Here are some tattered Frisco matchbooks. "Racehorse" and "Cutworm" (at right) ca. 1950. Texas Special and Meteor (left) late 40's. "Colorized" b/w photos. Tom
Tom, thank you for posting photos of the matchbook covers. I have not seen these before. It's highly likely that Northern Division railfans will get a similar shot when the Florida Special overtakes a F3 led freight. When that happens I will get a copy for the website. Not sure if the FA/FBs ever made it to matchbook immortality but my A-B-A set is on the railroad now. I used Lenz Silver decoders and just plugged 'em in, one of the reasons I went DCC. Unfortunately, the head lights are real dim so I will probably remove all the Proto 2000 light circuit boards and wire the lights directly to the Lenz decoder. I have a similar problem with the Proto 2000 E8. Runs fine but the lights are too dim. Next steps on the railroad are (1) start building the bench work to Springfield and (2) get some SLSF 40' box cars on the layout (pike). Stay tuned, I am having the time of my life . . . . . Ship IT on the Frisco!
I knew this was coming . . . . As much as I like to be precise, I also like to operate and 1947 is my target start date. I will move it slowly to 1950, over several operating sessions by updating the equipment and removing equipment that was retired. My steam roster is in a slow state of repair and decoder(ing). Look for a 1500 to pull the Florida Special and a streamlined Pacific (1026)to handle the Firefly. I almost have the Pacific ready to go. While I have had steam models for quite a while, I have very little experience in making it run good. Learning as I go. Maybe I will starting titling my emails "Frisco Northern Division - 1950 . . ." Ship IT on the Frisco! Rick PS Thanks for keeping me honest . . . .
I'm the same way--I'm aiming at the 1958-59 era (when the Texas Special still ran), but I still like things from earlier and later periods--Hey it's MODEL railroading on our own layouts--right? You're not going to get any rivet counting from me... Tom PS: I really admire your modeling!
Here is a shot of caboose 102 with the markers for a northbound oil train headed for KC. Most of the train is past Fontana, KS while 102 is still in open country. This is a scratch built caboose made about 10-15 years ago. Now it is finally in revenue service. Life is good. Ship IT on the Frisco! Rick
Rick: I would be interested to know what Camera, lighting and f/stop details you are using to get these photos. Man are they nice. Bob
I use a rather obsolete Nikon 4300 (about 4-5 years old) which is a non-SLR, 4 megapixel camera. Unfortunately, I cannot set the time or apperture on this camera. I stabilize it on a standard camera tripod and use room light. No smoke, no mirrors. Unfortunately I cannot get good depth of field either. The camera has an automatic focus so it takes a few seconds to focus on what it thinks is the photo subject. I don't post the really bad ones. . . . Ship IT on the Frisco! Rick
Bee-YOO-tiful, Rick...many thanks for obliging! Of all of the Redbird paint schemes, I do like the gold cat whiskers with the white outline (or FR-P3 from Mike Condren's FMIG "Paint Shop" column at http://www.cbu.edu/~mcondren/Frisco_PaintShop_Es.htm) the best.
I was in Springfield this weekend and located a photo of the 19th Street Yards inundated by the 1951 floodwaters. The north roundhouse has been cut-back to 3 or 4 stalls, and the south roundhouse is still standing. We can say that the 19th Street Diesel shop was a post 1951 structure.
Wow! This is what I get for not checking in often........... Didn't know you were changing locations and backdating all at the same time, but I like what you've got going on there. And yes, even though I model in the 1970s, I like that black & yellow- even painted up a few diesels in those colors. Got a trackplan for us to look at?
Speed Limit Wars The images of the model car waiting for the Redbirds and the freight train to pass through Rick McClellen’s HO scale Northern Division at Merriam, KS reminds me of an apocryphal tale that my father tells about the Frisco’s speed limit war with the city of Merriam, KS. The relationship between municipalities and the railroads, at times, tended toward the extremes of the spectrum, i.e., love-hate. Even though the municipalities enjoyed the taxes provided by the railroad, the goods delivered and received, and the payroll dollars spent, the city fathers often treated the railroads shabbily, and they imposed their will on the citizen railroad with speed limits, noise ordinances, etc without regard for some of the railroads’ operating requirements. The city council of Merriam deemed it necessary to impose a 20 mph limit through its limits. The Frisco protested the ordinance, but to no avail. ( It wasn’t until the 90’s that the federal government ruled that cities had no right to restrain interstate commerce in this manner.) With limited options, the Frisco devised a plan to fight fire with fire. During morning and evening rush hour, the Frisco scheduled/staged 2 to 3 trains to pass through town as close together as possible, and at or perhaps below the legal speed of 20 mph. This snarled rush hour traffic, and it wasn’t long before the Merriam city fathers cried uncle, and raised the speed limit to 40 mph.
Karl--I heard that story too about Spring '61--I was riding the Sunnyland (KC-Springfield), sitting in the snack car. The passenger brakeman and a couple of railroaders on passes or deadheading were visiting and talking railroad stuff and I was the fly on the wall. Wish I could have recorded that whole bull session! The brakeman told it with two Frisco freights and one Katy freight "crawling" through town one after the other. Tom
Re: Speed Limit Wars I think I recall in Frisco Power that Volatone air horns were added to steam engines precisely because of citizen complaints in the KC area?
Diesel Shop 19th Street From the April 1957 All Aboard, The construction of the 19th Street Diesel Shop in Kansas City occurred during the Spring of 1957
Diamonds are a guy's best friend . . . There has been a lot of improvements happening on the Northern Division lately and one of the biggies is the KCT/SLSF crossing at Tower 4. Olathe N scaler Joe Kasper built this beauty and gets all the credit. Six diamonds in all and it might be a record. We used it for the first time in a recent op session and it worked great! Next the High Line to the UP needs to be built over the KCT. All I need is the time. Ship IT on the Frisco! Rick
That's cool! Did you get the info I sent you? A map explaning where every thing is, I posted that in the layout upgrade thread. BTW, will you be including the very small town of Iantha on your layout?
Yes I received the Lamar information. You might want to post that so the others can benefit from your conversation with your grandfather. Please tell him thanks for me. Lamar had quite a few industries and what an interesting place on the railroad. Ship It on the Frisco! Rick