GP15-1 SLSF 114 GP15-1 SLSF 114 From the cover of the 1979 Frisco Annual Report. Published in the Frisco Museum's All Aboard magazine. Posted with permission.
I'm exhausted after listing, and then selling, my SLSF 1519 tonight! Now I must face the equal trauma of doing the same for my SLSF 1522. While I struggle with that task, here are two more old snap shots from prior Frisco-watching trips, probably tacked on to a fishing trip in the Meramec River valley with Kurt at Meramac Spring outside of St James. We combined those two pleasant missions often! (Yes, the spelling is different!) This is GP15-1 SLSF 114, I think in Cuba, MO, sitting at the junction of the Salem/Buick/Viburnum branch with the Eastern Division main there. Timing is likely Spring, 1980. Though these pictures are undated, I say 1980 because the of green 1975 Chevrolet, whose headlights are just visible to the right in the side view of SLSF 114. This is my former Monsanto company car from my days in Cincinnati, which I bought from them in early 1979 when we moved back to St Louis, and then sold in the summer of 1980 when we got a new 1980 Chevy. GP15-1 SLSF 114 was delivered to the Frisco in August, 1977. The GP15's were nice locomotives, a modern 645-engined version of the trusty GP7s that the Frisco loved so well. Ken
Thanks for posting the photos, Ken. I am with you, the GP15-1 was a suitable replacement for the old GP7.
Ken; You are probably correct on your estimation about the time frame the photograph was taken of the GP15-1 for two reasons. (1) It is my understanding that when originally delivered they were all but one assigned to the line from Monett thru Ft. Smith. I am more than willing to be corrected on this. I love to tell the story about the two energetic young railfans who I overheard talking at a train meet in Springfield about a year after they arrived making it a mission of theirs to photograph all of them and they had been successful except for one unit, SLSF 102. After overhearing that, I turned around and said that I bet it was SLSF 102 and they were amazed that I knew that. I told them that upon delivery it was brought to Wichita to work the Ellsworth branch. I know that toward the end of the Frisco they began to roam over the system. Rick McClellan remembers seeing them in Kansas City in the 1979-1980 time period. (2) Look at how dirty it is!
Bob - Agree on the GP15-1 dispositions! I think this might have been the first GP15-1 we ever saw. They were rare in these Eastern Division parts. Though my pictures back then were not very good, this is a good shot of the rear of a GP15-1. There are not many good views from the rear. For whatever reason, back then I had trouble centering the subject in my pictures! Ken
It is true that they roamed on the system after the initial disposition as we also had them in Tulsa. Terry
