Ship It On The Frisco! SLSF Freight Trains In The Mid 1970s

This film was shot in the mid 1970s by William W. Lain and William W. Lain Jr. While the image quality is poor, it should be noted that any footage of Frisco (other than 1522) is extremely rare. What makes this film even more rare is the live sound.
21 different Frisco trains can be seen in this video. Majority were filmed in Valley Park, MO or Pacific, MO. Enjoy!
Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the copyright act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use.

[@okmrocksU]

Thanks for posting. As a railfan and especially a Frisco fan, these bring back some memories from when I was growing up in the 60's and 70's in Tulsa. I remember seeing these, from the Frisco Cherokee Yard in west Tulsa, east thru Vinita Ok.

[@admydragon]

All gas no brakes from start to finish. Holy fuck, this KICKS ASS.

[@michaelperkins5858]

Frisco Fucking Flying. Looks like Valley Park MO. MoPac on the high fill in the background and all the new Chryslers on the auto racks.

[@Taaaarail]

Its amazing how much more prosperous the railroads looked then compared to the graffiti plastered ones of today.

[@MissouriRails]

This is crazy to see, especially with the shot of the frisco in valley park going past the wye before 141 was put there.

[@kenlambeth4113]

FRISCO. Gone but not forgoten.

[@anthonywashington9516]

That's old school railroading at it's best..

[@ericjohnson3746]

Hence the slogan" Frisco fast freight"!!!!!!!!!!! Loved it. Brought back memories from my college years. Thank you.

[@tombarnes7196]

Holy cow, those trains are flying!!!

[@tommythomason6187]

Those trains were flyin'! And, great camera angles of those trains coming around a bend, speeding into the frame from behind a viaduct, and emerging from trestles. The filmographer knew what he was doing. I need to read up on this railroad. It is a road I know little about except that they ran The Texas Special with The Katy out of St. Louis for a while, and that Frisco became part of Burlington Northern.

[@mellisa212]

Throttle 8 , no brake. I wish I would have been around those days

[@billgarrison3228]

I remember waiting on a Frisco freight while walking on west Main St. in Antlers, OK on the Arthur Sub.(Fort Smith to Hugo, OK)

[@garysprandel1817]

Looks like Frisco had two speeds for their trains. Fast and sit down,shut up and hang on.

[@upking9080]

For sure. Can you believe BNSF trains max out at 45 MPH on this line today? Unacceptable!

[@nicoleasyowell1070]

That's a very nice video of the latest 1970's. The Frisco caboose is still sitting here at Valley Park, Missouri today and for pictures and photos of it only.

[@AJRvlog]

7:01 Ha, I knew right where he was. Was just there last week. It’s a great spot to lookout.

[@OxnardLocalRailfan]

Love those old emds

[@ConrailNKP587Brony]

Sad that Frisco (or SLSF) Was Merged to Burlington Northern in 1980, But We Still have the 1522, and 1630

[@mistgate]

There are a handful of T54s, Northerns, and Mikados on static display. I think 1630 is the only operational one left, since 1522 retired due to major maintenance issues in 2002

[@Steelers2841]

Classic Beautiful of Mid70s in the St Louis area

[@cadamsm11]

Not sure what this was filmed on, but pretty unusual to have the real sound with it. I lived in both St. Louis and Springfield in the 70’s as a kid. I was allowed to ride a switcher around Lindenwood one time. One of the highlights of my young life!

[@chrisg7160]

Cool video! I’m very familiar with that location and have seen a lot of trains pass through there. The old metal bridge crossing over the Meramec River is still in use today. Its sister (141 bridge) was replaced maybe in the mid-80’s. I used to be terrified crossing that bridge when I was a kid.

[@iantha_branch]

11:10 you can make out the number 440 on the lead unit. 440 was a GP38-2 built August 1974. The minimal amount of weathering would indicate its still fairly new. Scenery gets greener as the video goes on, so I would say it's reasonable to nail down filming dates of late 1974 into 1975.

[@WilliamLake-j9s]

I remember the gyro lights too

[@cmyFUfinger]

Love the Frisco

[@robinthurston3382]

I'm sad those days are gone.

[@odgeetv8515]

Nice 👍

[@WilliamHoward-fo4gn]

cool

[@tonyviviano1604]

Wooden axle railroad!

[@huntermossakajunkerman9646]

They had to be pushing at least 70-75 miles per hour at 07:20.

[@Construction_King]

And at 8:40.

[@huntermossakajunkerman9646]

@Steven Williamson. Indeed, the frisco was fast freight done right. With a well maintained locomotive fleet and immaculate track conditions to allow those high speeds. I'm sure the efficiency was high too. As the title says, "Ship It On The Frisco!" It was sad when 1980 rolled around though.

[@upking9080]

Frisco maintained everything but those odd sounding air horns.

[@huntermossakajunkerman9646]

@UPking. Yeah, they do sound quite fouled. A Leslie S5T shouldn't sound like that. But yes, everything else was highly maintained.

[@jondietzen4342]

Please tell me theres more?!

[@MrJacMac1968]

What kind of horn is that on these engines?Nathan M5?Leslie rst3?Nathan K5lla?

[@upking9080]

Frisco was almost all Leslie S5Ts save for a few M5s on GP7s. The horns were not maintained and constantly went out of tune. Each engine seemed to have its own unique horn sound.

[@vivekshreeni7897]

Did Frisco gp7s have dual controls for long hood and short hood forward operation

[@cbalducc]

Was the Frisco known for running short and fast freights? These trains look like they’re moving 60 at least. Except for the ones that seem to be pulling a grade.

[@upking9080]

Most were about 60-100 cars. They did run some pig trains which were usually shorter than their traditional freights.