Going Frisco

The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway never went anywhere near San Francisco, although it interchanged with  railroads that did. And there were probably a lot of intentions to go that far out West as well, but the railroad had its hands full serving Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. The company was also known as the 'Frisco' with a coon skin as its herald. The Frisco operated the crack trains 'The Meteor' and The Texas Special'  in conjunction with the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad. 'The Meteor' ran between St. Louis, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City while 'The Texas Special' ran between St. Louis, Dallas, Ft. Worth, and San Antonio. Here is a stylized view of the E5 units used on these varnish runs.

 

Prior to the introduction of diesel power, the crack passenger trains were pulled by sleek 1500 class 4-8-2 locomotives. The engine in this card shows the #1500 as an oil-burner, but this may have been a Baldwin-built one-time experimental unit. Additional photo research shows that the 1500 series locos  to be all coal-fired.

Railroads during the teens and 1920s were known by their passenger service, appointments, comfort of travel, and dining car cuisine. Not only was luxury rail travel extremely competitive, a level of exclusive and luxurious rail accommodations were expected by wealthy clientèle. Here we see a typical dining car on The Frisco from this period.

The Great Depression years of the 1930s and the years of WW2 brought about an emphasis on comfort with economy in rail travel on The Frisco as reflected in the following cards' captions.

Times may have called for careful travel budgeting, but there was no lack of travel comfort without extra cost, by the way, on The Frisco. By this time, 'extra fare' trains were a thing of the past.

The Frisco operated a fast freight service known as Frisco Fast Freight for less-than-carload shipments publishing postcards as part of its advertising to merchants.

 

One last look at The Frisco with its 'superbly maintained' right-of-way keeping cargo and passengers assured of 'smoother riding'.

For more information on The Frisco, click here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis_%E2%80%93_San_Francisco_Railway

For more information on 'The Meteor', click here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_%28train%29


For more information on 'The Texas Special', click here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Special