I made a trip to Kirkwood Missouri and back today a trip of 780 miles round trip. I was able to see sections of the Frisco that I have never seen before, but have read about many times. I was lucky enough to catch a train at West Sullivan on th old Rolla sub. It was a BNSF doublestack. It was a rainy dreary day but seeing the old Frisco made the trip go much faster. The trees along the way are absolutely gorgeous. Hopefully I will get to make the trip again when I can spend a little more time a take some photos. Bob Wintle Parsons, Ks. Tired and sore but home again in Jayhawk land.
It's amazing what a glimpse of old Frisco track will do for ones spirit. Even down here in the deep south. When I go to Pensacola and cross the Frisco tracks and look at the old yard I picture it full of Frisco box cars and a couple of GP38's working. To see the "Sunnyland" speeding through Cantonement behind racehorses. Even here in Mobile where the track was aquired I like to imagine SD45's sitting outside the freight house waiting on the call to pull a train north. Glory days...nothing but glory days
El Bobbo - Next time let us know you are coming and we can show you some of the local Frisco sites. Pentrex offers a nice DVD/VHS: "Ozark Country - BNSF in Missouri, The Cuba Sub" showing a trip down the former Frisco Eastern Division. Alas, no SLSF in it, but the views are all still there! And remember, while our Mizzou friends don't like to admit it, lots of Jayhawk fans here, too. Many StL kids go to KU, son Kurt included. Rock Chalk! Ken
Meteor910 said about Pentrex "Ozark Country Cab Ride" "...Alas, no SLSF in it, but the views are all still there! ..." Well, technically you are correct, but the engineer proudly pointed to his "FRISCO" coonskin cap at the beginning of the program! George "whose house did not show up but the lumber yard just before it did"
Ken: Trip's such as the one I took yesterday are very much a last minute deal. I never know when or where I will be going. I would like to try to plan a trip where several of us could meet and possible rent one of those 15 passenger vans then take off for a day or three and just explore and railfan parts of our favorite road. I think that would be a hoot. Maybe we could plan this next spring. Bob
Here in Lamar it's mostly MU, with a mix of KU, OU, and a little TX. In fact my english teacher last year was a KU fan, so in class we made jokes at him about it, and I still do sometimes, just for fun.
The views and vistas still exists in the Pentrex video, but it's shocking to see how much of the small-town, railroad scene has passed into history. Small-town industries are a thing of the past, and goods are delivered to the small communities via rubber-tired vehicles. As the train passes through town after town, there a common thread of empty roadbeds that once served grain elevators, fertilizer plants, freight houses, and other local industry. I wonder if the hoghead got into trouble for wearing the Frisco cap?
You guys are making my eyes a little misty here . . . . The Pentrex video of the Eastern Division is pretty good if you can filter out the green with your eyes. They should have done more taping in the Springfield Terminal for me. Mark Davidson and I have done some archeological work up in the St Louis area and we even found the Meramec Highlands depot, tunnel, etc. We can only preserve this bygone era with our layouts so let's get to work.
I made an impromptu tour of the mainline from Newburg to Northview today. I took a trip to Doolittle to pick up some small railroad wheels (another story) and decided that since it was too cold to do anything outside, I would just parallel the mainline on the way home as much as possible. Went down to Newburg from I-44, took the backroad over to Alhambra and back up to I-44. This time of year you can see the majority of Bundy Jct from the road about 3/4 the way up the hill. I took I-44 up to the Jerome exit, and again took a backroad (part of which is the old mainline alignment) up to Frank's Switch and over to Dixon. From there it is pretty easy to parallel the mainline through Hancock, Crocker, Richland, Stoutland and Sleeper. At that point, I went ahead and took I-44 back to Marshfield, since I tend to see the mainline between Lebanon and Marshfield whenever I'm out riding the motorcycle on old Route 66. Another interesting side trip is to look at the old roadbed of the railroad that was never built to Buffalo beside Highway 32 west of Lebanon. This is a good time of year to take the sightseeing tours - less leaves to obstruct the view of the trains. I may have to take a trip down to Ava to look over the remains of the Kansas City, Ozarks and Southern roadbed again while the trees are cooperative... - James
James - Sounds like a good trip. My son and I took the ride from Newburg to Alhambra and back up the hill to old 66 years ago - but we couldn't see squat as it was during the summer. Nice ride, though! Did you take any pictures? The view of Bundy Jct from 3/4 of the way up the hill on the local road would be a good one. Ken
Ken - No pictures, my Kodak digital camera died last week and I haven't replaced it yet. I don't know how good of a photo I could get of the wye anyway; The view from the hill is ok, but there are still a lot of trees in the way even with the leaves off. The only other part of the mainline that is hard to parallel by road is between Sleeper and Lebanon. You can get to some of it, but nothing follows it very far. I always liked the area between Jerome and Franks, it's very scenic and neat to compare the old roadbed to the newer existing mainline. There is another realignment that is visible between Swedeborg and Richland - maybe MP 150-153? Hwy 133 runs beside the old roadbed most of the way. It's a fun drive if you're in the area! - James
