
IIRC, the GP15-1s were used mostly, if not exclusively, on the Central Division. Besides being used on road freights, they held down switching jobs in Ft. Smith, and were used on the A&A and Arthur Subs (Hugo to Paris).
For most of its life on the Frisco, unit #261 was the yard and industry switcher here in Wichita, Kansas. It was here in the black and yellow as well as the orange and whites schemes. Ironically, it was replaced by unit #102 (GP-15) and my buddy Bob was on hand to take many shots of it. It was the baby of the local superintendant by the name of Pat McGinn and you can not believe how CLEAN he had that unit keep. Hand washing was the order of the day for it. I don't recall exactly when it arrived, but was in the late 70's.
In one of the early FMIG NL's (Which # ??) there was a letter from Lee Buffington reviewing all the division steam engine assignments circa 1946. A gem of information if there ever was one--From a "gem" of a fellow! Tom
Some more gems that Lee told me in person: In the days just before the passenger diesels came, both the Texas Special and Meteor had become very heavy trains. The Meteor was usually hauled by the oil burning 4500-4501-4502. The Texas Special often had to be double headed. Then, just before diselization, they put coal burning 4500's (4503-4524) on the TS. Earlier 4400 and 1500 4-8-2's pulled the Frisco section of the Texas Special (Katy 4-6-2's hauled the train on their rails). The Katy track was too light for the 4400's and 1500's were always used when the Frisco engines had to travel on Katy rails. Another note on the Texas Special: When Frisco engines would be travelling down the Katy, they stopped to refuel at Afton so as not to have to buy fuel oil from the M-K-T. Tom
Glenn - FMIG Newsletter #13 (March, 1978) has information from Ken McElreath on diesel assignments at the Chaffee, MO roundhouse (River Division) in 1961; this information was from the roundhouse foreman's book and is a great cross-section of diesel assignments on a given day. Regarding steam locomotive assignments, one can glean a lot of operational information from the old Frisco Employee Magazines and the regular Fuel Performance listings provided. I've compiled a lot of information on River Division locomotive assignments and am slowly starting to compile information system wide. However, the period is limited to about 1925 through the early 1930s.
