GP7 571 at Memphis, Tennessee in April 1956 (Rail Junction Slides).
GP7 571
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Very neat photo! Full stripe passenger geep.
Tom G.
Anyone identify this train? I’d guess either 807 or 808. I have seen evidence that a single GP-7 would sometimes serve as motive power in place of an E8A. I don’t know, based on the photo, if it’s SLUS-bound or Memphis Central Station-bound.
This is northbound First Class Train Number 808.
The train is on the west leg of the wye south of Memphis Central Station (MCS), MP 305.3. At Memphis the Frisco, Chicago Rock Island & Pacific (CRIP or RI) and Illinois Central (IC) were all tenants at MCS. Both the Frisco and Rock Island backed their passenger trains into stub end tracks at the depot. The IC ran most of their trains on double ended through tracks at the depot which sat on a north/south axis.
The other railroads at Memphis were tenants at Memphis Union Station (MUS). Railroads at MUS included the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern (SLIM&S) or Missouri Pacific (MP), Louisville and Nashville (L&N), Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis (NC&StL), St. Louis Southwestern (SSW), also known as (aka) the Cotton Belt, and Southern (SRR or SOU). This stub end depot sat three blocks to the east of MCS.
At both MCS and MUS, with the exception of the IC, trains on Broadway would pull past the respective depot, then reverse direction, back through a wye track and into the appropriate depot track. Upon departure, the train would then head out through the opposite leg of the wye toward its intended destination. Broadway is an east / west corridor of main line tracks, south of the depots, which connected the two railroad bridges over the Mississippi River to the west with the railroad connections to the northeast, east and southeast.
River Division Timetable Number 39A, effective Friday, June 15, 1956, notes the Frisco train’s departure time at Memphis was 7:40 AM. The train will depart northward, geographic west at this point, on the Memphis Subdivision, traverse 22.2 miles to Turrell, Arkansas, MP 283.1, and then turn north on the Chaffee Subdivision. Along its 161.7 mile route the train has a scheduled arrival at Chaffee, Missouri, MP 143.6, at 11:48 AM.
After a short scheduled eight minute stop, it will then transition to the St. Louis Subdivision with a Chaffee departure at 11:56 AM. At Southeastern Junction, MP 11.7, the train will enter the Rolla Subdivision for its final jaunt into St. Louis. It is scheduled to arrive at St. Louis Union Station (SLUS), MP 0.0, at 3:35 PM.
Along its route the train is scheduled to meet two trains at Shops, MP 132.5. This is just south of the depot at Cape Girardeau, MP 131.6. It will meet its southward counterpart, Train 807, at 12:08 PM. In addition there is a scheduled meet at this time at the station with the southward local freight, Third Class Train 843. Further north the passenger train has a scheduled meet with Second Class freight train Number 833 at Horine, MP 34.9, at 2:33 PM.
The timetable notes “Northward trains are superior to southward trains of the same class.” If any of the opposing trains are running late, they will have to be in the clear for Train Number 808’s scheduled times at a station further north. As Train Number 808 progresses northward, unless otherwise directed by a train order, it is expecting opposing trains to be in the clear of the main track.
In this view to the northeast (left) is the Mississippi Valley Furniture Company / Stratton – Warren Hardware Company. Mississippi Valley’s slogan offered “A Complete Line of Furniture”. Four non-Memphis railroad and private owner box cars, including a Union Pacific (UP), General American Refrigerator Company (GARX), Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (ATSF) and Great Northern (GN), are being handled at these businesses by an IC switch engine locomotive.
Further in the distance to the north, left and above the Frisco locomotive’s pilot, is the south end of the east wall of the joint Illinois Central and Cotton Belt Freight House on West Calhoun Avenue. This is the inbound freight house. Their outbound freight house sat to the east. The freight houses were each served by five tracks (ten total) and sat immediately to the west of the main tracks that passed MCS.
View is looking north.
Hope this helps.
Thanks!
Mark
Mile Post Naught Naught was at the Frisco’s 7th Street Yard and Freight House in St Louis.
http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?attachments/stlouis_yds_and_connections_1957-jpg.3626/
http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/mile-post-zero-dot-zero.3697/
Trains 807 and 808 did not provide meal service, so during the station stop at Chaffee, a local cafe provided boxed lunches, snacks and drinks for those who wished to purchase them.
For milepost referenced please see the River Division Timetable Number 39A, effective Friday, June 15, 1956, St. Louis Subdivision, page 4,
Page numbers are at the very top center of each page.
Hope this helps.
Thanks!
Mark