Karl, Thanks so much for posting this. Terrific! Reading it brought a tear to my eye. Made me realize again how much I miss that wonderful, interesting railroad, and in particular those "Famous Horse" E7As & E8As! Ken Meteor910
Superb writing, Karl. You've done an outstanding job of painting a picture with words and photos for that matter for those of us who missed out on Frisco passenger action. The behind-the-scenes cab ride was great! Thanks very much for sharing with us all.
Thanks for the kind words. Last week my brother and I were talking, and the subject of our cab ride on No 101 came up. That kicked off the memories, and we starting talking about our Frisco passenger train “adventures”. Sure do miss red E-units and heavyweight coaches.
Bulletin 2842 - Discontinuance of Trains No 101 and 102, The Southland - December 8, 1967 Bulletin 2842 provided the sad news.
A sad ending. I was just thinking back in time after reading Karl's posting, In late November, 1967, Caroline and I were at Purdue University where I was in graduate school. Money was a bit tight, so we decided to stay up in Lafayette for Thanksgiving so we would be able to afford to come home to St. Louis for Christmas in a few weeks. She was pregnant with Kurt but even so I was able to pull together enough loose change to at least go out to a nice local place to treat her to a Thanksgiving dinner. It was Morris Bryant, a local favorite. I remember that holiday weekend like it was yesterday. Little did I know then that, in a few days, the official word would come out that Frisco passenger service, and those wonderful E7 and E8 famous horse units, would be discontinued soon. Several weeks earlier, September/October, 1967, the Monon had made a similar announcement that all Monon passenger service was at an end. I recall driving over to "Shops", the Monon's big Lafayette yard and shops complex, to see all the Monon passenger equipment sitting in the yard looking very forlorn. Little did I know the same fate was about to happen to the Frisco as well. Does anyone have the earlier Frisco notice that The Oklahoman, St. Louis to Oklahoma City, was to be discontinued? Ken
Late Summer 1967 found me in Memphis with a bicycle. Looking through the Guide, I noted it was possible to leave Memphis on the Frisco for Hoxie, Arkansas, then catch Missouri Pacific for St. Louis. My one and only chance to ride Frisco would have taxed my hosts for No 102 left at 7:15 AM. The Hoxie layover was carded for just under two hours, and MP No 4 was supposed to arrive in St. Louis at 5:45 PM. It would have been an adventure. However, a friend was driving to St. Louis, anyway. He put the bicycle in the trunk, me in the back seat and delivered me to my front door. Sometimes it is hard to tell whether luck is good or bad!
Anyone have train off information for the Monett-Wichita trains No 303-304 or No 309-310? Thanks, Tom
Hello all, Have been a member for a few years, I guess, but this is my first post. Grew up in Springfield just a stone's throw from the old Chadwick branch in southwest Springfield. I can't remember a time when I wasn't fascinated by the Frisco. Used to wait for the evening train down to Galloway that serviced the cement plant down there and sometimes it would be pulled by a GP7 instead of the usual switcher. That was a treat. Also, my grandmother lived in Pocahontas AR in the early to mid 60's. My parents used to ship my brother, sister and me down there in the summers to get us out of their hair. They'd put us on the "Southland" and we would be watched over by the porter until we got down to Imboden, where we'd get off and be picked up by the grandparents. I have a Frisco passenger timetable from 1965 and it shows only one train between Kansas City to Birmingham, and it indicates that it was equipped with a Pullman and a buffet car. I know your memory is wont to play tricks on you; but I remember that train as being heavyweight coaches only. I don't remember seeing any lightweight equipment, Pullmans or buffet cars. I can clearly remember a vendor getting on at Thayer and selling box lunches, and how disappointed we were that he wouldn't sell us one, seemed that you had to order ahead of time or something like that. Any way, was just wondering if anyone had any memories or information regarding "The Southland" in the early 1960s? Final note, my grandmother used to tell us as she put us on the train at Imboden, "make sure you sit on the left hand side of the car so you can see all the waterfalls on the Spring River".
