The Official Guide, January 1964 indicates that Frisco Trains No 9-10, The Meteor, offered three sleeping car services, as follows: 1. Car 93 Westbound and Car 103 eastbound, the St. Louis-Oklahoma City service; 2. Car 92 westbound, the St. Louis-Tulsa service, AND 3. Car 102, the Springfield-St. Louis service, with an indication that the Springfield car "May be occupied at Springfield at 9:30 PM." This begs a couple of questions: First, how did Car 102 get to Springfield? If it was available for occupancy at 9:30 PM, this suggests it must have deadheaded east in the consist of Train No 4, the Will Rogers. Second, why did the railroad go to the trouble of separating out the Springfield service rather than simply originating Car 102 in Tulsa? Could it be to accommodate company employees traveling to St. Louis who would have found the 1:45 AM arrival time for No 10 to be less than desirable? Can anyone shed any additional light on this short-lived operation? Greg Stout
The magazine Passenger Train Journal (PTJ), November 1984, on page 31 states, "Another operation peculiar to the Tulsa market in the middle 1950's was the Meteor's St Louis - Tulsa sleeping cars. Leaving St Louis, the service offered overnight travel to Tulsa via number 10, but on the return trip the car operated on the Will Rogers, offering "seat service". That evening it was switched to the Meteor... ...After 1960, the car reverted to a St Louis-Tulsa-St Louis operation." Clearly NOT. The August 1963 Official Guide describes that same service that is described in your January 1964 Guide. At this time, sleeper service was provided by one of the light weight 14-4 (14 compartment, 4 double bedroom) cars. The August 1957 Official Guide lists sleeper service between St Louis-Springfield-St Louis, on trains No 3 & No 4, The Will Rogers. No sleeper service was provided between Oklahoma City and Springfield on No 3 or No 4. Number 4 left Oklahoma City at 4:00 PM arrived at Springfield at 12:35 AM, and it arrived in St. Louis at 7:30 AM. The service used 12-2 cars. Cars were available for occupancy at 8:30 PM in St Louis and 9:30 PM in Springfield. Regardless of the error in the PTJ, I believe that your assessment is correct I do have a recollection that one of the Public Time Tables (PTTs) from this period described that between Oklahoma City and Springfield the sleeper provided seat service only. Will have to check that to see how good my memory is.
Thanks, Karl. I cannot see any other way the sleeper could have gotten from Tulsa to Springfield except as a deadhead move on No 4. I think it must have been a deadhead as the timetable does not make any mention of "seat service" on the Tulsa-Springfield run, and I don't see what sense that would have made. About the time people would have gotten settled in, they would have been shooed off again. The Springfield setout seems logical as an employee accommodation given the timing of the arrival of No 10 in Springfield. GS
I believe in the period Greg refers to, January 1964, the Will Rogers had become a day train (after 9/30/1957) and the deadhead sleeper eastbound on No 4 gets the car back to Springfield to be easily set out for occupancy at 9:30 PM. My idea is that the eastbound Oklahoma City-St. Louis car could have served Tulsa-St. Louis patrons as No 10 would have been at Tulsa at a fairly decent hour, and Oklahoma City, Tulsa AND Springfield sleeping car passengers would all have been accommodated. But I'm just guessing here. Tom
Tom's assumption about the Oklahoma City-St. Louis sleeper serving the Tulsa market on Train No 10 is likely correct. According to Pullman "History of Lines", route 3416 is the St. Louis-Tulsa line in question. Starting January 9, 1958, this line operated a sleeper St. Louis-Tulsa in train No 9, then parlor Tulsa-Springfield in train No 4, then sleeper Springfield-St. Louis in train No 10. The car was open for occupancy at Springfield 9:30 pm. Starting February 7, 1960, the service operated as sleeper each way, St. Louis-Tulsa, in trains No 9-10. Starting July 14, 1963, the service was St. Louis-Tulsa sleeper on No 9. It was available for occupancy at Tulsa until 8 am. The car then moved, deadhead, in train No 4 Tulsa to Springfield, then as sleeper Springfield-St. Louis, open for occupancy 9:30 pm. The last trip arrived back in St. Louis on January 27, 1964, after which time route 3416 was discontinued. As to why the car was deadheaded Tulsa to Springfield, rather than being used in day service as had been done in 1958, presumably the expected revenue from "day room" or parlor use was less than the differential which Pullman would have charged for live versus deadhead movement between Tulsa and Springfield. For Frisco to incur the extra switching onto No 4 at Tulsa, off at Springfield, onto No 10 at Springfield, versus the more simple arrangement of switching onto No 10 at Tulsa, the use by employees between Springfield and St. Louis was the likely motivation. Bill Pollard
