I am reading a biography of Rudolph Diesel. He visited Fayetteville, AR in 1912 to examine the "McKeen" cars that were used on the St. Paul branch and the Muskogee Subdivision between Fayetteville, AR and Okmulgee, OK. I cannot find any information that the Frisco owned or used McKeen cars. Therefore, I am guessing that Dr. Diesel actually rode in GE gas-electric motor cars purchased by the Frisco between 1911 and 1912. If you have any Frisco McKeen information it would be appreciated if you could share it.
On page 134 of Polk County Classics, a pictorial local history book published by the Historical Society of Polk County, Missouri, there is a photo of a McKeen car numbered M-18. The caption states that "the Shopper's Special motor train ran from Weaubleau to Springfield early in the morning and returned in the late afternoon. It was discontinued in the 1920s. The train was run by a gasoline engine." I am skeptical of this caption, for a couple of reasons. 1) I've never heard of the Frisco having any McKeen cars. 2) The car number M-18 matches one of the Union Pacific's McKeen cars. The car in the photo appears to be a close visual match to a couple of Otto Perry photos of the UP M-18 that have been digitized and put online by the Denver Public Library. I wonder if a photo of the UP M-18, collected by some long-ago railfan or traveler, could have come into the hands of the historical society and then been mistakenly identified with the gas-electrics that did, in fact, operate on the High Line and the Leaky Roof. Like the original poster, I would be interested in hearing if others have any verifiable information about McKeen cars on the Frisco.
Wasn't there another McKeen car, not Frisco owned, that used to run between Rogers, AR and Bentonville, AR? I read about this somewhere, but I'm not exactly sure where.
Thanks for the link. I had not seen a couple of those. My mother says they called it "Big Red." Besides remembering the old hotel and its swimming pool, I once had one of the Corinthian plaster capitals from one of the columns. It appeared only slightly damaged from the hotel's demolition, but gradually gave up the ghost before I could figure out how to preserve it. There is only a little other information about the operation in general circulation, although others may have found more.
Be nice to see a replica McKeen car travel that route today. The A&M only has but one train a day on the Branch and with Northwest Arkansas expanding so much it would make a cool way to commute people around.
The Arkansas Northwestern (ANW) Railroad operated between Rogers and Bentonville using Bentonville Branch track between the two towns. The ANW McKeen car came from Okmulgee, OK. It may have been a repossession. The ANW operated for four years and shutdown in 1916 due to unpaid track rental charges and debt to a fuel supplier. The McKeen car went to a new home in Wyoming. The Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City, NV began seasonal operation of their newly restored McKeen car in July 2013.
Here's a mystery involving a McKeen car. Photo is taken at Kingsville TX, once on the Frisco's Gulf Coast Lines. The McKeen car might have belonged to the Riviera Beach & Western Ry. which sometimes operated from Kingsville. Do the automobiles look they date after 1913?
The second car on the right could be as late as 1925, but the rest all appear to be mid to late teens. Cool photo!
Something is certainly afoot; the McKeen car carries white flags, the light poles bear red, white, and blue "barber pole" stripes, and the open-top car in the foreground seems to have "bunting" on it.
The St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Rwy. passed through Kingsville on its way north to Houston. According to the Texas State Historical Association, the RB&W purchased their McKeen Motor car in Tulsa, OK in 1914, and drove it the ~800 miles south to their home rails. I would bet, due to the bunting, decorated light poles, and extra flags, this photo is probably from the 1914 acquisition of the motor car as it passed through Kingsville on its way to Riviera. The RB&W was chartered in 1912, ceased operations in 1917 and was abandoned by 1920. https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=2a8c...ZXJhLWJlYWNoLWFuZC13ZXN0ZXJuLXJhaWx3YXk&ntb=1 According to the McKeen Motor Car Historical Society, the RB&W purchased motor car #1 (Order #102 in McKeen's records) from the Sand Springs Railway when SSRR upgraded to passenger trains and was electrified due to increasing traffic.
