Where is your Frisco?

Discussion in 'General' started by HWB, Mar 20, 2009.

  1. HWB

    HWB FRISCO.org Supporter

    I know some of us are not fortunate enough to live in the same place where we grew up with the Frisco, so where are you now and how close are you to where the Fisco once roamed?

    Here is a link to my album with recent pictures of ex-Frisco property in Mobile, AL

    http://www.frisco.org/vb/album.php?albumid=41
     
  2. frinyd

    frinyd Member

    I'm in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
     
  3. Coonskin

    Coonskin Member

    Everytime I go to work, I cover the very ground I used to haunt as a young man. I am an engineer for the Arkansas & Missouri RR.

    My first exposure to the Ft. Smith (Arkansas) Yard area was either late '69 or early '70. Those times marked the start of when and where I began to learn about running engines, servicing them, switching, etc, etc.

    Guess you can "go home".

    Andre Ming
     
  4. yardmaster

    yardmaster Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    CoMo is Wabash and Katy territory, but not too far from strongholds like KCMO, Saint Louis or Lebanon.
     
  5. railroadguy65

    railroadguy65 Member

    :) The heart of Frisco Country near Springfield,Mo.

    I am lucky enough to travel around line (by road of course) from Springfield to Ft. Scott Kansas to Clinton,Mo to Thayer, Mo and down to Neosho, Mo. It is always a treat to be hwy 60 along the line and pace a train for a mile or two.

    Every now and then you hope to round a bend and that 1522 would be there, but those are just memories now :rolleyes:
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 20, 2009
  6. bob_wintle

    bob_wintle Member Frisco.org Supporter

    I am in Parsons, Kansas and live only 1.5 blocks from the old Frisco Line that ran from Parsons through Dennis and onto Cherryvale. The old Frisco unloading dock is still there and only about a blockand a half from my house. The Frisco lives on in my garage. Long may she live!
    Bob Wintle
     
  7. I'm in Van Buren, AR The Frisco line runs within half a mile of my house. It and my Grandpa's stories are what got me interested in the line. I sometimes fell jealous because I've never seen a pure Frisco unit in service on the road.:(
    Ship it on the Frisco!!!


    Murphy Millican
     
  8. WindsorSpring

    WindsorSpring Member

    This thread is hard to resist!

    The Frisco for me has moved in time, not space. It is 29 years ago, more or less. The tracks are still behind the back fence and trains still run, but under a different name. My timing was not the best. Steam was long gone when I moved into the house. It was too late for passenger trains (except for the Amtrak specials to Ft. Leonard Wood). Most diesels were in orange and white. However, from the eighties to 2002, the monthly house payments gave me a chance to see and hear 1522 go by up close once in awhile.
     
  9. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    We live in Saint Louis, in the suburb of Frontenac, about 15 minutes north of the SLSF Eastern Division main line.

    We met some friends down on The Hill tonight for dinner - on the way home, I drove out I-44 by Lindenwood Yard. No SLSF there any more, just BNSF, but there was a lot of action and a lot going on!

    Ken
     
  10. yardmaster

    yardmaster Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    I'm not sure how much of that action heads Southeast, but my parents (mom a lifelong resident of Chaffee) say the old River Division seems to be at its busiest since the good old days of black-and-gold Frisco units.

    Andre mentioned that "you can go home again" and I'm glad those sentiments can be felt. Alas, Chaffee today looks so much unlike my earliest memories, when the passenger depot and old division General Office Building still remained.
     
  11. FRISCO4503

    FRISCO4503 FRISCO4503 Frisco.org Supporter

    I grew up in Independence Kansas about 10 miles from Cherryvale where the FRISCO once was. I now live in San Antonio where the Frisco would bring passenger trains like the Texas Special down from Dallas. Right outside of San Antonio to the north is New Braunfels Tx Where the Frisco also made its historic Stops. I am not sure if anything still remains but the FRISCO lives now all over my house with a 12X24 layout in the front room which is the first thing you see when you come in the house. I also have a little FRISCO in every room from Pictures on the walls to Switch keys, models, etc sitting on shelves, and the fireplace mantles. I also have a bit of the Santa Fe with the original wall clock that was in the Ottawa Kansas depot which my grandfather aquired when they ended passenger service at the depot in the 50's. THe clock now hangs above my layout in memory of my Grandfather.
     
  12. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    As we drove by Lindenwood tonight going out I-44 (around 8pm?), there was a long train - lots of containers - coming up into the yard from the Eastern Division. I saw a headlight sitting down on the River Division below SE Junction, so there likely was a train from there waiting for the stacker to clear the way so it could enter the yard as well.

    Nice to see both of the former Frisco StL lines are still busy!

