Железная дорога Сент-Луис — Сан-Франциско: История и наследие "Frisco"

Former American railroad

The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway , commonly known as the "Frisco", was a railroad that operated in the Midwest and South Central United States from 1876 to November 21, 1980. At the end of 1970, it operated 4547 mile (7318 km) of road on 6574 mile (10580 km) of track, not including subsidiaries Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway and the Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad; that year, it reported 12,795 million ton miles of revenue freight and no passengers. It was purchased and absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1980. Despite its name, it never came close to San Francisco.

Frisco 200, a Baldwin VO 1000 switcher and Frisco’s very first diesel locomotive of any kind, was sold to the Navy, which in 2015 sold it to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum located in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which has it stored out of service. The U. S. Navy acquired a number of the Frisco VO 1000 diesels, reportedly including Numbers 200 203 and 205 206. Other units may still be in use by the Navy, or may have been sold to other parties. Frisco 814 is an operational General Motors EMD F9A, located at the Oklahoma Railway Museum in Oklahoma City. The Frisco's only operation of F9A units occurred when two of the line's EMD F3A units were converted into F9A units.)

Multiple surviving buildings, structures and locations associated with the Frisco are on the National Register of Historic Places, including the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad Building in Joplin, Missouri, the St. Louis San Francisco Railroad Depot in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Depot in Comanche, Texas, the Beaumont St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad Retention Pond, and the Beaumont St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad Water Tank. Frisco Lake, a small lake in Rolla, Phelps County, Missouri, was named for and owned by the Frisco. The Frisco Building, being the former Frisco headquarters in Springfield built in 1910 and now known as the Landmark Building, is an official City of Springfield counsel approved landmark. The Frisco Bridge at Memphis was the first bridge over the Mississippi River south of St. Louis, and the third longest bridge in the world at the time of its dedication on May 12, 1892; it is now listed as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

Frisco series 2100 equipment consisted of self propelled rail motor cars, mostly gas electric models, These railway vehicles were commonly known as "Doodlebugs" for their insect like appearance and the slow speeds at which they would doddle or "doodle" down the tracks. These were used to service various low volume branch lines in the Frisco organization. An initial order for ten was placed in 1910, with seven more arriving by 1913, putting Frisco in the forefront of gas electric operation at that time. Frisco started a serious dieselization program in 1947, which took about five years. When the period of steam power ended for Frisco in February, 1952 with the last run of steam engine 4018, the Frisco’s diesel fleet included seventeen 2,250 HP passenger, six 2,000 HP passenger, twelve 1,500 HP combination freight and passenger, one hundred and twenty three 1,500 HP freight, one hundred and thirty three 1,500 HP general purpose, eleven 1,000 HP general purpose, and one hundred and five yard switcher units, for a total of 407 diesel locomotives. At that time, the Frisco became the largest Class I railroad in the U. S. to be operating strictly with diesel power. using the theme of famous horses. These included racehorses such as Gallant Fox (#2011), Sea Biscuit (#2013), and Citation (#2016).