My December 1945 Official Guide shows train called "Twin Meteor" serving St. Louis, Monett and Wichita. The westbound trains were Nos 5-305 and eastbound counterpart was Nos 306-6. This was right after WWII. The November 1952 Official Guide shows the westbound St. Louis to Wichita train to be "The Will Rogers" Nos 3-303 and the eastbound train to be "The Meteor" Nos 304-10. The Air Capital Limited may not have survived into WWII.
The ad posted here for the "Air Capital Limited" is dated 1929. That would certainly be the era when Wichita was coming into prominence as an aircraft manufacturing center. More information on the Air Capital Limited is probably in some of the books Frisco Power, Frisco Southwest and Stagner's Steam Locomotives Of The Frisco Line. Sorry, my books aren't handy at this moment. Tom
HI all After reading this thread I got to digging around the internet and found this in the Frisco Employees' Magazine. See page 16 in link or attached file. http://thelibrary.org/lochist/frisco/magazines/fem_1929_10/fem_1929_10_16.pdf Looks like the train was first run September 8, 1929. Just 2 months before the stock market crash which may have doomed the train way too early. Have a great day Darren
The Great Depression and WWII brought an end to many of the trains. The war kept the routes in business, maybe, but caused elimination of special services and many distinct names. Somebody is bound to have copies of a sequence of Official Guides or timetables that will show the end of the Air Capital Limited.
Yes. Beech, Cessna, Stearman, and Mooney were all founded in Wichita during the late 1920s and during early 1930s.
The Stearman Aircraft Corporation became a division of Boeing in 1934. It operated as a division until September, 1941. At that time it was designated as the Wichita Division, Boeing Aircraft Company. Boeing sold the civilian aircraft operations to Onix, forming Spirit AeroSystems in 2005. Boeing retain the military aircraft operations. Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
As far as the Boeing Military Operations in Wichita, they have been moved to Tinker AFB in Oklahoma. We have no links left to the Boeing Company. At one time, Frisco had a siding that went to the Beech Aircraft Co. in East Wichita. Tony LaLumia.
It should also be noted that the Lear Jet factory was established in the very earlier 1960's at the Wichita Airport. Many famous people bought them and would visit the factory including Frank Sinitara, Danny Kaye, Arnold Palmer, etc. Not served by railroad, although the Santa Fe had a line within a quarter mile.
Beech, a 15-car length side track, was at MP F-498.5. Bonanza, a two-mile lead, into Beech’s Factory Air Field, was at MP F498.1