    Ken
     
  13. klrwhizkid

    klrwhizkid Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    I grew up in Cape Girardeau and memories are very strong, from the Frisco trains that rolled through downtown along the river, shaking all the stores, to the same tracks further south that ran along in front of Marquette Cement, where my dad worked and the old Wig-Wag Signal guarded the entrance. Also on out past the Diversion Channel and Nash Junction all the way to Advance and Rombauer - track that my greatgrandfather fired on. From the sixties, when family vacations took us to Tablerock and since my wife was from Springfield I have traced that old right-of-way many, many times over the years. Even though the old railroad signposts have almost all disappeared I still call out the names of each waypoint as I pass. Now in KC, I can't help but be reminded of all this despite the fact the colors have gone from the beautiful blues reds and whites, blacks & yellows, red-oranges and whites to the fall pumpkin patch colors.....
     
  14. FriscoFriend (Bob Hoover RIP 4/12/2018)

    FriscoFriend (Bob Hoover RIP 4/12/2018) Passed Away April 12, 2018 Frisco.org Supporter

    I, like Will, also grew up in Independence, KS and was a Santa Fe enthusist back then. I do remember going to Neodesha which was 13 miles north and seeing dirty Black & Yellow F Units idling in the yard and thought them boring compared to trhe beautiful Warbonnets that came through Independence.
    After moving to Wichita, I met Tony LaLumia who was maybe the only real Frisco modeler here at the time. Over time he influenced me into falling in love with the Orange & White (my favorite color). I will never forget the time we took a road trip to Ft. Scott so we could see an SD45 as six axle power never came here.
    In college I met my wife Ronda who was from Severy and now I am starting my dream RR which is from Neodesha to Severy in late 1980.
    Thanks Tony and Ronda for helping me live my memories!

    Bob Hoover
    FriscoFriend
     
  15. Iantha_Branch

    Iantha_Branch Member

    Same here! When I got into model railroading I collected BNSF modern day stuff and ATSF steamers. But then my grandpa told me a little about frisco and that's were I got my start on becoming a SLSF fan. My house has a big window facing the south and you can see the BNSF trains going by now but back before November 1980 it would have been frisco going by. My grandpa told me that towards the end of frisco the tracks where called dancing rails because of poor management they weren't in the best shape. There's other memories he told me but I won't right thoughs in this post then it would get to long, but if you want me to post some of them jsut tell me to and I'll post what I can remember what he has told me ASAP.
     
  16. John Markl

    John Markl Member

    I guess I am a lucky one. My first Frisco experience was 4 years in Atmore, Alabama in the mid-70's. A steady diet of GP38s with an occasional GP7 was the norm. The only black units I saw in person were in Atmore, a GP7 now and then.

    In '77 I moved to Sherman, TX, where I still reside 30+ years later. Here I was exposed to a lot of SD45s, GP35's, U-Boats, and more GP38s, along with GP40-2s as well.

    So, I got a pretty good Frisco fix, and well remember the BN patch jobs after 1980. A good friend of mine just retired as a BNSF car man. He was a Frisco original.
     
  17. JimB

    JimB Member

    Wow! this thread brought back GREAT memories of being in the car with my family, at the corner of Broadway and Commercial, in Springfield, about 1957. This was probably the first time I ever saw a train up close and personal. Broadway rises gently up and passes a grain elevator to cross what was then, probably a double or triple track. We were actually on the north side of the track facing south. It was night, or evening, and warm because the windows were open and we could hear the squeal of flanges on rail. My dad and I counted cars of a long freight train. I remember a fire of some kind in a wheel (? journal box) and I'm pretty sure the car was some type of open hopper, white or at least a light color, that clearly had "FRISCO" painted across the side. It may be the fire that caused me to remember this so vividly. Now I'm hundreds of miles away from there in St Louis, but Springfield was my home. I only wish I had had more interest, and paid greater attention when I was so close and the time was magical!

    Thanks for this post!

    Jim
     
  18. friscobob

    friscobob Staff Member Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    I've been lucky to have lived in several locations served by Frisco- Afton, OK (on the Cherokee and Afton Subs), Ft. Smith, Hugo, OK (A&A and Arthur Subs), Paris, TX (Arthur Sub, plus the Frisco-Santa Fe depot), Sherman, TX, and now Muskogee, OK. The old Frisco freight house here in ton is now the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, and is kitty-corner from the Three Rivers Museum (former Midland Vally passenger depot). Still some extant Frisco track in town operated by BNSF.

    I was awakened quite a few times around 4:30 AM to the sound of train QLA racing thru Afton en route to Tulsa, and thought those hi-nose U25Bs Frisco used were odd-looking.
     
  19. U-3-b

    U-3-b Member Frisco.org Supporter

    I live in Rogers, AR just a block and a half from the Arkansas and Missouri and I get to hear trains often and see them when I am out and about. I also get to hear them when they are on their way to Monett in the morning and back in the afternoon when I am at work.

    I saw the real Frisco only once in Neodesha while going from college to my roommates house for the weekend.

    What got me interested was living near the tracks and seeing what once was and being a historian got me to doing some research and then buying photos on E-bay and now getting models.

    Steve
     

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