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Crawford County Midland Railroad

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The Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway , chartered under the laws of Texas on June 1, 1885, was part of a plan conceived by Buckley Burton Paddock and other Fort Worth civic leaders to create a transcontinental route linking New York , Fort Worth , and the Pacific port of Topolobampo , which they believed would stimulate the growth and development of southwest Texas in general, and the economy of Fort Worth in particular.

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34-615: The Crawford County Midland Railroad was a joint venture between the Sligo Furnace Company (Sligo) and the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway (Frisco), to bring rail service to Sligo’s Cherry Valley mines in Missouri. The 6-mile line was constructed in the 1904-1905 timeframe, and its franchises and properties were conveyed to the Frisco later in 1905. The Crawford County Midland Railroad Company

68-509: A boiler pressure of 210 psi (1.4 MPa), and a tractive effort of 68,600 pounds-force (305 kN). Weighing in at 449,760 pounds (204.01 t), they were the heaviest Mountain-type locomotives ever built. Frisco’s first acquisition of diesel locomotives came in November 1941, when the line received five Baldwin VO-1000 switchers of a 1,000-horsepower (750 kW) each. Frisco started

102-441: A boiler pressure of 250 psi (1.7 MPa), and a tractive effort of 66,400 pounds-force (295 kN), weighing 431,110 pounds (195.55 t). Another twenty-three 4-8-2s were built using the boilers from 2-10-2s between 1939 and 1942. Units 4400 through 4412 were oil-burning, while units 4413 through 4422 burned coal. These locomotives had 29-by-32-inch (740 mm × 810 mm) cylinders, 70-inch (1,780 mm) drivers,

136-414: A few gas-mechanical models given 3000-series numbers. 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

170-478: A row of very small properties along a public road running at right angles from the river to the railroad track"; however, many of Fazendeville's residents resisted and then ultimately refused the railway's financial offers. According to one of the newspapers which reported on those plans, "The Frisco road cannot obtain title to the National Cemetery, but is after all the rest of the river front, and wants to cross

204-683: 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 (1,680 kW) passenger, six 2,000 hp (1,490 kW) passenger, twelve 1,500 hp (1,120 kW) 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

238-466: 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. The Frisco gave names to its 2000-series diesel passenger locomotives, EMD E7 and (mostly) EMD E8 units, using the theme of famous horses. These included racehorses such as Gallant Fox (No. 2011), Sea Biscuit (No. 2013), and Citation (No. 2016). However, other horses also made

272-669: Is modeled after a stretched-out raccoon skin (giving rise to Frisco High School 's mascot, the Fighting Raccoons). While the Texas Special may be the most famous passenger train operated by Frisco, it was just one of a fleet of named trains. These included: The core of the former Frisco system continues to be operated by BNSF Railway as high-density mainlines. Other secondary and branchlines have been sold to shortline operators or have been abandoned altogether. Multiple surviving buildings, structures and locations associated with

306-583: The Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad ; that year, it reported 12,795 million ton-miles of revenue freight and no passengers. In 1980 it was purchased by and absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad . Despite its name, it never came close to San Francisco . The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, commonly called the Frisco, was incorporated in Missouri on September 7, 1876. It was formed from

340-617: 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 Operating 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

374-584: The Vanderbilt railroad syndicate , construction of the FW&;RG began at Fort Worth in November, 1886, but proceeded slowly with many changes of route, reaching Granbury (40 miles [64 km] away) a year later, Comanche in 1890, and Brownwood , 144 miles (232 km) from Fort Worth, in 1891. In 1901, the Frisco Railroad got control of the FW&RG, which it operated as an independent subsidiary, extending

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408-709: The Brady-Menard segment (31 miles [50 km]) was abandoned in 1972. The remainder of the former FW&RG from Belt Junction in Fort Worth to Ricker, six miles (9.7 km) east of Brownwood, was bought by Cen-Tex Rail Link , an affiliate of the South Orient Railroad on May 20, 1994. South Orient sold the Cen-Tex line to the Fort Worth and Western Railroad in 1999. For another ultimately unsuccessful attempt to create

