One Response to Caboose 155

  1. Mark Davidson says:
    March 19, 2025 at 3:33 AM

    Location is Clinton, Oklahoma.

    This photograph was taken near the south end of the depot platform at 120 East Frisco Avenue. The buildings in distance are part of the Clinton Cotton Oil Mill. This was a cotton compress business. Above the caboose the long structure with the brick wall on the north end is the seed house. To its immediate east is a 60-foot tall iron seed tank.

    Clinton, MP 680.6, was a Frisco division point. To the north is the Enid Subdivision (Enid, MP 585.7, to Clinton). To the south is the Hobart Subdivision (Clinton to Vernon, Texas, MP 789.5). The segment from Davidson, Oklahoma, MP 774.2, to Vernon, Texas (15.32 miles) was abandoned in 1957 after a large flood destroyed the Frisco’s bridge over the Red River between Oklahoma and Texas.

    SLSF 155 is one of three similar less than carload (LCL) baggage express caboose cars, SLSF 155-157, built by the Frisco. They were built from the railroad’s former Warren truss boxcars in 1954. These cabooses featured outside braced steel sides, frames, copulas with straight sides centered on the roof, with side baggage doors and a 13’ LCL compartment.

    This caboose was renumbered for the second time to SLSF 1101 (1st) during 5/1968. This renumbering was prompted by the installation of a new International Business Machines (IBM) computer system. The system required the assignment unique numbers to all of the railroad’s rolling stock. The car would again be renumbered on 7/12/1969 to SLSF 1160 (2nd).

    Frisco built wood sided, steel frame, end steel copula caboose SLSF 60 had become SLSF 1160 (1st) during 4/1968. It was retired during 12/1968. This made room to reuse the number 1160 for the newer all steel caboose. Records indicate the Frisco reused several of the 1100 series local service caboose numbers as older wood sided cars were retired and replaced with all steel cars.

    This baggage door caboose, SLSF 1160 (2nd), was set aside at the Roadway Shops in Springfield, Missouri and donated by the railroad to the City of Memphis, Tennessee in February 1976. This third renumbering made room to reassign number 1101 (2nd) to one on the newly acquired former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (ATSF) radial roof cabooses, the former ATSF 1533.

    The car’s two sisters survive and are on display. Caboose SLSF 1156 is on display across from the Branson Landing mall / convention center / hotel complex parking garage. The car is adjacent to the Missouri and Northern Arkansas Railroad (former Missouri Pacific (MP)) tracks north of the Branson Scenic Railway’s depot. The car is located at 224 Branson Landing Boulevard, Branson, Missouri 65616.

    Caboose SLSF 1157 is on display at the Route 66 Historical Village open-air museum and Red Fork Depot event space. This is located just south of Frisco’s Cherokee Yard. The village is just off Interstate Highway 244 (I-244), Exit 1D, Southwest Boulevard / West 40th Place. This segment of I-244 is also known as (aka) the Red Fork Expressway. The car is located at 3770 Southwest Boulevard, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74107.

    Coupled to the south of the caboose is General Motors (GM) Electro-Motive Division (EMD) GP7L locomotive SLSF 517. The locomotive is one of 25 GP7L phase I units (SLSF 500-524). The locomotive is among the 101 of 128 (78.9%) Frisco GP7L units built by EMD at their Plant 3 in Cleveland, Ohio. The balance of the Frisco’s GP7L units (SLSF 525-549, 555-599, 600-623) were phase IIa units.

    One block west, behind the photographer, at 112 South First Street, is the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient (KCMO) / Clinton, Oklahoma and Western (COW) depot. These railroads became part of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (ATSF) Railway. That depot is boarded up but still stands in 2025.

    The KCMO was acquired by the Santa Fe in 1928. The ATSF leased to COW to its Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway affiliate in 1931. It was merged into the ATSF on December 31, 1948.

    The view is looking east southeast.

    Hope this helps.

    Thanks!

    Mark

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