Freight

[chris]

Have you thought of including an icing platform for your steam-era or early diesel reefer operations? I was rather surprised that there were not more icing stations listed in what official documentation I could find.

As a preface to specific locations, a Regular Icing Station, as defined by my 1926 "Lists of Officers, Stations, Agents, Etc." is " a station, so designated by carrier, which is equipped and located so as to insure proper icing service of refrigerator cars, also where the icing of through shipments is regularly performed."

However, an Emergency Icing Station is defined as "a station...which is not equipped or located to take care of the regular icing of refrigerator cars, but
where an ice supply is procurable and refrigerator cars can, in cases of emergency, or by special arrangements, be iced subject to delay."

Thus, if you're interested in modeling true to prototype and want to include an icing platform, here are the locations of icing stations
in 1926:

Regular Icing Stations
<FONT COLOR="blue">Afton, OK &#40;Only for NB traffic from Southwestern to Northern Divisions&#41;
Birmingham, AL
Ft. Smith, AR
Harvard, AR
Kansas City, MO
Monett, MO
Oklahoma City, OK
St. Louis, MO
Sapulpa, OK
Sherman, TX
Springfield, MO
Wichita, KS</FONT>

Emergency Icing Stations
<FONT COLOR="blue">Ada, OK
Afton, OK &#40;Except NB traffic from Southwestern to Northern Divisions&#41;
Amory, MS
Cape Girardeau, MO
Chaffee, MO
Dallas, TX
Enid, OK
Fayetteville, AR
Ft. Scott, KS
Ft. Worth, TX
Holdenville, OK
Hugo, OK
Joplin, MO
Lawton, OK
Memphis, TN
Paris, TX
Pittsburg, KS
Rogers, AR
Thayer, MO
Tulsa, OK
Willow Springs, MO</FONT>

Of course, there&#39;s always the option of including an icing station regardless, but if the location you are modeling does NOT includean icing station, you can always use that extra room for something else. In my case, omitting the emergency icing station at Chaffee will allow for more room for locomotive servicing facilities, since my layout design includes a narrow, shelf-style layout.

As always, if anyone has pictures of Frisco icing operations, I would be interested in seeing them posted to the Resource Center.

So, ice down those reefers and <FONT COLOR="red"> Ship IT on the Frisco!</FONT>

[chris]

From 1955 Frisco company data:

[chris]

CTB-QLA-BTX Company Brochure; my collection (I have left off the front/back illustrations since they do not lend any specifics on the operation of the trains themselves).

[chris]

Piggyback auto transport from 1959. Chrysler Plant in Fenton, MO. Published in the Frisco Museum's "All Aboard" magazine; posted with permission.

[don]

These must have been concept cars if the photos were taken in 1955. They are all &#39;58 models.

[paul]

I already pointed this out to Chris, but since Don mentioned the cars...

Trailer Train a&#41; didn&#39;t exist until the very end of 1955, and b&#41; didn&#39;t have any 85 foot flatcars until 1959.

Also, I thought the cars looked more like 1959 Plymouths.

Paul

[richard]

<font color="ff0000"><font face="courier new&#44;courier">The cars are &#39;59&#39;s and the trailers belong to &#34;Auto Convoy&#34;. In my book &#34;American Car Haulers&#34; I have illustrated a photo of these same units being unloaded. &#34;Piggybacking&#34; of auto trailers began in 59 and ended in the mid-60&#39;s. Bi-level racks made TOF obsolete but took years to phase in nationwide.</font></font>

[qaprr]

The Chrysler Fenton Plant started production in September 1959. TOFC began on the Frisco in 1955. Frisco started experimenting with the tri-level in 1959, but, as the picture indicates hauled autos piggyback style for several years.

[chris]

Frisco Folks:
Many thanks for the clarifications. Unfortunately my 1950s-era knowledge is not terribly strong, and I&#39;m quite ignorant on my older car model years.

I have not had time to dig out the old museum article and see if the date was printed inaccurately or if it was my own blasted fault for not proofreading properly. Regardless, I appreciate the efforts to make sure that the information is correct!

[chris]

Folks:
Reference William Barham's (courtesy Don Wirth) photo of a Frisco Oil Train at SE Jct. in March, 1943 heading down the River Division:

Curiosity has gotten the best of me. Operationally, I'd always assumed that (1) most oil hauled on the Frisco came from Oklahoma and Texas, and (2) any oil bound for the Frisco's southeastern ports (Pensacola and Mobile via AT&N) would have been routed to Springfield and then to Memphis.

So, what is an oil train of this length doing heading south on the River Division? My best guess is that this oil could have been bound for Chaffee, at which point various cars may have been destined for individual oil companies throughout the River Division by way of local trains.

Or, is there an alternative? I know I've read and heard of some interesting freight routing that seems to defy logic. Perhaps this is another instance.

I'd bee very pleased if anyone has the insight to enlighten me. I'm just glad that there's at least documented evidence allowing me to possibly model a string of tanks on the River Division!

Regards,

Chris Abernathy
Columbia MO
(Modeling the Frisco's River Division in HO-Scale c. 1943)