Hello Frisco Folks Here are some pictures of Frisco 4-8-4 Northerns SLSF 4500, 4501, 4502, & 4503 Enjoy, Rich Ship it on the Frisco!
Beauty And The Beast For Halloween St. Louis Union Station yards on 8/31/1947. Beautiful, nice, feminine, graceful Frisco 4-8-4 SLSF 4502 is threatened by a horrible lizard looking ogre from the east.
That is the beauty and the beast. Locomotive 4-8-4 SLSF 4502 is a beauty, but that Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) T-1 4-4-4-4 is something from outer space.
Don The PRR Motive Department's collective ego just would not let them do anything "ordinary", would it. The T-1 has to be a classic example of trying too hard. If they had built a truly modern 4-8-4 instead, you wonder what difference it might have made. I think it really galled them that the J1 2-10-4s that they built during WWII, which were copies of C&O T-1s since the War Production Board would not allow a new design. Turned out to be one of their most successful freight-haulers, lasting until the very end of steam. Great picture! Gordon
The pendulum always swings from one extreme to the other. If I cannot find anything nice to say about the PRR shark nose, then I would not say it at all!
Gordon and Chris both have valid points. The Pennsy had many "strange" looking designs. Personally, I have never cared for any type of streamlining on a steam Locomotive. Come to think of it, I can make the same statement about diesels after the E7A (EA7) and E8A era. And, the same goes for all the "jelly-bean" looking automobiles and trucks.
We all know where 4-8-4 SLSF 4500 and SLSF 4501 ended up, but what about SLSF 4502? When was it retired, and where was it scrapped?
Dennis, The second edition of Frisco Power has a color photograph of 4-8-4 SLSF 4502, at least the backside of its tender and many of its Northern brethren in 1955. They are at what I think is the partially-demolished remnants of the North Yard roundhouse in Springfield, MO? Might be Lindenwood Yard in St. Louis, MO. In any event, SLSF 4502 is definitely in retirement but not scrapped. Beyond that, I am having trouble finding a final disposition/scrapping date. Perhaps someone else will be able to chime in. Best Regards,
Those engines were stored at Lindenwood Yard, St. Louis, MO until the equipment trust notes were paid off. I think I was overseas in the Army in the early 1960s when 4-8-4 SLSF 4502 was cut up. Lindenwood is where the 4-8-2 SLSF 1501, 1522, 1526 and 2-10-0 SLSF 1621 were cosmetically restored for donation. Strangely, 4-8-4 SLSF 4501 was just sent to Dallas, TX unrestored. Never quite understood that, but she looks good now. SLSF 4519 was the last 4500 to be cut up. She sat at Ft. Scott, KS for years and was finally taken to Springfield, MO and slaughtered.
Jim Ozment has lots of images of the 4500s and several of the 1500s at Lindenwood during the time that Don describes. http://www.westernrailimages.com/keyword/lindenwood;louis/
There must be a mistake here. With apologies to Don, I have the 4-8-4 SLSF 4502 in my Frisco steam locomotive collection. It is in beautiful condition, and I might add is being well taken care of.
Thanks for the replies, it helps. Looks like those "Meteor" engines got painted to regular black in their later years, and 4-8-4 SLSF 4502 was still around to the end in black. Besides the three 4500s, what engines were painted Zephyr blue?
I have one of the shop built Frisco whistles, which is a copy, or clone of the Hancock three chime, long bell "step top" with a cast iron bowl and integral valve. The true, all brass or bronze Hancock step top was produced from 1938 I have heard all the 4500s built in 1942 were equipped with the Frisco built copy of this whistle. The streamlined 4-6-2s used the older design Hancock flat top, and the whistles for those engines were nickel plated. My whistle is the top version, but the valve bowl has its old original "Zephyr" blue, Meteor paint color, instead of black, as I have seen on others. I thought maybe since 4-8-4 SLSF 4500 and SLSF 4501 were accounted for, that this one I have might have been on SLSF 4502, since it was the only blue engine that was scrapped. Problem with that theory is, it looks like SLSF 4502 went to scrap in black paint, and its whistle would have been black too.
