I bootlegged this off the screen of the War Stories with Ollie North last night, which was about the Eagle Squadrons. It's on the Frisco. That looks like a 1200 on the left in switching service with the headlight up on top and the freight train with the Spot engine popping off is ready to leave the yards. I'm wondering if it's Thayer???? The yard office looking building on the right doesn't look like what I remember at Lindenwood. The bridge may have been the Arsenal viaduct under construction??? Help.
Don, Definitely not Thayer or any outlying yard. Note the huge smokestacks in the background. My guess is the old Frisco Yards toward downtown St. Louis near the former roundhouse, but that's only a little better guess than yours. Ken
I've convinced that it was shot at Lindenwood. The three tall smokestacks on the left should be Scullin Steel and the building in the right background looks like the old City Ice plant that was just east of the Arsenal St. Viaduct. The viaduct looked different in later years, but may have been under construction here. My money is on Lindenwood. Wish it was longer!
There's some other interesting stuff in that short clip. The large engine's tender has so much "weathering" on it, it's almost white. And sitting on the next track over is a live-poultry transport car, a rare beast that almost completely disappeared from the rails after world war II. (See links below.) http://www.hoosiervalley.org/photos/historic-railroad-photos/live-poultry-cars/ http://www.hoosiervalley.org/history/turkeys-and-trains/
It sure does look like Lindenwood. I noticed there are 4 smokestacks in the background, which belonged to the Army ammunition producing plant off Southwest Ave. I agree that the overpass under construction is Arsenal St. It could not be Fyler bridge because it did not have numerous conc. piers. As far as the yard office on the right, it could be replaced with the yard office that is there now or perhaps located further up the tracks. A very interesting piece of video. John
I looked it up and the Arsenal Viaduct was built in 1928, so that may help date this to the early '30s. Wish I knew where they got this.
I was watching War Stories with Oliver North again last night and in the episode about the Manhattan Project, there was about a 3 second clip of Frisco 4003 as a rear end helper on what I'm wondering was the Leonard Wood branch. Couple of semaphores in the picture and new ballast. Looked like a military train of flats with something on them. Wish I knew where the original footage came from!
There has been an AAR (maybe several of them??) public relations movie made about American railroads during WWII. Parts of those films are on YouTube and the cable and satellite channel "RFD TV" has shown them from time to time. I've seen scenes on the YouTube and RFD TV clips that I thought might have been on the Frisco, but they go by pretty fast to make any positive ID's. There are also some Korean War era films of the same subjects. There are some clips of the diesel powered Texas Special from those later films Tom G. Here's an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiPKJZq6CoM
That was a good film to watch and try to see if any railroads were identifiable through equipment. Some in the forum can probably get them, but I had trouble except for the Great Northern logo that sped by in one of the shots. I was lured to another video (Southern Railway Trains during World War II) from the same era when the main one finished. It was fun, way off topic, but it did have steam: British steam. It is amusing if you have time... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQwH9caXfuE
