Going to the link that brings up The Museum of the American Railroad (formerly The Age of Steam or "Age of Rust" as one Texas railfan I know has coined it) is an announcement that it is now closed to the public pending the big move to Frisco, Texas. I have always thought that a railroad museum in the greater D/FW area should have been located in Ft. Worth instead of Dallas. If it had been possible, the area next to the Historic Stock Yards would have been the perfect location. T&P 2-10-4 610 had been stored in Ft. Worth while the culprits in Dallas at Fair Park scrapped the 638 without even contacting the T&P to see if they might had wanted it back to perhaps place it on display in Ft. Worth. Dallas is far too much white collar and it shows up very well in the "Dallas" TV series that started to air in the mid-70s. Ft. Worth has always been a true Railroad Town and it is a pity in my opinion that Ft. Worth wasn´t chosen for the move of the museum. I am thankful however that the Great City of Frisco (named in honor of OUR very own First Love!) reached out to provide a new home for all of the wonderful historic equipment. In view of the monumental move that Steamtown undertook from Vermont to Pennsylvania, which, also in my opinion, was a wise decision placing it in a great geographic location, this move will also be a move of great importance and the people who have made it possible should be properly thanked! Frisco fans will get to enjoy to the maximum, a visit to see not one but two (!) historic Frisco steam locomotives displayed right on the former Frisco mainline that ran from Ft. Worth to Sherman and points north. I still maintain a dream to see the day that a former Frisco GP7 can be saved and restored to it´s beautiful black and yellow as delivered scheme from EMD. Indeed, Frisco, Texas, would be a most proper place to display a diesel-electric that continued to fly the Frisco flag, not only Deep in the Heart of Texas but all across the Southeast...Southwest...and into the hearts of all loyal Frisco fans who are on this site because they know that the Frisco was one of America´s great railroads. Perhaps it would be fitting for all Frisco fans to drop a line to the City of Frisco and offer full support and to thank them for a job well done. They most certainly deserve it! Now about that Geep 7... Joe Toth The Trinity River Bottoms Boomer
Track is being laid at Frisco, Texas! Back in the late 60s and through 1976 I would visit the Age of Steam museum at Fair Park each Sunday before I went on duty at the Santa Fe East Dallas Yard. My "baby" was and remains, the Frisco 2-10-0! I fell in love with decs while stationed in Germany with the US Army Transportation Corps back in the 60s. They were the primary freight steam locomotive on the German Federal Railway. ATSF Tower 19 has been moved to Frisco already. It protected all train movements east of Dallas Union Terminal where the Santa Fe crossed the T&P (Mopac) at grade. The Frisco, Katy, SP, Cotton Belt, FW&D and RI all used the T&P track that crossed ATSF there. I have fond memories of switching down in the Trinity River Bottoms and watching a trio of red and white Frisco SD45s come off DUT trackage and onto the ATSF to deliver coal trains to the L&A (KCS) in the Santa Fe East Dallas Yard. The most beautiful action was when one would arrive under a big fat full Texas moon! Those 645s were music to the ear! A return trip to Texas when the museum gets moved to Frisco will be a must! I still dream that a Frisco GP7 will be preserved in all its black and yellow as delivered glory and what better place to be put on display than in Frisco, Texas? Joe Toth The Trinity River Bottoms Boomer
