Hugo, OK, Arthur Subdivision, MP 559.0, Ardmore Sub, MP 559.0, Arkinda-Ardmore Sub, MP 684.9

You put the best ones up here already!

It seems the whole town sprung up after the Arkansas and Choctaw line showed up.

What in the world is that axle doing there?

Kind of a heavy photograph prop.

SLSF 671 was made in 1903?

But the cowcatcher of SLSF 35 do not have a knuckle coupler?

So still using link and pin a couple years after the national ruling?

Off to be repaired?

Or she was a hot shot express engine!

I guess I will have to dig up an old AHM Genoa and start making an old number 35.

 

Coonskin,

Yep, we do not know if it was loaded with a shovel, but I bet it will be unloaded with a shovel!

 

The picture of SLSF number 35 and the tender of SLSF 671 is a delight.

One figure in the photograph catches my eye. There is an individual, who is standing on the valve cover of the steam chest. He is holding a fire rake and he is the only one in the photograph whose face is begrimed.

He also looks to be a mere boy among men. He has gone railroading early in life, and at this young age already knows the dangers, long days, and hard work that is required of him.

He is likely employed as a wiper or similar job. It does not stretch the imagination to believe that he has his sights set on the righthand seat-box, and I wonder if he ever achieved that dream.

As one examines the picture, one can see that a jack has been set under SLSF 761's tender, and it would appear that the wheel set at SLSF 35's pilot is a replacement for one of the wheel sets in the rear truck of that tender. All have taken a break from their duties for the photographer to record this vignette.

Nice picture, thanks for posting it.

 

I mentioned in a post yesterday that Frisco right of way maps were available online at the National Archives.

I should have mentioned that it takes a little bit of luck and effort to locate them. In order to see the online "stuff" you need to access the online catalog. One quick method is through catalog.archives.gov. Not all browsers will allow you to download an entire map at once.

For that reason I use Google Chrome for this. On my version at least, when you click on a map it opens in a window. There is a slider in the bottom left to zoom to full size, 100%. To the right of that is a down arrow. Clicking this selects download the entire file - map, photograph, whatever.

The reason for posting this here is the example map, Hugo, OK. Many of the old Indian Territory, Frisco Central Division maps are listed as Fort Smith and Southern. That was the company Frisco set up to do the initial surveys and begin the construction south of Fort Smith, AR.

 

I was thinking the depot was on the northeast corner. Tax maps do not lie.

So that is the first little wooden station at the diamond?

August 1903?

The diesels seem to sit where the coal and water towers were back then, so not much has changed or gone except the roundhouse and a curve or two to Paris.

The place might be busier now than back then?

Thanks for digging this one up!

 

Posted with permission of Arkansas Boston Mountain Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) newsletter the Scrambler, Mike Sypult, web site administrator.

Article about Frisco Hugo, OK depot in the Scrambler newsletter, March 2020.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/dayoneweb/364/2003.pdf

Picture; is the west or trackside face of the century-old Hugo, Oklahoma, Frisco depot as seen in 2008.

Photograph by J. L. Gattis.

Depot picture pages 1 and Rail Places: The Frisco Depot Museum at Hugo, Oklahoma, pages 9 to 17, by J. L. Gattis

Attachment Hugo, OK depot pdf file.