yardmaster
05-06-2007, 09:45 AM
ADMIN NOTE - These were previously posted by Ken McElreath a few years back; while moving some threads around I (gasp) somehow purged his posts. Thankfully I had made some hard copies to keep handy at the workbench.
I will post the dates and train numbers to the subject line under the thread.--cla
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I have copies of 14 pages from the Memphis Stationmaster's record book from 1957. Each page shows the Frisco passenger train and car assignments for a single day. For some reason, each page shows the complete rolling stock consist of #106, the northbound “Kansas City-Florida Special,” but it only shows setouts and pickups and total consist car counts for all of the other trains.
As time permits, I will submit information from these pages. However, the information is so extensive that I will need to break it up into pieces. I think I will start with the consists for #106 for each day.
One thing that is fascinating is to see the car rotation cycles on the train. Since it ran from Kansas City to Miami, different cars had different rotation cycles, depending on how many cars it took to cover their portion of the run.
For example, the full RPO car ran between Memphis and Birmingham, so it only took two cars to protect the schedule, and each car appeared in the consist every other day. Since RPOs on other trains didn’t run on Sundays, as on #807 and #808, the “Sunnyland.” Express and baggage cars would reappear every three or four days, depending on their assigned run and whether they needed an overnight stay in a terminal to be loaded. The dining cars and some coaches were on a three-day turn, because they ran from KC to Birmingham. The sleepers ran a four-day turn, because they went through to Florida.
I realize that one would have to access a Frisco passenger car roster or ORER to see the type for each car, but I will leave that exercise to the reader, since the trainmaster’s book only showed the numbers or names. Enjoy!
For your information the Memphis Frisco Stationmaster’s name was W.B. McCaffrey.
Ken McElreath
I will post the dates and train numbers to the subject line under the thread.--cla
***********************
I have copies of 14 pages from the Memphis Stationmaster's record book from 1957. Each page shows the Frisco passenger train and car assignments for a single day. For some reason, each page shows the complete rolling stock consist of #106, the northbound “Kansas City-Florida Special,” but it only shows setouts and pickups and total consist car counts for all of the other trains.
As time permits, I will submit information from these pages. However, the information is so extensive that I will need to break it up into pieces. I think I will start with the consists for #106 for each day.
One thing that is fascinating is to see the car rotation cycles on the train. Since it ran from Kansas City to Miami, different cars had different rotation cycles, depending on how many cars it took to cover their portion of the run.
For example, the full RPO car ran between Memphis and Birmingham, so it only took two cars to protect the schedule, and each car appeared in the consist every other day. Since RPOs on other trains didn’t run on Sundays, as on #807 and #808, the “Sunnyland.” Express and baggage cars would reappear every three or four days, depending on their assigned run and whether they needed an overnight stay in a terminal to be loaded. The dining cars and some coaches were on a three-day turn, because they ran from KC to Birmingham. The sleepers ran a four-day turn, because they went through to Florida.
I realize that one would have to access a Frisco passenger car roster or ORER to see the type for each car, but I will leave that exercise to the reader, since the trainmaster’s book only showed the numbers or names. Enjoy!
For your information the Memphis Frisco Stationmaster’s name was W.B. McCaffrey.
Ken McElreath