Hello, I model in HO scale. My current layout is based on the FRISCO, the MOPAC, the TRRA, and Manufacturers Railway in the St. Louis area, and points south. Growing up in Arnold, Missouri, I had the FRISCO north of my house, (River Sub) and the MOPAC, (DeSoto Sub) south of it. Both were just a bike ride away. The layout is 40 feet long and one end is 7 feet wide, and the other end is 16 feet long. It runs on Digitrax DCC Super Chief with Radio Throttles. Its great to be part of a group who keeps the FRISCO running down the rails. Jerel Eames
Jerel, Welcome Aboard! Tell us more about your layout and by all means share photos of your layout. Do you have operating sessions with multiple operators working as train crews doing pickups and setouts?
Jerel, welcome aboard. We'll claim you as a River Division modeler first, and a MoP guy secondary. Looking forward to more details on your layout. Best Regards,
Jerel: Welcome to the greatest RR group on the Internet! If you don't believe me just ask anyone else on here. BTW, none of them are biased! Anyway, enjoy the ride!
Welcome to the group, Jerel. I like the Frisco, but the MP is first for me (if you can't tell). Even so, everybody here has been very tolerant of that fact. Chris, you can try to claim Jerel as a Frisco first guy, but I know that he has been on the MoPac list before now. That makes him a MoPac first guy in my book.
OMG! Another fan of the Big Dipper!!! Woe is us, WOE is us! Just funnin' wit 'cha Jerel. Welcome aboard and... i like the mop too. Andre
Indeed...in the spirit of good fun and full disclosure, the first ever decal set that I purchased for any HO-scale diesel was a "Screamin' Eagle" set. The MoP will have it's proud place on our Frisco Northern Division layout as a vital interchange partner with the SL-SF. Best Regards,
My layout of Cape Girardeau, Mo will include both of the good railroads; Frisco and MoP (that's all that was there).
And, continuing the spirit of full disclosure ..... the very first non-Athearn Blue Box HO kit I ever built was the Silver Streak Missouri Pacific drovers caboose. Nice kit, not exactly MP prototypical, but for sure a good looking drovers caboose. I still have it, and still use it ..... but it has been in Frisco colors for about the last thirty years! Still not prototypical, but still good looking! Ken ps: The MoP was indeed a fine road, and I miss it and the good times I had with Kurt when he was young watching the MoP come up the hill in either direction at the Kirkwood depot.
Had my camera close, so I snapped a couple of quick pics of the Silver Streak drovers caboose - formerly MP, now in SLSF colors. I built it in 1962. She looks a bit dusty under the eye of the camera - need to dust her off before the few people who ever ride it complain! I use in in a mixed local train, powered by SLSF 553, my Alco RS2m, built by the Tom Holly Grand Junction shops, which, of course, runs long hood forward. Ken
Jim - Yes, the roof is weathered heavily, sides less so. Dirty windows as well. But, the car was a bit dusty - I gave it a brush-off yesterday after I saw the pics I took. It's an old warrior - been around on "my Frisco" for 50 years now. Other than being repainted to SLSF colors, it is essentially as-built in 1962. My, how time flies! Ken
yardmaster: You too??? My first ever decal set for my first repaint/relettering efforts was for the Mop!! Champ sets! This was occasioned after spending an entire Saturday at the Mop's East Bottoms Yard via a fellow that worked there. This would have been back in 1965 or '66 when I was but a youngster. Climbed up/in/on engines in the shops, rode a yard job most of the afternoon, etc, etc! Great memories! I came home from that trip and IMMEDIATELY decided to repaint my Athearn Santa Fe motive power into Big Dipper Blue with buzzsaws! I was basically a "Mop Modeler" until my discovery of the Frisco's Fort Smith Sub after moving to Arkansas in '69. From there on out, the Frisco was tops on my list... but I still always enjoyed seeing a Big Dipper train/engine in/around Fort Smith or elsewhere. Andre
