Frisco trains No 5 and No 6 led a fascinating life, but for the sake of time, I’ll begin this narrative on February 27, 1938. On that day, the Frisco discontinued trains No 5 and No 6, the St Louis - Springfield local. The one time Southwest Limited was much diminished from the St Louis - Oklahoma City train it once was. With some changes to the Bluebonnet’s schedule, Frisco management believed it could maintain service levels between St Louis and Springfield. Fort Leonard Wood was established during 1940, and the government completed the Ft. Wood Branch between Bundy Junction and the fort during May 1941. The Frisco thought that it saw a demand for passenger service between Springfield and St Louis, and on April 13, 1941, trains No 5 and No 6 returned to the Frisco timecard as The General Wood. The FTC’s buses provided service, 8 daily round trips, to the fort via Rolla and Newburg. On December 27, 1941, the Office of Price Administration (OPA) began its first rationing program by limiting the number of tires that an individual could own. This was followed by a 35 mph speed limit, and gasoline rationing. Even with these restrictions, ridership between Newburg and Springfield did not support the train’s operation between those two communities. On May 22, 1942 the Frisco discontinued operation between Newburg and Springfield. However, by the last winter of the war, The Meteor had more traffic than it could handle, and on Feb 4, 1945, the Frisco assigned the name, “The Twin Meteor”, to numbers No 5 and No 6, and it assigned numbers 11 and 12 to The General Wood. The Twin Meteor departed St Louis 15 minutes after the Meteor left town and arrived in OKC about 40 minutes after the arrival of The Meteor. The Twin Meteor handled through head-end traffic, local passenger traffic, and Pullman traffic for the Central Division and the Kansas Division between St Louis and Monett. Once the war was over, people returned to their automobiles; on May 12, 1946, the Frisco cut-back The Twin Meteor to Monett; on September 15, 1946, the Frisco discontinued the General Wood; on May 17, 1947, the Frisco discontinued the Twin Meteor. Trains No 5 and No 6 no longer graced the time card. By May of the following year, Pullman had delivered most of The Texas Special and The Meteor streamlined train sets. Prior to the inaugural run of both new trains, the Frisco dropped its half of the Bluebonnet operations. On April 30, 1948, the Frisco ceased operations trains of No 7 and No 8, and it returned on May 15, 1958, No 5 and No 6 back to the schedule. This time 5 and 6, The Oklahoman, were a local operation, which operated between St Louis and Tulsa. The purpose of the new 5 and 6 was to handle some of the local traffic, which was handled previously by the Bluebonnet. On January 30, 1949, the Frisco discontinued No 5 and No 6 between Tulsa and Springfield. As traffic levels declined further the Frisco discontinued service between Springfield and Newburg on April 20, 1952. Trains 5 and 6 left the schedule forever on September 30, 1957. During the latter years, No 5 and No 6 were used mostly by deadheading employees to get to and from Springfield, Newburg and St Louis.
