Steam & Excursion > Double your pleasure

A pair of shiny clean Frisco 1500s are seen leading train No. 7, the Bluebonnet out of the St. Louis downtown yards with 10 cars. Shot by James Bowie in October of 1939, it illustrates the Frisco's habit of clean motive power and smokeless firing in the city limits.

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I am a little surprised that the 10 car train would need two 4-8-2's. Was there a stiff grade? Did the helper stay with the train very long?

Why did these not have the boiler mounted air tanks, but 1522 does?

Very nice, Don.

Bob Callahan
Monticello, IN

The 1500-1514 were built with Baker valve gear and straight running boards. Starting with the 1515, they had Walschaerts gear and a huge Sellers exhaust steam injector on the left side which didn't leave room for the air reservoirs, so they moved them up topside. The 1515-1519 were delivered this way, then the 1520-1529 followed in 1926. They didn't keep those injectors long, but the reservoir and running board configuration didn't change. 1522 was built as a coal burner, but was converted within a couple years to oil.
They may have been doubleheaded to balance power or who knows?????

Beautiful...the locomotives are spotless and so is the train. Frisco sure took pride in their equipment. Thanks for posting Don.

Cheers, Dave

As loud as 1522 was, a pair of Frisco 4-8-2s must have sounded like artillery practice. Would have been awesome to see and hear.

Pump

Wow, that is an amazing image and it brings a question to mind: How are those 1500's visually comparable to Santa Fe's 4-8-2's? The really bear a strong resemblance. Is there any history on some joint development of these engines?

Hillcrest Wrote:
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> Beautiful...the locomotives are spotless and so is
> the train. Frisco sure took pride in their
> equipment. Thanks for posting Don.
>
> Cheers, Dave

Which brings up an interesting thought: how much does pride cost, and why can't we afford it any more? Or is it simply that government agencies disdain pride, and refuse to clean the equipment?

I think it is a total change of management style over the years from real railroad operating people with savvy to "bottom line" types with MBAs. That's an extreme oversimplification I'm sure but there are many other contributing factors.
I've always thought the 1500s and the ATSF 4-8-2s shared some resemblance, but have never compared them physically. The 1500s have lines similar to the USRA light 4-8-2, but are considerably bigger. They were a favorite among many of the engine crews and were extremely versatile.

There's some data over on steamlocomotive.com that allows dimensional comparisons:

ATSF 3700's: http://www.steamlocomotive.com/mountain/?page=atsf
SLSF T-54 (and others): http://www.steamlocomotive.com/mountain/?page=slsf

Looks like the Frisco engines were slightly bigger and heavier, but with the same driver and cylinder diameters and boiler pressure.

Hmm, they were closer than I thought. I had never compared the two. I wonder if the Santa Fe engines were as well liked as the 1500s.
I still remember staying at my cousin's down in Ft. Worth, TX past the very end of "Birds" and waking up to a 3700 shaking the whole house coming off the branch heading downtown with a passenger train.

As Santa Fe became a faster railroad, the limitations of the 3700's 69-inch drivers in terms of speed and the ability to properly counterbalance all that reciprocating mass became liabilities. They gradually lost their assignments on varnish, but were useful enough in secondary roles that the 51-engine class survived intact until 1950.