Here is a remarkable photo from the Texas Special wreck at Royse City, Texas Dec. 13, 1953. A family in a station wagon pulled in front of the train at a grade crossing and all were killed (Five or six, if I remember). Two Katy E-8's had to be sent to EMD and rebuilt and several cars were destroyed. Among them Frisco RPO 250 shown upside down in the picture. Also destroyed was Katy LW coach 1202 (later replaced by their #1202R). In addition, Frisco mail storage car 2047 (a former 60' RPO car) was also destroyed. At least two other cars shown here at right were damaged: Katy HW chair car 908 (far right) and Frisco coach-buffet-lounge 1603 (car w/arch roof) behind 908. This photo is from Pat Coughlin's collection. Tom
I have one more in my archives: The M-K-T engine derailed and sitting at an angle. I'll try to locate it later... Tom
Here you go--This photo and the one of the wrecked cars are from the collection of my friend Pat Coughlin of Dallas. My guess that the originals were a newspaper photographer's shots and probably appeared in a newspaper at the time. About everything I know about the wreck is in this thread. The first photo (Of the wrecked cars) pretty much explains why there aren't any "in-sevice" photos of the Frisco RPO #250. Tom
Very Cool photos. I wish there were other photos showing the rest of the train derailed. From the description it sounds like there would have been some interesting photographs if anyone had taken them. Our museum actually has the Buffet Lounge car in the photo (1603) or what is left of it. There isnt much left and the car is about to as they say "return to the earth". We also have a Frisco heavyweight coach - 1062. This car has been in service since it was built in 1910 and still runs every week on our museum line. I know there are a couple of photos of both cars floating around, the 1603 with the faux fluting painted on it and the 1062 when it was painted in the blue and grey scheme. I would LOVE to find some in-service photos of both of these cars. If anyone has any photos of either car in their collection, please do send me a copy. Jeff
Terry--Sometime in 1954 the Frisco painted HW RPO-baggage #208 in the red and silver paint scheme to run in the Texas Special, but I've never seen a photo of the car in that livery. I've seen a lot of photos of the Texas Special with HW cars of the Frisco and Katy subbing for the red and silver cars. You might see a photo of the train with any of the following RPO's: MKT #1000 (LW), MKT #229 (HW), SLSF #208 (HW) and other Frisco and MKT HW cars. Tom (Edit) Terry--The ICC accident report mentions that the occupants of the auto were the only fatalities.
Jeff--If you put "1062" in the search, there's a photo of the car in a train and some information on the car. Tom
Jeff--Here's an "in-sevice" photo of 1603 taken by the late Arthur Johnson at Springfield, October 24, 1965. You can just see the stripes of the earlier shadow line paint scheme bleeding through on the lower left car body. At this point in time the car was running on tr. 107-108 between Springfield and Kansas City. The folks here might like to see a photo of the car as she exists today... Tom
I can take a picture this Saturday when I am at the museum but its not going to be pretty. There isnt much left of the car.
