Yes,but what is the reason why Frisco stopped using Floydada as the interchange point and moved to Avard, Oklahoma.
Colin, The interchange point was moved for several reasons. Chief among them was a more direct route, improved transit time and reduced costs. Also, the western Oklahoma town is Avard, not Alvard and the Texas town is Floydada, not Floydaya. Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
In his book on the QA&P, Don Hofsommer Stated that Santa Fe never wanted to use the Floydada, TX gateway. This was, at least in part, because the Santa Fe got a lower percentage of the line haul revenue on the traffic. Frisco management fought hard for it, and initially won the argument. Frisco Management changed over time, and eventually agreed to change the interchange point. That decision eventually lead to the demise of the QA&P, because the bridge traffic provided most of the lines revenue.
As earlier posters have said, the Floydada/Frisco interchange, was kind of out of the way for the ATSF, they never really supported it, nor did they care for it, long term. The ATSF also made many subjective statements and overtures, that thwarted, expansion by the QA&P and other RR's, southward or westward, they were the only ones with cash, but were unwilling to commit. Hofsommer's book beginning on page 80, talks about the ultimate, El Paso connection via the west Texas east New Mexico borders, but T&P as well as SP connection were also desirable. One must remember Plainview and Lubbock were competing for rail access to ST. Louis, and points east, as well as westward California traffic. Lubbock was the underdog at the time. It should be noted that by the roaring 20's, the area rail infrastructure was fairly developed, compared to population density. But "the times" caught up with the QA&P and in the late 1920's, the great depression, basically killed expansion, for everything, and Floydada was settled upon, that killed the QA&P, it just took it 40 some-odd years to die. As has been said, we used to see opportunity in difficulty, now, we see difficulty in opportunity. The ATSF, also wanted more route miles = more $$, and that's how it worked out, in the end. The Avard connection was a better fit for the ATSF, and in the end for the Frisco, it just sucks that it worked out that way. One should not forget, that little railroad had some dynamic leadership, like Sam Lazarus and Charles Sommers in the early years, that were visionaries, knew where they needed to build towards, and were able to get much support from the mother road to expand traffic possibilities. Perhaps the most unsung heroes of the QA&P were the marketing agents. I mean those guys worked magic for the QA&P countless brochures, postcards and advertising QA&P routing advantages. As has been said, that little giant of a railroad was just 113 miles, but has a large following. Sorry for going on so long, but it is just astonishing what a few years and a couple breaks could have done for the QA&P and the Frisco. Can you imagine what an El Paso connection would mean for traffic nowadays?
Here are some drink coasters that promoted the Frisco-Santa Fe train that interchanged at Avard, the "Straight Shooter".
Interesting pieces of memorabilia. For those of you who are curious, the Straight Shooter was the "official" name of QLA, the ATSF-SLSF-SCL run-through that operated from Los Angeles, CA to Hamlet, NC. QLA also went by the name Transcontinental Highball on the ATSF.
For historical perspective... http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/joint-atsf-sl-sf-ptt-nov-1911.4954/#post-35571 and http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/st-louis-and-san-fransisco.3706/#post-24825
Any idea how many total trains the QLA-BTX ran on a given day? The ETT's have them listed as one train per day in each direction, so how many total would it take coast to coast to keep that consistent schedule?
Did Santa Fe and Frisco ran troop trains to ,say, Birmingham,Alabama to the Central of Georgia connection to Fort Benning,GA during WW2
Ethan, generally there was one train a day for both the QLA and BTX. The QLA was all merchandise and arrived in Tulsa in the early morning where as the BTX was general freight and arrived after dark. I remember firing for Harvey Bearden on BTX one afternoon and as we left Monett, he made the comment that working for the railroad was like playing and getting paid for it. The BTX did not run through Tulsa. Both trains were humped, but the QLA was a hot train to get on the way west. At one point it was due out of Tulsa by 11:00 am, and the trainmaster on duty made the comment one day that his job was good for one more day because the train left on time. The return train for the QLA was the CTB while OBX was the return train for the BTX. Occasionally a QSF would run west, and when that happened we would have an extra train 36 in return. The QLA was a beautiful train as it was all box cars (mostly Southern) and pigs. During heavy traffic times, the Frisco would run an advance QLA into Tulsa. That may have been the traffic for the QSF (speculation). Maybe some one else can provide that information. Terry
