Trains No 121 and No 124 - Local Motor Car Service - Ft. Scott-Joplin - Frisco Southwest Photos

There are two photos in Frisco Southwest that show the motor-car/coach connection at Ft. Scott with No 117. The caption claims that this is a connection for Springfield with the Firefly.

I claim it's the Joplin train. Why would the railroad need to run another all-stops local to Springfield from Ft. Scott unless it was a passenger rider accommodation disguised as a regular connection.

I've never been sure about this.

Thanks,

Confused in Jacksonville

 

You are correct.

It's the Joplin connection via the Girard and Tuckahoe Branches,

 

Thanks, Karl.

I've always thought so and even wrote a letter to McCall years ago disputing the caption and was rather abruptly assured his sources were impeccable.

Implausible was more like it.

Buck Dean

 

Buck,

With just a little bit of effort, McCall could have checked his information, and had the correct caption.

A couple of ETT's and PTT's would have sufficed. When Otto Perry took the photographs which appear in Frisco Southwest, the Ft Scott-Joplin local passenger train had but 5 weeks to live. Trains No 121 & No 124 were discontinued on August 1, 1951.

The KC - Joplin passenger trade belonged to the Haywire, and the local stuff between Ft Scott and Joplin was insufficient to keep things going.

 

Karl,

You know how one treasures the thought of being able to claim "rare mileage".

While, true, the KCS was mostly my conveyance to the grandparents in Joplin, my mother told me that we once had to take the Frisco when "I was about 2". That would have been 1950 about the time our new home in Meadowlake, KC residents will know where this is, was being completed. She couldn't remember why and didn't remember the change of trains in Ft. Scott. But she said "it was only the engine and one car and not a nice Pullman". LOL. Mom tried.

So, I claim a ride on the doodlebug connection! Too bad I can't remember it.

Buck