442-588: The FW&RG was merged on December 31, 1948. The FW&RG trackage was known as the Dublin Subdivision. On acquisition, Santa Fe improved the FW&RG track and began routing high volumes of freight over it, en route between the Dallas/Fort Worth area and California. The GC&SF was merged into corporate parent Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway on August 1, 1965. The Brownwood-Brady segment (44 miles [71 km]) had been abandoned in 1959, and

476-729: The Frisco are on the National Register of Historic Places , including the St. Louis - San Francisco Railway Corporate Headquarters building; Frisco Building, 908 Olive St, St. Louis, Mo , 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

510-459: The Frisco had 159 4-4-0's in service, built by twenty-five different companies. Frisco renumbered its units in that year, assigning the 4-4-0's either numbers between 1-299 (140 units), or 2200-series numbers (19 units). The oldest Frisco 4-4-0 locomotive was No. 47, built in 1869 by Hinkley Locomotive Works . The last serving 4-4-0's were retired in 1951. Even more numerous on the Frisco were 4-6-0 "Ten-wheelers." The first such engines entered

544-578: The Frisco sold the FW&RG to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway for $ 1.5 million, giving the latter an entry into Fort Worth from the west. On August 24, 1916, the Frisco was reorganized as the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway , though the line never went west of Texas , terminating more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from San Francisco. The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway had two main lines: St. Louis – Tulsa – Oklahoma City - Floydada, Texas , and Kansas City – Memphis – Birmingham . The junction of

578-481: The Frisco system in 1870. By 1903, Frisco had a fleet of 430 such locomotives, which were renumbered that year into seven class series, using 400, 500, 600, 700, 1100, 1400, and 2600-series numbers. The last 4-6-0s on the Frisco roster were the 1400 series, with the last engine to be retired from service being #1409, dismantled and sold for scrap in November, 1951. Frisco-series 2100 equipment consisted of self-propelled rail motor-cars, mostly gas-electric models, with

612-569: The Frisco, in a joint venture with the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad , operated the Texas Special . This luxurious train, a streamliner from 1947, ran from St. Louis to Dallas, Texas, Fort Worth, Texas , and San Antonio, Texas . The Frisco merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad on November 21, 1980. The city of Frisco, Texas , was named after the railroad and uses the former railroad's logo as its own logo. The logo

646-461: The Frisco: The following railroads were acquired or merged into the Frisco: The following is a list of partial or full asset absorptions, many times through bankruptcy courts or creditors. In some cases the Frisco was a creditor. Assets can include mineral rights, property, track and right of way, trains, bonds, mortgages, etc. Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway With financial backing from

680-712: The Missouri Division and Central Division of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad . This land grant line was one of two railroads (the other being the M-K-T ) authorized by the federal government to build across Indian Territory . The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (known simply as the Santa Fe), interested in the A&;P right of way across the Mojave Desert to California , took

714-461: The Orleans Parish line" as part of plans of "gigantic scope" to further the expansion of the company's rail lines and operations facilities across the state. As part of this plan, the executives proposed relocation of the residents of the historically Black community of Fazendeville to the much smaller, neighboring village of Versailles , which was described as a "settlement consist[ing] merely of

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748-485: The country, and supplied construction help to the Park, along with the rails and ties, back when this line was being built in 1962. Perhaps for these reasons, the trains sport the Frisco name and logo. However, this was never an actual Frisco rail line, and the steam locomotives started life as industrial engines on German intraplant railroads, not as actual rolling stock on the Frisco. The following companies were predecessors of

782-407: The forefront of gas-electric operation at that time. The initial batch, numbered 2100 to 2109, included nine baggage-coach combinations, as well as one baggage-mail-coach unit. Frisco's peak year for motor-car mileage was 1931, and its fleet at that time included twenty-three gas-electrics, five gas-mechanical cars, four trailer coaches, and six mail-baggage units. The final Frisco run of a Doodlebug

