http://springfield.news-leader.com/columnists/duffey/ Published April 25, 2004 Library to be online depot for Frisco history buffs In 1980, the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway — affectionately known as the Frisco — was acquired and merged into the Burlington-Northern Railroad. The name is gone, but the Frisco lives on in the memories of thousands of employees and their families in Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, as well as with genealogists, labor and rail historians, rail hobbyists and model makers. These train buffs have reason to get excited about the Springfield-Greene County Library's newest digitized project. A nearly $25,000 Library Services Technology Act grant through the Missouri State Library has provided the funding to digitize and make available to the public Louis Griesemer's fascinating collection of Frisco images, artifacts and data on the library's Web site. The collection includes personnel cards, community files, depot floor plans, postcards, advertising, issues of the company's All Aboard magazine and thousands of photographs of depots, rolling stock, tunnels, railroad yards, water towers and bridges. Griesemer, owner of Springfield Underground, bought the collection two years ago and has been working with the local history department to help preserve this important historical information. He gave the library the personnel record cards and loaned some of the Frisco memorabilia for display and decor at the Library Station, the transportation-themed facility at 2525 N. Kansas Expressway, and now has given library staff access to the complete collection for digitizing. "This collection represents the advance of the railroad, which signaled a new era in American history as well as the history of the Ozarks," said Planning and Development Coordinator Carol Grimes, who wrote the grant. "It also tells a lot about the people who worked and lived the railroad life." It's a big project and won't be uploaded to the Web site until later this year, but when it debuts, the local history connected with the Frisco will be ready to be viewed by train buffs all over the world through the magic of the Web. Contact Jeanne Duffey, community relations director for the Springfield-Greene County Library District, at jeanned@mail.sgcl.org.
Another good source of Frisco info is offered online by Mike Condren of Memphis, TN. Mike is from Ft. SMith, AR, and is an avid Frisco fan (not to mention a friend of mine). His site can be found here .
Here's a couple of others: George Elwell's Fallen Flags site Great pics!!!!! Frisco Modeling Site This site includes the FMIG pages I recommend both of these sites, and the first one especially if you're into correctly painting your rolling stock.
I'm still watching this page http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/ for information on this new material. Nothing yet. Charlie
I stumbled upon this site, has some really nice pics and good info if you browse thru all the links... Mike Condren's Frisco Railroad Homepage Regards, -Mike
I thought I would write a quick post about the Frisco Modeling Site weblink posted here. Thanks Friscobob for the link. I happen to be modeling a portion of Frisco's River Division from Lindenwood Yard through SE Junc down to the Rush Island power plant. Mind you I am modeling present day because of my favorite railroad, BNSF (and more so the SF portion). I was assigned to the Rush Island plant when I started getting back into model railroading. I have been looking for a yard track plan of Lindenwood for some time. I found a 1972 version and tried to model what is left today on my own layout, unfortunately even after selective compression, I can't design the yard in N Scale within 18 feet of layout (I proabably need closer to 25 feet). Along the way I plan to model a bridge over the Meramec River (still looks the same as a photo I found on the website of an old steamer), Byers (a passing siding), Imperial, MO, and Crystal City, MO. Eventually I'll post my grand track plan, or create a website. Thanks again for the resource. Its cool knowing the past history of your model railroad.
