Hanging from a pair of chains below the old Frisco Bridge in Memphis, Tennessee, is a large red metal plaque in the shape of the Frisco logo. Engraved on this plaque is this information: "S.L. Lipe 1943-2004." Does anybody have any idea who this person was? I assume he was connected somehow with the Frisco Railroad. I write a history column for Memphis magazine, and one of our readers noticed this. Many thanks for your help. Michael Finger, Senior Editor, Memphis Magazine.
Comments from a former Frisco Superintendent in that area: I worked in and around Memphis for 20 years. The name Lipe does not ring a bell on the Southern Division, but I would guess that this individual was probably in the steel bridge department. On the Frisco the steel brdge men were in a System department with their own cranes and equipment that moved all around the system. They maintained all the steel works. The Division bridge gangs maintained all of the wood and concrete bridges.and painted the steel structures. On the Mississippi River bridge the Steel Bridge gangs and the Divion gangs could possibly be involved either in steel work or replacing the deck ties on the bridge or painting the bridge. This bridge was on the Southern Division in this period and to my knowledge some twenty years later we had no Division bridgemen by the name of Lipe. Another possibility exist in that this individual could be a brakemen that was walking his train looking for dragging equipment or a hotbox. Two different seniority districts used the bridge, the Thayer District and the River District. Seems to me like I remember the name Lipe from around Chaffee, Mo the home terminal on the River District. Sorry that I can't be more definitive. > > Brandt
I worked as a relief operator in Chaffee during the summers of '65-6-7&8. I believe there were some Lipes that worked as trainmen, out of Chaffee during that period, but I have no specific recollection of an S.L. Lipe.
