Steam & Excursion > A Favorite Frisco Shot

Five years ago when I was putting together my Frisco steam book, I contacted the library at the California RR Museum and talked with a great lady about the Lucius Beebe-Charles Clegg negative collection. It was just a shot in the dark and to my surprise, she sent me a list of what they had and said I could buy 600dpi TIFF scans of them and if I paid an extra charge I could publish them. I was ecstatic!
One of my very favorite shot from Beebe was the one in one of hes early books.
This is the shot that is on the cover of my book. Lots of cleanup in Photoshop (some of his negs were brutal) and I got brave and colorized it also.
Here in all of her glory is the 4304, built in the Frisco's West Springfield, MO shops hustling west at Valley Park, MO. No date or details but I'm guessing 1943.
The train has just descended Valley Park Hill from Kirkwood and the engineer has widened the throttle because there is some good running ahead on double track and minimal grade to Pacific, 60MPH. He is whistling for the State Highway 141 crossing dead ahead. The hind end of the train is still on the bridge over the Meramec River. I printed it without cropping.
This is a Beebe Classic and I'm so glad I was able to use it. The book has several other Beebe and Clegg shots in it.
For some reason it came out dark here on TO, so I replaced it after tweaking.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/25 15:01 by Frisco1522.

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Superlative image!
Bob

Really nice photo.  Love the "colorized" edit.  Thanks Don.
Ron

Thanks for the back story on this wonderful photo Don. I'm still enjoying the book. I miss the 1522 days.I hope you're doing well.

MWPerkins

Posted from Android

Don -- Did your dad ever say anything about 4300's versus 4400's?
Gordon

First class all the way around !!!!!

Love the shot Don.

Photos like this, for sure, make me smile.  If I had gotten to whitness this Frisco going by, I might have peed my pants.   Nice job on the colorizing and the photo shopping.  I'll have to dig out my Beebe & Clegg books.  I can't get enough of this stuff.  My dad got me hooked.  Thanks dad, and thank you for the photo.

Craig Hanson
Vay, Idaho

He said he liked the 4300s better. More responsive because of the front end throttle, rode good and would run as fast as you had nerve to run them.  4400s had bigger cylinders were also good workers but liked the 4300s better.