816-480: The line to Brady in 1903 and on to Menard in 1911. The Frisco entered bankruptcy in 1913 and made no further extensions of the FW&RG, which in most years failed to make a net profit . On March 1, 1937, Frisco sold the FW&RG to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway for $ 1.5 million, giving the latter an entry into Fort Worth from the west. Santa Fe immediately leased the FW&RG to its Texas subsidiary, Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway , into which

850-458: The line—with Sligo’s share being somewhat greater—and with Frisco supplying the rails and fasteners while Sligo supplied the labor and all other materials. Road constructed started the same month, and was completed in June 1905. The line was then placed in operation by the Frisco. The agreement provided that the ownership of the line would be vested in the Frisco after completion. So, on June 20, 1905,

884-547: The list: for instance, when No. 2022 was rebuilt after a wreck, it was given the name of Champion , after ex-Frisco-employee Gene Autry’s trusty steed in the movies. The amusement park Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri , runs multiple diesel-fired or heating oil-fired steam trains around the park on its 2-foot-gauge rail line , known as the Frisco Silver Dollar Line . The Frisco operated in that part of

918-409: The present public road practically at grade in many public places." In 1901, the Frisco took control of the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway , which it operated as an independent subsidiary, and constructed several extensions of the latter. However, after the Frisco entered bankruptcy in 1913, it made no further extensions of the FW&RG, which in most years failed to make a net profit . In 1937

952-449: The primary car shops for the railroad. In 1912 a new facility was built in Memphis, Tennessee to handle the eastern section of the system, consisting of a yard, roundhouse terminal, and car shops. At Kansas City, Missouri was another substantial back shop site, consisting of a roundhouse terminal and several shop buildings served by a transfer table. From March 1917 through January 1959,

986-552: The railroad conveyed its franchises and properties to the Frisco. St. Louis and San Francisco Railway The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway ( reporting mark SLSF ), 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 4,547 miles (7,318 km) of road on 6,574 miles (10,580 km) of track, not including subsidiaries Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway and

1020-556: The road over but went bankrupt in 1893. The receivers retained the western right of way but divested the ATSF of the St. Louis–San Francisco mileage on the Great Plains . After bankruptcy, the Frisco emerged as the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad , incorporated on June 29, 1896. It later also declared bankruptcy. In 1903, Frisco executives engaged in negotiations to purchase large tracts of land in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana "up to

1054-609: The two lines was in Springfield, Missouri , home to the company's main shop facility. The corporate headquarters was at 906 Olive Street, St. Louis. Other lines included: The base of operations for the Frisco was Springfield, Missouri . There were three separate back shop facilities in and around the city: North Side, which handled light locomotive repairs; South Side, inherited from the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis, for heavy locomotive repairs and overhauls; and West Side, which were

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1088-547: Was incorporated by Sligo on June 20, 1904, under the laws of Missouri. On August 5, 1904, Sligo concluded an agreement with the Frisco regarding creation of the railway. The line would be a standard gauge, single-line of trackage running to Sligo’s Cherry Valley iron mines located east of Steelville in Crawford County, Missouri , from a connection on the Salem Branch of the Frisco, about six miles. Both parties would finance

1122-502: Was on November 8, 1953, when No. 2128 traveled from Ardmore, Oklahoma , for the four hour trip to Hugo, Oklahoma . Two series of Frisco locomotives not surviving were Frisco 4300s and 4400s. These were all 4-8-2 units assembled by Frisco itself in the late 1930s to the early 1940s from other locomotives. Eleven, being units 4300 through 4310, were built in 1936 and 1937 from used 2-10-2 parts. They had 27-by-30-inch (690 mm × 760 mm) cylinders, 70-inch (1,780 mm) drivers,

1156-562: 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 . Locomotives with 4-4-0 wheel arrangements, known as the "American" type because they were considered for many years to be the standard in American locomotives, originally served Frisco in great numbers. In July, 1903,

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